Apex Therapy & Coaching

Professional Ethical Framework for Therapeutic Services

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Table of Contents

Introduction and Purpose

Core Commitments to Clients

Ethical Foundation

• Fundamental Values

• Guiding Principles

• Professional Character Traits

Professional Standards and Practices

• Client-Centred Approach

• Maintaining Professional Excellence

• Respect and Dignity

• Establishing Therapeutic Relationships

• Managing Transitions and Endings

• Professional Integrity

• Transparency and Accountability

• Confidentiality and Privacy

• Collaborative Professional Relationships

• Professional Oversight and Development

• Education and Training Standards

• Research and Evidence-Based Practice

• Professional Self-Care

• Addressing Ethical Challenges

 

Introduction and Purpose

This Ethical Framework establishes the professional standards, values, and practices that guide our therapeutic services. It serves as the cornerstone for all professional decisions and interactions within our practice.

Our commitment to ethical practice recognises that clients place their trust in us during vulnerable moments, sharing sensitive personal information and seeking support for their wellbeing. This framework ensures that trust is honoured through consistent, principled, and accountable professional conduct.

This document applies to all therapeutic services including counselling, coaching, psychotherapy, and related interventions. It encompasses work with individual clients, groups, families, and communities across all service delivery methods.

 

Framework Application

The framework is structured to provide both aspirational goals and practical guidance. Our obligations are expressed as either unconditional commitments using "will" or "must," or as general expectations using "will typically" where ethical flexibility may be warranted.

​We maintain accountability by being prepared to explain our implementation of these principles to clients, colleagues, and professional bodies when appropriate.

 

Core Commitments to Clients​

Clients must feel secure in their therapeutic relationships to engage meaningfully in the change process. Our fundamental commitments ensure this security through trustworthy professional conduct.

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Primary Commitments

Client Welfare Priority: We prioritise each client's wellbeing and therapeutic goals during our professional relationship, ensuring their needs remain central to all decisions and interventions.

Professional Excellence: We maintain current competencies, collaborate effectively with colleagues, monitor our own professional capacity, and keep comprehensive records that support quality service delivery.

Respect and Dignity: We honour each client's unique identity, protect their privacy and confidentiality, establish clear working agreements, and maintain collaborative therapeutic partnerships.

Appropriate Professional Boundaries: We communicate service expectations clearly, maintain proper professional boundaries, avoid exploitation, and remain attentive to clients' experiences of our therapeutic relationship.

Professional Integrity: We practice with honesty and transparency, accurately represent our qualifications and methods, and maintain ethical standards while fulfilling legal obligations.

Accountability and Transparency: We discuss potential risks and benefits openly, promptly address any issues that may cause harm, engage in regular professional supervision, and continuously monitor the effectiveness of our therapeutic work.

 

Ethical Foundation

Fundamental Values

Our practice is grounded in core values that shape our professional purpose and guide our therapeutic interventions:

Human Dignity and Rights: We respect the inherent worth and fundamental rights of every individual, recognising their capacity for growth and self-determination.

Wellbeing Enhancement: We strive to reduce psychological distress, strengthen personal resilience, and promote overall mental health and life satisfaction.

Relationship Quality: We work to improve interpersonal connections and communication patterns that contribute to fulfilling personal and professional relationships.

Personal Empowerment: We support clients in developing greater self-awareness, emotional regulation, and effective coping strategies.

Cultural Sensitivity: We acknowledge and respect diverse cultural backgrounds, belief systems, and life experiences that shape individual perspectives.

Safety and Protection: We maintain secure therapeutic environments that protect clients from harm while facilitating meaningful therapeutic work.

Professional Integrity: We uphold the highest standards of professional conduct and maintain the trustworthiness essential to therapeutic relationships.

Knowledge Advancement: We contribute to the development of evidence-based practices and the advancement of therapeutic understanding.

Accessible Services: We strive to provide equitable access to quality therapeutic services regardless of background or circumstances.

