The Red and Black

The school of social work and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences will sponsor a day-long workshop on ethics today.

The workshop titled "The Ethical Helping Professional: Establishing Boundaries, Preserving Connections and Restoring Hope," will feature discussions about professional relationships between therapists and clients. It will focus on unethical behavior, for example, when a therapist and a client enter a sexual relationship, or the therapist creates an over-dependency in the client.

"Probably the most important thing people will get from this workshop is a broader definition of boundary issues in therapeutic relationships," said Chrystal Barranti, director of continuing education and outreach in the school of social work. "It will help them better manage their power in client-therapist relationships."

Barranti said attendees also will develop skills to work with clients who have been harmed by therapists.

"We're going to have some lecture material, small-group work and videotape sessions that will demonstrate the healing of clients who have been violated," Barranti said.

She said the University has the responsibility to provide this type of workshop.

"I think we have a responsibility to put forward a knowledge base about boundary issues," Barranti said, "so that practitioners can serve Georgians in effective and ethical ways."

The day's activities will take place at the Northeast Atlanta Hilton hotel.

– Nathan Solheim

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