Therapists and Creators
The ethics of being a therapist and a creator
Imagine you just got done with your therapy session earlier in the day and went to bed trying to sleep. There you see a reel by a person you know too well. It is your psychologist.
The psychologist talks about the tiring day they had, how they struggled to cope with everything, and how they are just happy the day is over.
Is the therapist talking about you? Did you make their day miserable?
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has seen a meteoric rise in psychologists using the medium of social media to reach out to clients and bust myths about mental health and therapy.
Therapy and psychology rely heavily on nuance and individual differences in practice, yet, working as a creator requires you to make content that will appeal to most people at once.
That is the dilemma that therapists face when creating content on social media, whether it is for LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Youtube.
Being a digital creator throws up a lot of ethical challenges for psychologists.
The story shared above is just one of those things. There are multiple ethical considerations that must go into creating content on social media as a mental health professional.
How do you share client experiences without violating their privacy and confidentiality?
How do you ensure you don’t overshare on social media and portray a poor image of your profession?
How do you maintain professional and personal boundaries with past/present clients on social media?
and the list goes on
In order to guide professionals through these dilemmas, the APA and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy have created guidelines for the responsible use of social media by psychologists.
Here are some important pointers. If you want to give them a read yourself, you can do so here(BCAP) and here(APA)
1. Don’t stalk your client’s profile
While that is not what the guideline says in exact words, the APA suggests that clients should have the right to share with you what they wish to share in the therapy room.
Following your clients on different social media sites and going through the content they put out is a breach of the client’s right to privacy, even if the client “accepts” your follow request.
The only exception to this is made in case the client is in danger of harming themselves or someone else.
2. No relationship with past or present clients outside the therapy room
This involves following each other on different social media accounts, sharing reels/memes with each other, and most importantly, treating the other as a friend instead of a client/professional.
I know too many psychologists who have been guilty of this. A client is free to follow you but you don’t need to do the same.
Maintaining strong boundaries between personal and professional relationships is essential to the ethics of therapy.
3. Discuss your social media policy with clients beforehand
Have a set social media policy if you discuss your cases on social media. Ensure confidentiality and privacy of the client. Make sure that your client knows what they are getting into beforehand. Informed consent is of the utmost importance.
If you do share client stories, make sure you remove any and all identifiers of the client. Ideally, the client themselves should not be able to identify they are the topic of discussion.
4. Make truthful statements based on evidence and empirical psychology
This one might leave a lot of creators in shambles but you cannot actually make things up as you want them. It is your responsibility to share statements and facts grounded in evidence and solid research.
If you feel like there is something every psychologist should know, write a formal paper on it and publish it before sharing it on social media. The scientific of integrity of psychology and therapy should not be compromised for a few extra views.
While this is not an exhaustive list of the guidelines shared by the APA and BACP, it should give you an idea of what the ethics of being a psychologist on social media are.
I also see a lot of therapists making generic content, answering “popular” questions in 60/90 seconds. These videos get popular but ultimately, the advice is very generic which will NOT apply to everyone.
Psychology and therapy are supposed to be individualized for people based on their needs. “Advice” without inputs from the users violates that principle.
Ultimately, it comes down to choosing between being true to the principles of therapy and being a populist creator who will give people what they want, even if it is not what they need.
Let’s be ethical creators and psychologists.
The two can go hand in hand. It won’t be easy, but I am certain it will be worth it.
Until next time,
Arjun
i agree to this post so much! like we all read about how important ethical considerations are in our psychology community yet sometimes we forget the boundary between awareness and oversharing. it is good and necessary to make content on social media so you can make people aware of the field and destigmatize MH issues, but sometimes i wonder how can it be done mindfully and looking at the ethical rules will help.
This is such an interesting post. Thank you. The thing is that there are also a lot of so-called influencers who are giving out mental health advice who may or may not be trained. And I think it’s a good point that a lot of viral clips cannot provide solid health advice.