Victims of bad psychoterapeutic practice

Abstract

The area of professional ethics in psychotherapy has not yet been the subject of a national research in the field of mental health. In this study the authors wanted to examine the extent in which bad psychotheraputic practice, which can transform a client into a victim of psychotherapy, is present. In a convenience sample there were 45 psychologists psychotherapists with licenses from the national association and 109 users of psychotherapeutic services. As instruments, we used a questionnaire made in the United States (Pope, Tabachnik, Keith- Spiegel), and a short questionnaire designed for the purpose of this research. The results showed that bad psychotherapeutic practice is present in our country, although the vast majority of therapists is acting ethically. The authors argue that it would be good to introduce better monitoring of psychotherapists, because of the minority that does not comply with ethical standards.

Keywords

• ethics
• bad psychotherapeutic practice
• clients
• victims