Introduction

PACFA promotes ethical practice in counselling and psychotherapy, including clinical practice, supervision, education, training, professional development, and research. The Code sets out PACFA’s ethical framework for counselors, psychotherapists, supervisors, researchers, educators, trainers, and students, who make up the PACFA community. It unifies and replaces all earlier PACFA Codes of Ethics. Clients are at the center of PACFA’s approach to ethics, as detailed in our Commitment to Clients. Ethics is apparent in the way that people conduct themselves within relationships. The quality of the therapist/client relationship directly impacts the value of clinical work. It is in the considered presence within, and in the attention given to all aspects of the client relationship, as well as relationships with colleagues, students, the profession, and the broader community, that ethics is put into practice.

The PACFA Code of Ethics provides a foundation of values, principles and personal attributes on which ethical practice is built, and which are articulated in the Code as attitudes and behaviors, and as specific ethical standards. Ethical practice begins with awareness and understanding of social, cultural, and psychological influences and requires relational intelligence, sensitivity, and respect. While the Code cannot guide the more nuanced, qualitative aspects of relationships, it can provide a foundation for the cultivation of
shared values and principles, and standards of practice. In the face of uncertainty and complexity, ethics helps us make more sound and wise decisions, supported by self-reflection and dialogue.

Objectives

This Code has been designed to:

•  Establish the ethical framework for the practice of counselling and psychotherapy;
•  Identify the principles, attitudes, and behaviors required for ethical practice;
•  Provide clients and the wider community with clear and accessible information on the expected ethical standards in counselling and psychotherapy;
•  Establish standards of practice that will support safe, high-quality services for clients; and
•  Develop the capacity of those who work to the Code to reflect on the ethical dimension of their practice and to make responsible ethical decisions in complex circumstances.