Ethical Decision-Making in Marriage and Family Therapy: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

It is common knowledge that marriage and family therapists are ethically obligated to provide competent care to their clients and that they need to engage in systematic decision-making processes to ensure they are providing the best care. Yet, a comprehensive guide for ethical decision-making specifically accounting for the unique nuances of working with relational-systemic clients from a relational-systemic conceptual lens is lacking. Thus, the aim of this article is to outline the current understandings of the unique ethical issues experienced when working with relational-systemic clients and to review currently utilized ethical decision making models in the hopes of providing guidance regarding the development of a specific relational-systemic ethical decision-making model.