Business Therapy Foundations and Professional Ethics
Scope of practice and the consulting frame
Business therapy sits at the intersection of clinical skill and organizational consulting. Candidates must distinguish the clinical frame (treatment of an identified patient, diagnosis, duty to treat) from the consulting frame (contracted service to a system or sponsor, no diagnosis of individuals unless separately contracted). Know the foundational documents and norms: informed consent, confidentiality and its organizational limits, multiple-role avoidance, competence boundaries, and referral obligations. Understand who the "client" is-the sponsor, the system, or both-and how that shapes consent and information flow.
Ethics traps in exam questions
Common traps: (1) assuming individual confidentiality survives when the sponsor pays and receives aggregate reports-confidentiality must be negotiated up front; (2) treating a dual role (consultant plus therapist to an employee) as acceptable because it is convenient; (3) applying clinical duty-to-warn standards to organizational settings without noting jurisdictional and contractual nuance; (4) confusing role clarity with role rigidity-boundaries protect the work, not the consultant's comfort.
Rule of thumb
The "who is my client, who gets what information, and what did I promise?" test: before any engagement, document the client, the data-sharing agreement, and the consent process. If a request would breach that documented agreement, renegotiate in writing rather than comply informally.
Worked example
A VP asks for names of employees who scored high on a stress survey. Correct response: decline, cite the pre-agreed aggregate-only reporting, and offer a system-level summary plus optional individual support resources. This honors consent, protects trust, and preserves the engagement.