These deontological principles do not replace anything: they come on top of those that already govern the therapist’s work in their field of practice. They are thus added to the psychologists’ code of ethics if the therapist is a psychologist, or to the frameworks specific to social workers, nurses, and so on.

The eight propositions

1 — First, do no harm

The first rule could be embodied in the medical maxim that recommends, above all, “doing no harm.” Therapy must therefore harm neither the clients, nor society, nor the therapists. One of the guidelines Jay Haley advises holding to: a therapist should only implement procedures they would be willing to experience themselves, or that their own children could, in their eyes, experience without damage. Under no circumstances, then, can they undertake anything harmful, immoral or illegal, even within the frame of a paradoxical intervention (Haley, 1989).

2 — The therapist is responsible

The second rule appears indirectly in the ironic description of the “heresies” of the strategic approach developed by Paul Watzlawick and Giorgio Nardone (2010): the therapist is responsible. In practice, this means we must accept responsibility for bringing about change in therapy, for refusing to accept it would lead to blaming the clients for a therapeutic failure.

3 — Gauging one’s influence

Third, the therapist must recognise the considerable influence they exert on the people they meet in the course of their work. Unlike a lecturer or a trainer, who faces an audience free to accept or reject their ideas, the therapist faces people who are often in a position of vulnerability, and they are responsible for the effects of their direct and indirect influence on these people. It is therefore always better for them to believe they have too much influence than not enough.

4 — Immense respect

Although this fourth point may seem obvious, it is essential, in the therapeutic process, that the therapist show immense respect for their clients.

5 — Influence limited to the problem

The therapist must limit their influence on the construction of their clients’ world to what is useful for resolving their problem. Adopting this point of view also means acknowledging that the client’s construction of reality is just as valid as the therapist’s (Haley, 1973; Watzlawick, 1984). Therapy is therefore not to be confused with awareness-raising, defined here as influencing a client on matters not directly related to the problem. Different constructions of reality can be simultaneously valid depending on the role of each of the parties involved (Watzlawick, 1984).

6 — The most dignified intervention

The therapist must employ the most dignified, least intrusive intervention, the one most likely to yield results within a reasonable time.

7 — Responsibility, not guilt

Therapy must not lead to irresponsible or dangerous behaviour, nor to a renunciation of individual responsibility; on the contrary, it is part of a dynamic in which each person’s responsibility is indispensable for change to occur. Let us specify that responsibility is understood here as feeling like an agent and owning the consequences of one’s actions — not in the sense of guilt, two terms sometimes conflated in everyday language.

8 — Common sense and intuition

The last point would be, in a way, an ode to common sense and to the use of the therapist’s intuition throughout the therapeutic process. Although theory is indispensable to any relevant intervention, it must be able to give way fully to the relationship and to the sincerity of the exchanges.

The episode devoted to these eight propositions — in French — is below.