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The CRPO path, by Canada Therapy & Wellness
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Ethical decisions, step by step, on one page
Seven steps to a decision you can defend, the signs that an issue is ethical, where CRPO's standards and Code ask for each step, and a worked example.
Study aid, not legal advice.Last verified against the official sources linked below on .
Seven steps to a decision you can defend
- State the facts you have, and name the ones you are missing.
- Name everyone with an interest: the client, a child, a third party, the public, you.
- Classify each obligation: you must, you may, or you must not.
- Name the Code principles in tension, such as autonomy and safety.
- Find more than two options: to whom, how much, when, with what warning.
- Test the leading option: legal, within your competence and role, the least intrusive, reasonable to a panel of peers.
- Act, document, and review, with the client where it is safe.
Before step 1: notice it
- A third party wants information, or a say in the work.
- You are about to use or share what the client has not agreed to.
- Someone may be harmed: the client, a child, another person.
- A second role is forming: friend, employer, business, community.
- You feel relief, flattery, dread or irritation.
- Money, gifts or benefits are involved, or something is being written down or sent.
Where CRPO asks for it
| Standard or principle | What it asks |
|---|---|
| Code: Integrity | Consult on ethical dilemmas; recognize and challenge your own biases. |
| Code: Responsible Citizenship | Consult on potential conflicts of interest. |
| Standard 1.5 | Assess your actions as a panel of professional peers would; consult in challenging circumstances. |
| Standards 2.1.5, 2.1.6 | Beyond your competence: clinical supervision or a more experienced colleague; refer if that is not enough. |
| Standard 1.7.3 | Apply and document ethical and clinical judgement before any dual relationship. |
| Standard 2.1 | Document conversations during case consultations. |
Worked example: the choir board
- Lena, an RP in a small town, sings in the community choir. Sam, her client for six months, asks her to join the choir's board, which he chairs.
- Facts and interests: a current client; a social overlap already there; a board role under Sam's chairing. Sam's therapy comes first.
- Obligations: avoid dual relationships with current clients except in extenuating circumstances, such as a small community (1.7.1); apply and document judgement first (1.7.3).
- Options: join the board; decline it and keep singing, with safeguards; offer Sam a referral so she can join.
- Test: declining the board keeps the therapy intact and meets 1.7.1; the choir overlap is managed in the open, not hidden.
- Act: talk it through with Sam, agree how they greet each other at rehearsals, record the reasoning and the safeguards, and come back to it in later sessions.
A must is performed, a may is weighed, a must-not is never crossed. Write down why.