One of the priorities of the Polish Psychotherapy Council – Federation of Associations is to take care of the standards of conducting psychotherapy, both quantitative and qualitative. Due to the need to protect patients, ethical principles are particularly important. They are reflected in the codes of ethics in force in individual associations of psychotherapists working on the basis of different theoretical approaches.

The most important ethical principles are:

• Psychotherapists shall respect the integrity of the people they help and their value systems. They shall respect the distinct political, philosophical and religious views of the patient, provide reliable information in situations where the views and beliefs of the patient may be relevant to the experienced problems and agree with him or her on the scope of possible changes. The psychotherapist shall refrain from indoctrination in these areas. In the event of a significant conflict, preventing further cooperation, between the patient’s and the psychotherapist’s value system, the psychotherapist is obliged to terminate the psychotherapy and offer the patient psychotherapy with another psychotherapist;
• Psychotherapists shall keep professional secrecy. This means that the patient’s personal data, personal information and health status shall not be disclosed (except in the cases provided for by applicable law);
• A psychotherapist shall respect the physical boundaries of his patient and create a safe, trustworthy environment for his psychotherapy. It also means refraining from sexual contact with the patients and from any other abuse that might result from the exploitation of the privileged role played by the psychotherapists;
• Psychotherapists shall continuously develop their knowledge and take care of their personal development through education, use of scientific achievements, self-psychotherapy and supervision;
• A psychotherapist is responsible for his psycho-physical condition in contact with the patient in order to be able to carry out his work to the best of his ability. He shall take care of his psycho-physical condition in such a way that it is possible to deal constructively with occupational stress and to maintain the high quality of his work.

Every association that is part of the Polish Psychotherapy Council has a code of ethics and procedures for lodging complaints and appeals. Persons who are members of particular associations are obliged to comply with them.