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Guiding Principles

Trustworthiness: We honour the confidence clients place in us by maintaining consistent, reliable, and ethical professional conduct throughout all aspects of our therapeutic relationships.

Client Autonomy: We respect clients' rights to make informed decisions about their therapeutic journey, supporting their capacity for self-governance while providing appropriate guidance.

Beneficence: We actively promote client welfare through skilled interventions, supportive relationships, and advocacy for their therapeutic goals and overall wellbeing.

Non-Maleficence: We take deliberate steps to prevent harm, carefully considering potential risks and implementing safeguards to protect client safety and wellbeing.

Justice: We provide fair and equitable treatment to all clients, ensuring access to quality services regardless of personal characteristics or circumstances.

Professional Self-Care: We maintain our own psychological and physical health to ensure we can provide effective therapeutic services while modelling healthy professional boundaries.

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When these principles conflict, we engage in careful ethical deliberation, often consulting with supervisors or colleagues to determine the most appropriate course of action while maintaining transparency with affected clients.

 

Professional Character Traits

Honesty: We maintain transparency with clients about therapeutic processes, potential risks, and any circumstances that may affect the therapeutic relationship.

Compassion: We demonstrate genuine care and empathy while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries that support therapeutic effectiveness.

Courage: We address difficult therapeutic issues and make challenging professional decisions when necessary to protect client welfare.

Diligence: We apply our knowledge and skills conscientiously, staying current with best practices and continuously improving our therapeutic capabilities.

Empathy: We strive to understand and communicate our understanding of clients' perspectives and experiences with accuracy and sensitivity.

Fairness: We treat all clients equitably, making decisions based on professional standards rather than personal preferences or biases.

Humility: We acknowledge our limitations, seek consultation when needed, and remain open to feedback and continued learning.

Professional Identity: We maintain a clear sense of our professional role and responsibilities while adapting our approach to meet individual client needs.

Integrity: We align our actions with our stated values and commitments, maintaining consistency between our professional ideals and practice.

Resilience: We develop the capacity to handle therapeutic challenges effectively while maintaining our professional effectiveness and personal wellbeing.

Respect: We demonstrate genuine regard for clients' dignity, autonomy, and individual experiences throughout our therapeutic relationships.

Authenticity: We maintain genuine professional presence while adhering to appropriate therapeutic boundaries and professional standards.

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Professional Standards and Practices

Client-Centred Approach​

We focus primarily on each client's needs, goals, and wellbeing during therapeutic sessions. When personal or professional interests might conflict with client welfare, we address these conflicts in supervision or consultation before proceeding with services.​

We carefully consider situations where protecting clients or others from serious harm may require overriding client preferences or confidentiality. In such circumstances, we take the minimum necessary action while preserving as much client autonomy and privacy as possible.​

We share responsibility with other professionals for maintaining client safety and preventing exploitation or harmful practices. We take appropriate action when we become aware of potential harm to clients from any source.

We work actively to develop and maintain client trust through consistent, ethical, and competent professional conduct.

 

Maintaining Professional Excellence​

We maintain competence in all services we provide, seeking consultation, second opinions, or making referrals when professional standards require additional expertise. Such consultations respect client confidentiality and data protection requirements.

Continuing Professional Development: We stay current through professional literature, research updates, colleague consultation, supervision discussions, and formal training opportunities. We remain informed about relevant legal and regulatory requirements.​

Record Keeping: We maintain accurate, relevant, and appropriately detailed records that comply with data protection requirements and support quality service delivery.

Collaborative Practice: We work with colleagues to enhance service quality when consistent with client consent and therapeutic goals. We engage in professional collaboration to improve services and provide mutual support.

Personal Wellbeing: We monitor and maintain our physical and psychological health to ensure we can provide effective therapeutic services. We seek professional support when needed and maintain appropriate insurance coverage.

Service Delivery Methods: We maintain professional standards regardless of whether services are provided in person, online, or through other communication methods, adapting our technical knowledge while maintaining service quality.

