1. Self awareness and responsibility in therapy Dr. Gillian Proctor Assistant Professor in Counselling, Nottingham University

2.  Imperative for self-awareness as a therapist – ethical responsibility  What is it?  Limits of self knowledge  Existential philosophy and responsibility  Congruence  Social Intuitionism  Mystery of human relating

3.  Self awareness  Awareness of our intentionality  Awareness of our own responses/feelings  Awareness of the reasons/roots of our own responses

4.  Youngson & Green (2009:155) “One of the key issues in forging and understanding human relationships is a clear knowledge of what one is bringing to that relationship and how one is affecting that relationship. Therefore it is crucial … that individuals make a commitment to developing self-knowledge and self-awareness, in order to make and maintain relationships of quality.”  Idea of fixed self that can be known once and for all critiqued. Also suggests its an activity done by therapists outside their relationships with clients.

5.  Pope & Keith-Speigel (2008:640) “Ethical awareness is a continuous active process that involves constant questioning and personal responsibility.”  Similarly we suggest that ethical responsibility involves (Proctor & Keys 2013:423): “being as aware as we can be of the struggles inherent in the ethical decision-making process, by being open to the range of influences on the process, by being prepared to be challenged and change, and by trying to articulate the process as clearly as we can”  We ask how do we know we are ethical practitioners? (p. 431) “It is in the ongoing openness to others through questioning and exploration – with clients … that we can trust that we are practising ethically.”  Idea that self-awareness is a never-ending process, mainly involving asking and being open, not superiority or smugnesss of having done it.  Akin to reflexivity in research, described by Etherington (2004:30) as an awareness of the “constantly changing sense of ourselves within the context of our changing world.”

6.  Poe (1840) “All experience, in matters of philosophical discovery, teaches us that, it is the unforeseen upon which we must calculate most largely.”  Plato had Meno capture this quandary, asking: “How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?”  So tricky – how to be aware of ourselves enough to be ethically responsible?

7.  Sartre (1943/2003:62) “… my acts cause values to spring up like partridges”  Proctor (2014:11) “Values express what it means to be human and make choices about our behaviour.”  Every action depending on values and our choice.  Every response in therapy  How we speak, what we wear etc

8.  Free will or determinism?  Limited by contingency/facticity  De Beauvoir (1948/76) – be aware of freedom and facticity – limits of freedom due to our contexts (gender, ethnicity, class, time in history etc) and relationships  But still values in how we respond to our facticity

9.  Kierkegaard, anguish is consciousness of facing freedom  Sartre (1943/2003) “Anguish is precisely my consciousness of being my own future.” When we flee this awareness and deny our freedom, we have ‘bad faith’.  Heidegger – our ethics can be measured by ‘authenticity’ (being true to oneself) and ‘resoluteness’ (taking on personal responsibility for our choices)

10.  Smith (2012)’s concept of ethical mindfulness is applying the Buddhist idea of mindfulness specifically to therapy relationships.  Proctor (2014:104) “Mindfulness is an ongoing process of maintaining as much as possible a calm awareness of one’s bodily functions, sensations (feelings), objects of consciousness (thoughts and perceptions) and consciousness itself. … in the service of awareness of self and impact on others in relationships.”

11.  Rogers (1959) second condition is: “The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.” Note ‘in the relationship’ with the client – not all the time! Maybe more possible?  How can we ensure we are aware of as much as possible in the relationship?  How can we know what is relevant to be aware of?  What can we do to improve our awareness?  Can we only ever know what we know at any one time, which will vary depending on our facticity?

12.  If the consequences of our actions or inactions as a therapist are unforeseen, when can we be held responsible?  Is there room for mistakes or tragedies in our blame culture?

13.  Haidt (2001) moral decisions are based on intuition and emotion, yet we use post-hoc rational justifications for them.  Consistent with Damasio (2000) that emotion is primary  Interesting implications regarding principles in ethical codes.  Suggests values are more important than cognitive principles

14.  Are we too hooked on idea of responsibility and blame?  In focus on articulating rational reasons for our practice, are we deluding our selves as to the nature of ethical decision-making and tying ourselves in bigger knots.  How do we be responsible for emotion and intuition?

15.  Proctor, G. (2014) Values and ethics in counselling and psychotherapy. London: Sage.  All the rest in the above!