Ethical Maturity in the Helping Professions: Making Difficult Life and Work Decisions

How do we, as humans, arrive at what we call morally or ethically good or bad decisions? What processes are involved in making ethical decisions? Is there a way to move towards ethical maturity and how will being ethically mature assist us with any future decisions we might make? Ethical Maturity in the Helping Professions provides a comprehensive overview of the most influential ideas in ethical thinking across the ages and considers the ethical challenges faced in various contexts of educational, research, business and organisational sectors. The book reflects on the history, philosophy and science of ethics through an interdisciplinary approach and encourages the reader to consider their own ethical decision-making and the influences which play a role in shaping them. The authors also introduce a brand new model for becoming an ethically mature professional. This book is essential reading for practising and student psychotherapists, psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, health care and allied professionals.

Michael Carroll is a fellow of the British Association for Counselling, a chartered counselling psychologist, and an accredited Executive Coach and Executive Coach Supervisor. He works as a coach, supervisor, trainer and consultant to organisations in both the public and private sectors specialising in the area of employee well-being. He has published widely in the areas of workplace counselling and counselling supervision. He is co-editor of Integrative Approaches to Supervision also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. He currently resides in Somerset, UK. Elisabeth Shaw is a counselling psychologist, couple and family therapist, who also provides clinical supervision and management development across diverse professional groups. She has had over 15 years of experience in the field of ethics and philosophy and currently consults at the St James Ethics Centre, Sydney, as well as being a member of a number of industry based ethics committees. She has published work in the fields of relationship therapy, supervision and ethics. She currently resides in Sydney, Australia.