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Ofer Zur

Ethics with Soul: Applying Therapeutic Boundaries with Care and Integrity
June 30 - July 4

Using popular film clips, clinical vignettes and discussions, we will explore the flexible and ethical applications of therapeutic boundaries such as touch, self-disclosure, gift exchange, bartering, home visits, going on a walk with a client, adventure therapy and social or professional dual relationships. Social dual relationships are often unavoidable and can be clinically helpful in many small communities. Similarly, professional dual relationships are unavoidable in training institutions, universities, colleges and professional associations.

Most graduate school courses and risk management or ethics workshops instill fear and trepidation in psychotherapists with their clear injunction against touch beyond a handshake, and their rigid ban on gift exchange, bartering or dual relationships. In contrast to this rigid, inhuman approach, there is a growing body of research and literature, which shows that appropriate boundary crossing enhances therapeutic alliance and clinical outcome. Yet risk management protocols, driven by insurance companies and malpractice attorneys, seem to dominate our profession. This course will help practitioners differentiate between helpful boundary crossing and harming boundary violation and will encourage flexible and ethical approaches to boundaries, which are likely to increase our effectiveness without increasing risk to ourselves or our clients. The aim of the course is to free therapists to practice with integrity and soulfulness rather than with fear and trepidation.

This course will teach psychotherapists to:

  1. Discern the differences between boundary violations, boundary crossings and dual relationships.
  2. Review the ethical and clinical complexities of boundaries.
  3. Clarify the stance of the Code of Ethics on boundary crossing.
  4. Utilize ethical decision-making and risk-benefit analysis.
  5. Provide clear guidelines for employment of ethical boundaries in therapy.

Monday
To Cross or Not to Cross? The Ethics of Therapeutic Boundaries

  • What is ethics? And what does it have to do with soul?
  • The risky concept of risk management.
  • Differentiating between boundary crossing and boundary violation.

    Tuesday
    To Touch or Not to Touch?

  • The importance of touch for human evolution, growth, bonding and healing.
  • Types of touch in psychotherapy.
  • Guidelines for touch in therapy.

    Wednesday
    Self-Disclosure, Gifts & Out-of-Office Experiences

  • Self-Disclosure: Types and effect on the clinical exchange.
  • Giving and receiving gifts: What clinicians should be thinking about.
  • Leaving the Office: Home visits, walking on a trail, attending a wedding, etc.

    Thursday
    Dual Relationships, Telehealth (E-Therapy) & Bartering

  • To Dual or Not to Dual: Exploring the ethics of social, business and professional dual relationships.
  • Telehealth or E-Therapy.
  • Bartering for services and/or for products.

    Friday
    Ethics with Soul and Practice with Integrity

  • Guidelines for ethical and clinically appropriate boundary crossing.
  • Record keeping and Standard of Care.
  • Ethics with Soul: Practicing competently with integrity and care.

    Ofer Zur, Ph.D., is an author of four books, a forensic and ethics consultant, teacher and clinical psychologist in private practice in Sonoma, CA. Dr. Zur has been instrumental in helping the field of psychotherapy shift away from rigid and fearful risk management practices towards more human, flexible and effective approaches to therapeutic boundaries. His first book, Dual Relationships and Psychotherapy, co-edited with Dr. Arnold Lazarus, was a landmark and his 2007 book, Boundaries in Psychotherapy, was published by no other than the American Psychological Association -- a testimony to how the field is changing and how reason is winning over dogma.

    Dr. Zur has also been a pioneer in the anti-managed-care movement and has spent the last twenty years championing the idea of managed-care-free, fee-for-service private practice. He authored The Complete Fee-For-Service Private Practice Handbook (2006) and The HIPAA Compliance Kit, 3rd Ed. (Norton, 2005). He is a former oceanographer and a deep-sea diver. His passions are critical thinking, backpacking, traveling, and he is strongly drawn to remote parts of Africa where he used to work and conduct research in fish farming.

    Add to your Cape Cod Institute experience by ordering CD Audio recordings of this course here.  

     

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