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This post was co-written with Mitchell M. Handelsman, PhD, whose blog is "The Ethical Professor."
We believe the vast majority of psychotherapists (We use the word "psychotherapist" to include all professionals in the mental health fields who offer psychotherapy) enter the profession wanting to help clients, to treat them with respect and dignity, and to make the world a better place for all. But psychotherapists are human beings, and susceptible to losing perspective, making mistakes, or being self-serving-all of which can lead to doing harm to clients. This is why psychotherapists, like all professionals, have ethics codes they must follow. Ethics codes help psychotherapists prevent or at least mitigate the effects of bad behavior.
It's easy to see psychotherapists who behave unprofessionally as mean people. But very often they don't mean to be unethical. Sometimes they get caught on a "slippery slope" (see Sonne, 1994). We've all seen situation comedies where a person tells a small lie, but then has to tell bigger and bigger ones and finally is caught in the web. Sometimes unethical behavior is like that. Therapists do something small, subtle, inadvertent, but dangerous. These small, perhaps innocuous behaviors lead to larger, unethical ones. The small behaviors may seem harmless, and they may not even be unethical in themselves. But they might be, and they might lead to trouble.
In our book, Ethics for Psychotherapists and Counselors, we give the name "Red Flags" to these subtle behaviors that can lead psychotherapists to compromise their professional values and ethical standards. Conversely, when psychotherapists are meeting and even going above the ethical requirements of their profession, we call these behaviors "Green Flags."
Think about some psychotherapists you've read about 
or seen on TV 
or the movies 
. Chances are you've read about or seen some unethical behaviors, or at least some red flags. Or think about a psychotherapist you worked with. You may have wondered about some things they did, or didn't do, and said to yourself, "Is this ethical?"
In our book we use stories or case scenarios to illustrate red flag and green flag behaviors. Here are a couple such stories. As you read them think about these things:
1) Is the psychotherapist in the story demonstrating unethical behaviors? Ethical behaviors?
2) Which behaviors would you consider absolutely ethical, or green flags?
3) Which behaviors are definitely unethical?
4) What behaviors might be unethical, or might be warning signs of bad things to come? In other words, which behaviors are red flags.
Story #1: The Case of the Delectable Disclosure
Rita Booke has been seeing her therapist, Dr. S. Trange, for several months. Toward the end of a recent session, Dr. Trange begins sharing little tidbits about his own relationships. His wife, he tells Rita, is not paying so much attention to him, is frequently out of town, and just not interested in the same things as he is. Their sexual intimacy, he says, is almost nonexistent. Rita feels a little funny about what Dr. Trange says, but feels like he must trust her a lot to share such intimate details. It even makes her feel better to know that other people-especially smart folks like Dr. Trange-have problems of their own. At the next session, Dr. Trange compliments Rita on the progress she's made, which also makes her feel very good. Dr. Trange suggests that they end their session a little early. To celebrate her progress, he suggests that they have dinner at a quaint little restaurant near the office.
Story #2: The Case of the Coffee Question
Just as the third session with Lynn Guini begins, Dr. Mo Kalate hears her stomach growl. It is the lunch hour and Dr. Kalate is wishing she'd taken time to grab a bite before this session began. As if reading her thoughts, Lynn says, "I can't really concentrate-I'm starving." Lynn asks, "Can we walk down to the coffee shop on the corner for our session-that way I'd be able to talk without being so hungry. What you say Doc?" Dr. Kalate feels her stomach growl again and thinks, "Maybe just this once." What does she say?
We'd love to hear your thoughts on these scenarios!
Sonne, J.L. (1994). Multiple relationships: Does the new ethics code answer the right questions? Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 25(4), 336-343.