 

Respect and Dignity​

We protect client privacy and dignity through all aspects of our professional conduct. Our services demonstrate commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion while avoiding unfair discrimination.​

We recognise our vulnerability to unconscious bias and engage in ongoing self-reflection, feedback, and professional development to address these limitations. We work with identity issues in open-minded ways that respect client autonomy and cultural context.​

We maintain respectful attitudes toward all forms of sexual orientation and gender identity, avoiding attempts to change these aspects of client identity unless specifically requested and appropriate. We make reasonable accommodations to ensure accessibility for clients with varying abilities.​

We seek to understand aspects of clients' backgrounds, identities, or lifestyles that are unfamiliar to us through appropriate resources rather than expecting clients to educate us. We remain open-minded with clients who may share similarities with us, ensuring we don't overlook their unique experiences.​

We strive to exceed legal minimum standards for equality, diversity, and inclusion. We address discriminatory attitudes or behaviours from colleagues or service partners when they impact client welfare.

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Establishing Therapeutic Relationships​​

We ensure clients can make informed decisions about their therapeutic services by providing clear information about our qualifications, methods, costs, and service expectations. When urgent situations require immediate intervention, we provide this information at the earliest appropriate opportunity.

​Therapeutic Agreements: We establish clear agreements with clients that address their expressed needs and preferences, communicate terms in understandable language, specify confidentiality protections and limitations, provide written records of agreements, and maintain documentation of any changes.

We remain alert to potential conflicts between client agreements and other contractual obligations, working proactively to resolve such conflicts or involving appropriate authorities when necessary.

Progress Monitoring: We regularly review client progress and seek their feedback about our therapeutic relationship and the effectiveness of our interventions.

Professional Boundaries: We maintain appropriate professional boundaries that support therapeutic goals and client welfare. We avoid dual relationships that pose risks to clients, maintain clear distinctions between personal and professional social media presence, and regularly review boundary issues in supervision.

Prohibited Relationships: We do not engage in sexual relationships with clients, supervisees, or trainees. We avoid sexual relationships with individuals close to clients to preserve therapeutic trust and effectiveness.

Post-Therapeutic Relationships: We exercise significant caution regarding personal or business relationships with former clients, recognising that power dynamics and therapeutic influences may persist after formal therapeutic relationships end. Any such relationships require careful consideration in supervision and consultation with experienced colleagues.

 

Managing Transitions and Endings​

We inform clients about time limits or session restrictions during the initial agreement process. We provide advance notice of planned endings and remain sensitive to client expectations and concerns about therapeutic conclusion.​

We inform clients well in advance of planned breaks such as vacations or medical leave. We manage unplanned interruptions to minimise client inconvenience and may assist with alternative arrangements for extended absences.​

We maintain contingency plans for situations where illness or other circumstances prevent direct client communication, including designated colleagues who can contact clients and support alternative arrangements while maintaining agreed-upon confidentiality.

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Professional Integrity​

We maintain high standards of honesty and transparency in all professional activities. We communicate openly with clients, colleagues, and others within the bounds of service purpose and confidentiality requirements.​

We represent our qualifications, experience, and methods accurately and completely, responding promptly to reasonable requests for this information. We give careful consideration to legal requirements and fulfil our legal obligations conscientiously.

We promptly notify relevant professional bodies about criminal charges, disciplinary procedures, or civil claims related to our professional work. We avoid actions that could bring our profession into disrepute.

​We encourage clients to raise concerns about our work at the earliest opportunity, giving careful consideration to their feedback and working to resolve issues appropriately. We inform clients about available complaint processes and professional conduct procedures.

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Transparency and Accountability​

We take responsibility for service safety and effectiveness, discussing with clients how to work toward their goals and addressing any risks involved in therapeutic work.

​We maintain transparency by promptly informing clients of anything that places them at risk or causes harm, whether or not they are aware of the situation. We take immediate action to prevent or limit harm, work to repair any damage, offer appropriate apologies, discuss incidents with supervisors, and implement measures to prevent recurrence.

