Codes of ethics, and the principles that underlie them, emerged from a largely white, cisgender, heteronormative, and otherwise privileged academic and professional context which then informs those principles and how they are taught and applied. This presentation will draw material from the chapter "'Even Therapists Need Therapists': Ethical Issues in Working with LGBTQ+ Clients" recently published by Addison & Ryan in the Oxford Handbook of Psychotherapy Ethics, and will explore ethical vignettes relevant to different portions of the AAMFT Code of Ethics using an LGBTQ+ affirming, cultural humility approach.
Learning objectives:
1) Participants will be able to describe three ways that the teaching, application, and evaluation of ethical decision-making may be based in heteronormative and cisnormative biases.
2) Participants will be able to recognize opportunities for infusing conversations about ethics with an LGBTQ+ affirming perspective while adopting a position of cultural humility.
3) Participants will be able to apply ethical decision-making principles to issues that arise when considering LGBTQ+ clients, supervisees, and clinicians' involvement in clinical scenarios.
Presenter Bio:
Raised by a feminist single mother in the Midwest, Dr. Sheila Addison, LMFT was taught early on that women deserve equal opportunities. In her training as a Marriage and Family Therapist, Dr. Addison expanded her perspective on social justice to include intersections of gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, body size, and more. She earned her Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Syracuse University; she now has a small private practice as a Certified Gottman Therapist working with the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. She works as core faculty in the Antioch University Seattle Couple and Family Therapy program, and offers supervision and supervisor mentoring as an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. She is also Executive Director of Margin to Center Consulting, a non-profit which nurtures pre-licensed associates from equity-deserving groups in earning licensure and becoming self-employed small business owners. She provides diversity and inclusion support, including the Ally Skills Workshop, to corporate, academic, and community clients. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her partner.