Psikoterapi Odası: Kırılganlık ve Güç Arasında Psikoterapistin Etik Sorumluluğu

The psychotherapist-client relationship is a complex relationship shaped by various theoretical approaches and built on individual and interpersonal dynamics. The person in the role of the client is invited to be fragile and vulnerable in this relationship. Therefore, any act in which the therapist abuses their power is more violent than abuses of power outside of the therapeutic relationship. Professional organizations aim to protect the client from harm and prevent the client being maltreated, abused or taken advantage of, by setting ethical principles and rules. The existence of such principles and rules, however, does not mean that ethical violations do not take place. Psychotherapists’ sexual harassment of clients is a significant problem obscured by encumbering the client with the burden to report due to the nature of the therapeutic relationship. In the legal realm, psychotherapist’s sexual attack is treated similarly to other sexual attack cases. Psychotherapy, as a discipline, is yet to recognize the capacity to harm generated by the fragility and power dynamics. In order for this recognition to occur, the unspoken has to be spoken, the organization efforts of survivors of psychotherapy should be supported, and professional organizations must cease to be ‘family organizations’.