Using Bookmarks: An Approach to Support Ethical Decision Making in Play Therapy

摘要

Play therapy can be an effective intervention mode with children and families in counseling. As with any counseling intervention, ethical issues arise. This article examines 7 common ethical issues found in counseling that are particularly relevant to play therapy, presents a bookmark as a way to succinctly identify a decision-making model, and then applies the information to a hypothetical case. Play therapy is an effective way to facilitate children's expression in counseling (Landreth, 2012). Research suggests that using play results in benefits in areas such as academic achievement and literacy; learning; self-enhancement; relationship skill; and mental and physical health (Belknap & Hazier, 2014; Blanco & Ray, 2011). Even with the benefits of play therapy as an intervention, "little has been written about ethical issues faced by those providing play therapy" (Seymour & Rubin, 2006, p. 101). Play therapy can be complicated with ethical challenges. These challenges often include ethical uncertainties such as conflicting values and priorities, addressing counselor incompetence, maintaining confidentiality while respecting, balancing ethical codes with conflicting legal mandates, and addressing community standards that may differ from personal and professional ethics (Calley, 2009; Flynn & Black, 2011; Guterman & Rudes, 2008). Further confounding these ethical issues are factors such as agency and managed care billing expectations, the state of the economy, and businesses' need to make money (Calley, 2009; Lawson & Venart, 2005).