People should be given the freedom to make their own, informed choices, express themselves and explore new ideas and possibilities remembering that with this freedom comes responsibility for the choices they make and the actions they choose.

Strive to achieve balance, harmony, and moderation in all areas of life which include the physical, the emotional, the functional, the social, and the observing selves.

Thinking things through, discussing them with others, and examining them from all sides; weighing all evidence in as objective and detached way as possible. Making decisions based on this process.

An East Meets West Approach to Personal Development, Health & Well-Being

Worked in the Arts, Education, Business and Health over the last 40 years. 

Hull University 1978 - 81

A necessary condition for being in any field is that you must have “spare capacity”. Your work should not use up everything you’ve got. Nor should there be so many demands making a drain on your life that you have insufficient resources to offer good a service to your client(s).

Being able to do something, anything, with confidence and ease helps develop spare capacity. It might be a sport, running a business, a craft or a skill such as typing, wiring circuit boards, or cake making. People with a skill are often surprised when other people comment on it because the skill is naturalised in them. When we do something well, we take it for granted. We don’t have to think about it, or boast about our achievements. Losing vanity is a requirement of developing spare capacity, and vanity tends to fall away when you are competent and confident. This releases the energy you need and spare capacity is like spare energy.

When you want to operate well in a situation you must have the spare capacity to see what’s going on. You must have confidence and not be put down by anyone. You must be ‘on top of your work’ to have the spare capacity to see, understand and perhaps influence events.

If you are too competitive, too pleased, too anxious or too depressed you have no possibility of developing the spare capacity you need in order to work well. Excessive emotion, whatever the emotion, exhausts you, using up energy that you need to hold in reserve for creating the capacity to observe objectively. You are not in control if your emotional life is too strong.

In most existing codes of ethics the rules of conduct are imposed externally by trade associations. You are required to read and obey. If you breach the rules — and are found out — you may have to face a formal enquiry and be made accountable if a complaint is made against you. The consequences may be anything from public censure, to suspension from practice, to full-scale striking off.

Since even the best of us may become erratic at any time, guidelines are certainly needed, and we know without much thought the kind of prohibitions they should contain.

Obviously it is not ethical, among other things, to:

• sleep with, or make any kind of sexual advance to, a client.
• steal money or time from a client or patient, either directly or obliquely — for example, by keeping the individual in treatment for longer than he or she needs to be there; selling goods or services that the client does not want, need, can’t use or can’t afford
• barter — because it often creates a confusion of roles;
• indoctrinate or brainwash, for instance, by implanting ideas of an ideological, political, religious or behavioural nature.
• abuse, manipulate, or indulge in any kind of cult behaviour or practices which bind client or patient to the therapist;
• take advantage in any other way of the inevitable power invested in the role of “service provider” or ‘therapist’.

But, should fear — of breaching the rules, of discovery, and ultimately of punishment by our externally located statutory body — really be all that restrains us from unethical behaviour?

Over the last fifty years there has been a breakdown in the ethical and moral (legal, educational and religious) systems that society once relied upon to maintain stability. Many people cling on to vestiges of these old systems. But this breakdown process had to happen. It is an evolutionary consequence of the fact that reliance on systems eventually makes us too inflexible — and therefore more vulnerable in a rapidly changing world. It almost seems as though nature is forcing us to evolve to act ethically from a basis of real knowledge — not from conditioned responses.

Many people and organisations, however, are not adapting well to these changes and appear unable to take responsibility for their actions. One consequence of this has been the development of what is sometimes called a ‘victim’ culture with many people becoming obsessed with ‘rights’ and blame. Clearly, however, rights can only be granted by law that is agreed upon by a community. Rights are not ‘givens’. We don’t come into the world with rights, but we do arrive with ‘needs’ (and ‘resources’ to help us get those needs met).