Is It Ever Ethical or Moral? Ethical-Moral Junctions in Psychotherapy

This continuing education webinar focuses on ethics in therapy exploring the significance of context, personal values, and moral junctions faced by mental health professionals. 

In this 90-minute continuing education webinar for therapists, Dr. Ofer Zur will: 

• Cover ethical and moral junctions in psychology and psychotherapy.
• Differentiate clinical, ethical, and legal from personal morals/values.
• Identify standard of care in mental health services.
• Consider factors including context, client, setting, culture, and location.

Dr. Zur will explore the above factors by discussing challenging hypothetical ethical/moral questions and scenarios for clinicians. For example:

• Psychological evaluations with potentially significant consequences to patients, such as:
  • Increased probability of patient suicide
  • Execution of death-row inmate
  • Racially-based pathological diagnosis
  • Denial of civil liberties to sex offender
  • Denial of life saving organ transplant
• When mental health interventions and personal values may conflict with the law, such as:
  • Denying people's wishes for 'End of Life' options
  • Denying help to clients seeking abortions
  • Recommending illegal potentially helpful psychedelics to patients
  • Complying with mandatory reporting resulting in more harm to victims
• Treatment with potentially harmful consequences to patients, such as:
  • Increasing the chance of a client's death
  • Increasing the risk of abuse or death to prisoners

This introductory level continuing education webinar is designed to help mental health clinicians:

1. Describe the importance of context as it applies to the standard of care in therapy.
2. Identify three moral junctions therapists may face in their line of work.
3. Define at least two competing concerns therapists may face when deciding to recommend involuntary hospitalization for suicidal clients.
4. Discuss ethical concerns in regard to diagnosing African American clients.
5. Differentiate clinical, ethical, and legal from personal moral-values.

The webinar will include a break for question-and-answers and may include suggested prompts or video clips.

Declaration of conflicts of interest and commercial support: There is no conflict of interest stated regarding the presented material. The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent the views, policies, and positions of GoodTherapy.

Statement of program material’s accuracy, utility, and common risks: This presentation is designed for educational purposes only and may examine serious, complex, and/or controversial topics such as suicide, death, abuse, abortion, and social injustices. The presenter will provide a reference list for the course material.

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us here.

Continuing Education (CE) Information

1.5 CE contact hours will be provided by GoodTherapy for attending this web conference in its entirety. To receive CE credit hours for an archived recording, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events are generally considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

GoodTherapy is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org, provider #1352, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 3/30/2022 – 3/30/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 1.5 ethics continuing education credits.

GoodTherapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395. GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can attend this live web conference for $30.95 or access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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