Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide, Third Edition by Ken Pope and Melba Vasquez is informative, insightful, and instructive. It is also a pleasure to read. We emerge with sharpened professional clarity, with a mega-perspective on what constitutes ethical practice, and in possession of a new tool for navigating ethical dilemmas - sort of a therapist’s GPS. The reader may also experience a renewed pride in the practice of Psychology, as well as a reaffirmed commitment to its core purpose: caring for others.
Pope and Vasquez thoroughly address the essentials of ethics, moving smoothly between the poles of principle and practical, the coded and the intuitive, the timely and the timeless.  They cover traditional terrain (extant and historic ethical codes, informed consent, dual relationships, complications of sexuality) as well as hypermodern concerns (managed care, email, and hard drives) and include also the opinions of experts whom they surveyed regarding ethical practice with the suicidal client. 
 
Pope and Vasquez stress that ethical responsibility lies always with the practitioner. To them, ethical practice is a natural byproduct of competent practice.  If we practice in a fully competent manner - then we practice in a fully ethical manner.  Fully competent implies a good deal more than possession of a degree and a license. It goes beyond being aware of ethics codes and relevant statutes.  A rough analogy might be that of an athlete who has made the team and memorized the playbook – a good start, but not predictive of competent performance.  Where the athlete needs to be in game shape - physically competent to perform - Pope and Vasquez emphasize the clinician’s need for emotional competence.  That is, therapists should understand and have access to their strengths, be aware of and compensate for any weaknesses, and readily adjust to transient liabilities, such as fatigue or grappling with a personal crisis.  The authors point out that many ethical slips happen to well-trained and well-meaning clinicians whose emotional competence was compromised due to a stressful circumstance unrelated to their clinical work.
 
Let’s suppose we possess both professional and emotional competence. What then? Pope and Vasquez recommend a methodical questioning of our own thinking process, our hypotheses, conclusions and motives. This work contains a crisp section on critical thinking and logical fallacies. If we are to use self-questioning as a guide to ethical practice we do well to know its slippery slopes and pitfalls.  Thus the work explores the typical intellectual trickery that subverts the honest self-questioning method and lure us into ethical errors – such as cognitive sleights of hand, and the siren song of rationalization. The questioning process the authors encourage intends to hone and improve competent practice. Our clients place a profound trust in us, bring to us what they may acknowledge nowhere else; each client deserves our vigilant consideration and response as a unique and special human being. Ethical practice means always delivering our best effort.  Sometimes finding the best treatment means working hard (via self-questioning) to be freshly aware and creative even when the type of case is familiar, perhaps even a type we have treated hundreds of times. Psychotherapy has no cruise control. To these authors “business as usual” paves the way for ethical lapses.  In fact, they refer to a “golden rule” of ethical treatment, a simple and familiar one: If the roles were reversed and we became the client – what would we want our therapist to do?
 
There is no doubt that any clinician who practices the way Pope and Vasquez recommend would be less likely to stumble into ethical errors. But even then there is no guarantee that we are completely safe.  In fact, the complexity, emotionality, and immediacy of clinical work all but ensure that mistakes will happen. The authors, however, do a splendid job of preparing us for what might occur. Early in Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling they present the results of a survey sent to practitioners asking them to assess a series of hypothetical clinical circumstances ripe with ethical demands. These examples describe a situation a clinician encountered and also what action ensued. We are asked to assess the ethics of the actions taken. We then get to compare our assessment of these ethical challenges with those of a cross section of our peers. Later in the book the authors present another series of clinical examples also containing ethical binds for us to solve. This time we are on our own. They encourage us to examine our reactions, investigate options, and reach a decision. It’s a challenging process but as the self-questioning skill takes hold in our clinical repertoire ethical binds become less terrifying. We may be unable to avoid ethical dilemmas but when they come – we have a practiced technique at the ready.

Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling is professional, interesting and complete. Its overall effect is to rally the best in us. What elevates this work to a very special, even transformative, status is its tone - the voice within the work.  The authors blithely tread into territory that is the stuff of nightmares: the suicidal client, boundary violations, therapist sexuality, clinician self-interest and self-deceit, supervisory complications, litigious clients and double binds; they even coach us in the proper steps to take when that first complaint is filed against us. Yet throughout, they generate and maintain an ambiance that is respectful, congenial, and totally accepting of us as clinicians. Often, points get served up with a hearty helping of humor.  No playing to fear, no moralizing or guilt inducing. Instead we receive a steady reassuring helpfulness, a carefully prepared and thorough presentation, and relentless good will.  Just what they ask of us.