Choices
Date: March 27, 2005 05:43AM
must also be matched to the needs of the client. Therapists have a lot of power in relation to clients. Any recommendation of outside resources, must be done very carefully.
Reading a book or participating in a 12 step program are not the same as participating in an LGAT. You're free to disagree with a book, you can put it down when bored, and 12 Step meetings last no more than 1.5 to 2 hours. Plus you're only paying for the price of the book, or chipping in a few dollars to help the the 12 step meeting pay for literature and its weekly room-rent.
In his book [i:7ca9b5f7af]'Guarding the Boundaries: Maintaining Safety and Integrity in the Psychotherapeutic Process' [/i:7ca9b5f7af]Richard S. Epstein M.D. has written:
'In our study, 7.8% of 532 psychiatric respondants (that is, psychiatrists who conducted psychotherapy-moderator note) acknowledged trying to influence patients to support a political cause or position in which they had a personal interest. (Epstein et al. 1992) ..[i:7ca9b5f7af]Even if patients appear to agree with the values that the therapist is endorsing, they frequently experience this type of pressure as an intustive misuse of the treatment relationship. [/i:7ca9b5f7af]Encountering such behavior may weaken the patient's ability to trust the therapist as an objective and unbiased professional. It tends to remind the patient of previous relationships in which a position of trust was misused in teh service of personal gain.' (page 154)
The material below is quoted from [i:7ca9b5f7af]Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology[/i:7ca9b5f7af] by Lilienfield, Lynn and Lohr
(earlier in this section the authors mention Large Group Awareness trainings under the umbrella of New Age therapies--moderator note)
'A large percentage of clients become involved with a group without being told the true nature of the experience. Often the client is suffering from either psychological distress, such as mild to moderate depression, or involved in a transitional life circumstance, such as seeking changes in employment or career choices, when he or she chooses to consult a psychotherapist.
'Many believe they were not adequately informed that they entered into a form of nontraditional psychotherapy. Most New Age therapists do not inform clients that the therapy techniques are experimental and have not been scientifically validated. Frequently, clients who choose a New Age therapist have little understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the therapist's methods prior to therapy. Clients in emotional distress tend to be naive and uninformed regarding the nature of the therapeutic process and the multiple types of therapy available. Soon after entering into a therapeutic relationship, they feel they must rely on a therapist's judgement concerning the proper procedures by which to conduct the healing process...Later (the clients) often report that had they been adquately informed regarding the techniques and methodologies used, they would have witheld their consent.' (pp 186-87)
'Psychotherapies began within academic psychology settings as procedures based on scientific knowledge with a claim that their methods and findings be judged by the same standards by which any science is to be judged (Campbell, 1992, 1994, Crews, 1995, 1998; Dawes, 1994).
'Because psychotherapy is a behavioral science, with an academic pedigree, the public expects it to be held to ethical and professional standards in keeping its history and with the state governments' regulation of professional health care practitioners. Many New Age therapists (we can included all untested methods here, including Large Group Awareness Trainings--moderator note), have protested that because their brand of New Age therapy grew from different origins, such as spiritual, religious, or 'otherworldly wisdom', New Age therapies should be judged by different standards, namely those based on their own belief systems.
'These protests have generally failed. The law maintains a firm foundation for its jurisdiction based on the principle that whan an individual or group holds itself out as providing services that affect the health or safety of the individual, the state government or the courts are a proper place to determine issues of accountablity and quality of services provided. Therefore, the specific claims for effective care made by many of the New Age therapies have been tested in courtrooms.' (Ibid, page 189)