Embracing Ethical Power in Therapy

In the helping professions, conversations about power are often shaped by experiences of misuse, harm, and oppression. As a result, many therapists develop complicated relationships with their own authority, influence, and responsibility within clinical work. Yet avoiding or minimizing power does not eliminate it. Instead, it can make therapeutic dynamics less visible and therefore harder to navigate ethically and effectively.

This 2-hour interactive continuing education workshop for therapists invites participants to explore power as an inherent and necessary aspect of the psychotherapy field that can be engaged with greater awareness, integrity, and compassion. Through discussion, reflection, experiential exercises, and clinical application, participants will examine how power operates within therapeutic and supervisory relationships, including the impact of role, identity, expertise, vulnerability, and systemic context. Participants will explore multiple forms of power, the dynamics of up-power and down-power positions, and strategies for using therapeutic authority in ways that support client safety, empowerment, accountability, and relational depth.

This introductory continuing education webinar is designed to help mental health professionals:

1. Identify and differentiate six distinct forms of power and apply this framework to analyze power dynamics in clinical case scenarios.
2. Analyze the characteristics, risks, and ethical responsibilities associated with up-power and down-power positions in therapy and supervision.
3. Apply strategies for integrating ethical awareness, compassion, and relational accountability into the use of therapeutic power to support client safety and empowerment.

Declaration identifying any potential conflict of interest and/or commercial support: No conflict of interest indicated.

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact GoodTherapy here.

Continuing Education (CE) Information

2 CE contact hours will be provided by GoodTherapy for attending this web conference in its entirety. 

GoodTherapy is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org, provider #1352, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 3/30/2025 – 3/30/2028. Social workers completing this course receive 2 continuing education credits.

GoodTherapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395. GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can attend this live web conference for $30.95 or access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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