​We consider our work carefully in supervision and monitor client experiences and therapeutic outcomes using methods appropriate to our service type.

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Confidentiality and Privacy​

We protect client confidentiality and privacy by securing information from unauthorised access, informing clients about data use and access, ensuring all recipients of client information maintain confidentiality, and providing advance notice of privacy limitations.

​We ensure contractual requirements for information management are compatible and that disclosure of identifiable information is authorised by client consent or legally justified. We use anonymised information when practical alternatives to sharing identifiable information are available.

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Collaborative Professional Relationships​

We conduct professional relationships with mutual respect, building effective communication systems that enhance client services. We treat colleagues fairly and support their professional development and equality of opportunity.

​We avoid undermining colleague relationships with clients through inappropriate comments. All communications about clients maintain professional purpose and respect confidentiality agreements.

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Professional Oversight and Development​

Supervision: We engage in regular supervision that provides opportunities for in-depth reflection about all aspects of our practice to work effectively, safely, and ethically while maintaining personal resourcefulness.

Effective supervision goes beyond case management to include examination of therapeutic relationships and their contribution to desired outcomes. This requires adequate privacy, safety, and containment, preferably independent of direct line management.

Supervisors possess specialised knowledge and skills acquired through training and experience. They model high standards of professional practice, particularly regarding competence, relationship building, boundary management, and exploitation prevention.

Supervision communications maintain consistency with client confidentiality agreements and agency policies. We clarify responsibility allocation among supervisors, supervisees, and managers, communicating these arrangements to clients appropriately.

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Education and Training Standards​

All trainers possess the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for effective teaching and learning facilitation. Information about educational opportunities is accurate and enables informed student choices.

​Student selection processes are fair, respectful, and transparent, using procedures designed to identify suitable candidates. Assessments are equitable and provide clear explanations of outcomes to students.

​We use client information in teaching only with appropriate consent or sufficient anonymisation to prevent identification. Trainers model exemplary professional practices and provide supportive environments for addressing student concerns.

Trainee Responsibilities: Students relate respectfully to peers and follow ethical practices in skill development and personal growth activities. They inform clients of their trainee status when appropriate and seek permission for using client information in training contexts.

Trainees deliver services meeting professional standards, collaborate with trainers and supervisors, remain alert to contractual conflicts, and maintain honesty about issues relevant to their training and practice.

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Research and Evidence-Based Practice

We value research that enhances professional knowledge and provides evidence-based practice foundations benefiting clients. We support research compatible with our services and maintain rigorous attention to research quality, integrity, and knowledge claims.

All research follows established ethical guidelines and involves participants who provide explicit informed consent. Research undergoes independent review to ensure participant rights and interests are protected, and methods comply with service standards without adversely affecting clients.

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Professional Self-Care

We maintain our own wellbeing as essential to sustaining effective client services by protecting our physical safety, monitoring our psychological and physical health, seeking professional support when needed, and maintaining healthy life balance.

We ensure sufficient resilience and resources to meet professional standards and sustain quality therapeutic relationships with clients.

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Addressing Ethical Challenges

We recognise that ethical issues and dilemmas are inevitable aspects of professional practice. We use supervision and professional resources to support and challenge our responses to such situations, giving careful consideration to ethical problem-solving approaches.

We accept responsibility for our ethical decisions and remain prepared to explain our reasoning and actions when addressing professional and ethical challenges.

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Implementation and Accountability

This Ethical Framework guides all aspects of our therapeutic practice and professional conduct. We commit to regular review and discussion of these principles in supervision and professional development activities.

We maintain accountability by documenting our adherence to these standards and remaining prepared to explain our implementation of these principles to clients, colleagues, and professional oversight bodies when appropriate.

Through consistent application of this framework, we honour the trust clients place in us and contribute to the integrity and effectiveness of our therapeutic profession.

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