Power in Psychotherapy and Counseling: Rethinking the ‘Power Differential’ Myth and Exploring the Moral, Ethical, Clinical, and Practice Issues of Power in Therapy

Fulfills Professional Ethics for all professions. Check with your state board if you have questions.

This course is exclusively devoted to the exploration of the different aspects of power in psychotherapy and counseling. It explores the ethical and clinical issues involved with power in the therapeutic relationship as well as the legal, moral and professional issues.

From the first day in graduate school all the way to post graduate ethics courses, psychotherapists and counselors have been instructed to pay great attention to the “inherent power differential in psychotherapy”, to be aware of the “imbalance of power between therapists and clients”, and have been repeatedly told, “never abuse or exploit our vulnerable and dependent clients.” The view of power as an entity, possessed exclusively by powerful psychotherapists and counselors, has been generally unchallenged. Ethics texts and risk management advice columns have presented a similar unified message about therapists’ unilateral power and clients’ inherent vulnerability.

Many psychotherapy clients are indeed distressed, traumatized, anxious, depressed, young, impaired, and vulnerable and can be easily influenced or controlled by their therapists. On the other hand, other clients are competent, strong, and authoritative and may be controlling. Many modern-day consumers are highly informed and seek therapy to enhance the quality of their lives, improve their loving relationships, or find meaning in their lives. They are neither depressed, traumatized, or vulnerable. Yet, the myth of the power differential persists as if all clients are the same and all therapist-client relationships are duplicates of each other.

This intermediate-level course presents one of the most extensive analyses and critiques of the beliefs inherent in power differential and the claim that the power of therapists always lasts long after termination. It consists of five audios (text transcripts are provided for all audios) and one article. It critically reviews the prevalent belief of “once a client, always a client.” After the extensive documentation of the different myths about power, the course explores the potential sources of such faulty generalizations. It then provides a rather complex view of power in therapy and details how therapists and clients are vested with different forms of power. Next, the course looks at the diverse ways that therapists attempt to bolster their power over their clients. The last several sections of the course discuss situations where the power differential is valid and applicable, and the ethical implications of the analysis is provided in this paper. Finally, it proposes new ways to view power relationships in psychotherapy that are realistic to the field of therapy and counseling, respectful and honoring to clients, and, most importantly, can help increase therapeutic effectiveness.