The Therapist as Ethicist: When Professional & Humanistic Ethics Collide
About this Event
NOTE: This is an IN-PERSON event in Pasadena, CA that includes breakfast and four (4) Continuing Education Credits.
Highlights:
- Learn how personal ethical integrity can be mapped onto one’s professional identity and used as a guiding therapeutic sensibility for therapists
- Appreciate the therapeutic value of “boundary crossings” (i.e., texting; handshakes, hugs, and embraces; gift giving and receiving; self-disclosure) that seem unprofessional.
Arm yourself with knowledge of the laws and standards governing the ethical practice of providing therapy. This event fulfills the Board of Psychology's 4-hour Law and Ethics CPD requirement.
This course will cover a host of ways in which psychotherapists are susceptible to compromising the quality of care offered to clients when they adhere to narrow definitions of professional ethics in the everyday world of clinical practice. Attendees will be exposed to how overly formal and bureaucratized ways of handling matters like informed consent for treatment; risk-management procedures; and, so-called “boundary crossing” gestures like therapist self-disclosure, gift giving and receiving, non-sexual touch, out-of-office therapist-client contact, can erode the therapeutic alliance. A humanistic model of ethical care will be mapped out along with case studies to enhance an appreciation of its practical benefits.
Enjoy a selection of citrus juices, breakfast pastries, fresh fruit, and hot beverage service in the gorgeous Ella Ballroom.
Registration begins at 8AM. Please arrive and check-in early as the presentation will begin promptly at 9.
TITLE: The Therapist as Ethicist: What to Do When Professional and Humanistic Ethics Collide
DATE: Saturday, November 19, 2026, 9:00AM - 1:15 PM
L OCATION: NOOR Pasadena 300 E Colorado Blvd #200, Pasadena, CA 91101
CREDITS: This event fulfills 4 Continuing Education credits for licensed psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFT), and licensed clinical social workers (LCSW). Credits only available to clinicians working in California
PRESENTER: Enrico Gnaulati, PhD
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REGISTRATION: Begins at 8:00AM
BREAKFAST: Begins at 8:30AM
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: By the end of this CPA-OPD-aligned event, participants will be able to:
- Discuss four ways in which the enactment of traditional informed consent procedures can have alienating effects on clients, and how these procedures might be handled from a humanistic ethics standpoint.
- Explain what metacompetencies are and why they are important aspects of clinical competency that psychotherapists have an ethical duty to maintain.
- Describe how true multicultural competence requires awareness of how individualistic values can be different from the norms often adopted by clients from collectivist cultures and nondominant groups.
- Define the concept of “moral injury” and the potential ethical obligation to treat psychological problems as moral injuries.
Rose City Center is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. Rose City Center maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
CPA OPD Provider Code: ROS005
INSTRUCTOR
Enrico Gnaulati is a clinical psychologist & author with more than thirty years of experience providing psychotherapy to adults, couples, teens, children and families, as well as neuropsychological testing services and executive coaching.
A frequent contributor to national publications like The Atlantic, Salon, and The Huffington Post, Gnaulati is also sought-after public speaker and radio guest. He is a nationally-recognized reformer of mental health practice and policy, has published numerous articles in both academic journals and popular magazines, and is the author of multiple acclaimed books, including Flourishing Love: A Secular Guide to Lasting Intimate Relationships (Karnac Books, 2023); Saving Talk Therapy: How Health Insurers, Big Pharma, and Slanted Science are Ruining Good Mental Health Care (Beacon Press, 2018), and Back to Normal: Why Ordinary Childhood Behavior Is Mistaken for ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (Beacon Press, Sept. 2013). He is in private practice in Pasadena, California.
View Enrico’s CV
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 135.23
