Ethical rules for psychologist.

Ethical rules for psychologist.

We all study psychology and dream of becoming professionals. Our field of practice is complicated. At university we grow in subject-specific knowledge and study the mind, brain and human behavior. Due to the fact that I am studying clinical psychology I will become a counsellor. That is why I will help to change something in clients’ lives, or explore client’s thoughts and feelings in more depth. Counselling can be useful for anyone who wants to explore the way they're thinking or feeling further, as well as for anyone experiencing a problem or issue, they seek to solve. Obviously, the therapist has a huge responsibility. That is why it is necessary to regulate the work of psychologists. In Russia we do not have the law that protects the title of psychologist and regulates relationships with other parties involved. And mainly because of it I found out that the topic of ethical rules for psychologist is the most useful.

It would be wrong to say that in Russia there are no organizations that deal with the regulation of the work of psychologists. The most famous one is The Russian Psychological Society. One of the goals of the Society is to ensure high standards of education, training and practice. It is necessary to add that The Russian Psychological Society is a member of International Union of Psychological Science. If the psychologist is a member of The Russian Psychological Society, he has to comply with moral and ethical standards when he is working with clients. The problem is that at the state level the issue remains unresolved. Even a person without higher psychological education can work as a psychologist. But the members of Russian Psychological Society are working on the text of the law. Hope that such a law will appear in our country soon.

How should psychologists understand what rules to adhere to while working now? I suggest to rely on Codes adopted not in our country. Professional Codes of Ethics refers to the Codes developed by professional associations to provide guidelines for practice by counsellors and mental health professionals. These Codes are designed to protect the psychologist, client and public. During our course we have read several Ethical Codes and even have written our own informed consent form. It was an amazing work that opened my eyes to many aspects of the work of a psychologist.

It is important to say that psychologist has a lot of responsibilities. He should provide the client with information, evaluating the client’s capacity to understand it; he should always act so as to protect client’s privacy even if he/she does release him in writing to share information about him/her; therapist should not look for information about the client that goes beyond his professional tasks; he should apply data processing and interpretation methods that have received scientific recognition. Of course, this is not a complete list.

I want to back up my claim about the importance of ethical practices and the importance of the law with a tragic story. In December 2013, a young woman jumped out of a window in the city of Elektrostal near Moscow. It was the first case in Russia when the psychologist was accused of driving a person to suicide. Of course, the therapist did not want to do it. The man turned out to be an engineer who took psychology courses. The first conclusion from that fact: we need a law according to which only people with higher psychological education can provide psychological work. And the second: every psychologist, even without education, must adhere to a Code of Ethics. There is a rule there: if a therapist concludes that his actions will not lead to an improvement in the condition of the Client or pose a risk to the Client, he must stop the intervention. Maybe if the psychologist from Elektrostal had known this rule the accident would have turned out to be avoided.

In conclusion, I want to say that psychologist is very interesting and very responsible profession. Psychologists have to follow the rules while working with people. And I am very glad that we got acquainted with that rules now.

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