Well, it was inevitable. the interest was hardly sustained... ended up losing steam. But anyway, i guess I'm in for the long haul, and a long road. hopefully will be able to overcome some of the bumps along the way... Lemme just say that research is ongoing, and that it hopefully will sustain, Loads more work that needs to be done, and as usual, am procrastinating, but... i guess i'm hoping that it'll work out..
Anyway, was thinking about professionalism and ethics, not sure if i want this to be a philosophical rant or anything, just a few thoughts about something i have been thinking of for a long while, and keep having discussions about with many different people.
The field i am in, the mental health profession, especially, is one in which there can be a lot of controversy. So many issues, that many people with little or no knowledge about the field like to comment upon. I do agree, that yes, there are violations of professional boundaries that are crossed. But the well meaning mental health professional... attempts to "do no harm". Though many of us do not take the Hippocratic oath, i think this is the premise that we work on, to the best of our abilities, we work to help the person with whatever difficulty they are facing. but what sets us apart from well meaning individuals, you know, friends and so on who also try to help a person? This is, I think a basic concern that many people have with the mental health field, and psychologists in particular... "counselling", "talking to people" and so on. Many people feel like actually talking to someone professionally and actually paying that person is not worth it, when in fact, anyone can do it.
So what is the answer to that? We are professionals, trained in psychotherapy in order to help the person using methods that do have a research base. That is the difference. We have the training, and that is how we are able to help people, and at the same time, therapy is not about making the person do something they don't want to. It is about helping them adapt to their environment and situation better. The aim is not to label, or to categorise people.
I think i can spend more time fleshing out these points, but right now, i just want to state that more than "to do no harm", we should be aiming " to do good".
Anyway, was thinking about professionalism and ethics, not sure if i want this to be a philosophical rant or anything, just a few thoughts about something i have been thinking of for a long while, and keep having discussions about with many different people.
The field i am in, the mental health profession, especially, is one in which there can be a lot of controversy. So many issues, that many people with little or no knowledge about the field like to comment upon. I do agree, that yes, there are violations of professional boundaries that are crossed. But the well meaning mental health professional... attempts to "do no harm". Though many of us do not take the Hippocratic oath, i think this is the premise that we work on, to the best of our abilities, we work to help the person with whatever difficulty they are facing. but what sets us apart from well meaning individuals, you know, friends and so on who also try to help a person? This is, I think a basic concern that many people have with the mental health field, and psychologists in particular... "counselling", "talking to people" and so on. Many people feel like actually talking to someone professionally and actually paying that person is not worth it, when in fact, anyone can do it.
So what is the answer to that? We are professionals, trained in psychotherapy in order to help the person using methods that do have a research base. That is the difference. We have the training, and that is how we are able to help people, and at the same time, therapy is not about making the person do something they don't want to. It is about helping them adapt to their environment and situation better. The aim is not to label, or to categorise people.
I think i can spend more time fleshing out these points, but right now, i just want to state that more than "to do no harm", we should be aiming " to do good".
