How can the Ethics Committee help you?

What is the role of the Ethics Committee?

The Ethics Committee is a forum to stimulate debate and advise UKCP on current and emerging ethical issues facing all psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors, whatever their modality. While most ethical issues are general, some contexts and client groups add complexity, such as working with children or in forensic settings.

Alongside keeping our Code of Ethics and Professional Practice (2019) under review, the committee develops supplementary guidance on areas of ethical practice where therapists have asked for more clarity. These include professional boundaries (including dual relationships), confidentiality and its limits, ethics and supervision, and online working. They emerged from conversations with UKCP’s colleges about what would be most helpful to their members. Other topics include research ethics and what gaining consent means in a psychotherapeutic context.

Our ethos is to prompt and facilitate ethical thinking.

Who sits on the Ethics Committee?

The Ethics Committee is a diverse group of therapists and non-therapists with lived experience and practical expertise in ethics, professional standards and policy development. Some members have legal experience, and the committee also includes trainees, who bring valuable insight into how ethics is taught and learned. We share committee vacancies in our email updates when they become available.

The ethos of the committee is to prompt and facilitate ethical thinking and debate throughout the profession and the organisation. The committee acts as an advisory group, working with and through colleges and registrants, and involving members in developing ethical guidance.

How will the committee update the Code of Ethics?

Practice and expectations of therapists constantly evolve, and ethical standards must too. We keep the code under review to make sure our standards stay relevant and in line with current legislation. We work with UKCP colleges and committees to discuss what needs to change and ensure the code reflects what is taught and considered good practice today.

We also look at the codes of other psychological professions and aim for consistency on key issues where appropriate. Similar guidance makes it easier for clients to know what to expect from therapists and for commissioners, including the NHS, to engage with psychotherapy.

Does the code have answers to ethical dilemmas?

Codes tend to be short documents that offer high-level principles of accepted practice and set out what is and isn’t acceptable. They also help clients know what to expect from their therapist.

Most professional codes combine things professionals should or must do, such as work within the limits of their competence, and things they must not do, such as have sex with their clients. These tend to cluster around key areas: professionalism and accountability; communicating with clients and colleagues and gaining consent; benefiting and not harming clients; and respecting principles of fairness and equality.

Will the committee be an ethics advisory service?

It wouldn’t be appropriate for a policy-recommending committee to give advice on individual registrants’ specific queries. But we know there are several areas of practice that raise questions, and grey areas where therapists would welcome more detail on what the code requires of them. This is why the committee develops supplementary guidance to support therapists with frequently arising ethical questions. Read our guidance on what a practitioner who thinks and acts ethically looks like. 

We also run webinars on ethics, which are a chance to explore these questions with colleagues. View our upcoming events and past events. Recordings of some ticketed events, such as our annual conference, are available to buy. Members can request recordings of our past free events by emailing events@ukcp.org.uk.

Individual psychotherapists remain responsible for their decisions, but supervisors are well placed to discuss ethical issues relating to clients. Therapists should seek advice on legal matters from their indemnity insurer or, if they belong to one, their union.

Is there more to ethics than just following the code?

Yes. A code sets a minimum baseline of what all practitioners must do. Ethical conduct, by contrast, is more nuanced. Being an ethical practitioner means developing an inner reflexivity and a greater awareness of when ethical issues are at stake.

This means considering how our actions affect other people and the likely or possible consequences of doing, or not doing, something. It also means keeping principles of equity and fairness in mind, being aware of power and trust, and thinking about how these affect the therapeutic relationship.

Ethical practice is deeply entwined with good clinical practice. It is for the therapist to weigh up the factors in a given case, including how to reconcile ethical principles that seem to clash. For example, breaking confidentiality might breach the client’s right to autonomy, yet be justified if the therapist decides, ideally in discussion with the client, that the best interests of the client or others require it. Accountability always sits with therapists, with support from supervision.

Ethical practice is deeply entwined with good clinical practice.

How will the work of the Ethics Committee tie into education and training?

Learning how to recognise an ethical issue, what factors to take into account, what weight to give them and how to show the reasoning behind a decision is a skill set that can be, and is, taught as part of training. The reflexive process involved in making ethical decisions is similar to, and maps onto, a reflexive approach to practice. Good practice and ethical practice overlap significantly.

The committee also works with educators through UKCP’s Education, Training and Practice Committee to review what is taught and how best to teach it. Some subjects may be better addressed or reinforced through continuing professional development, particularly where what is considered good practice may have changed over time, such as social or personal relationships between tutors and students.

I'm interested in getting involved in ethics. Can I do that?

Yes. Our ethics webinars are a chance to share your views and explore ethical questions with colleagues. We also share vacancies on the Ethics Committee and other ways to get involved in our email updates.

Find out more about our Ethics Committee.