ethics guidelines

Ethical Guidelines of the Austrian Society for Drama/Theatre Therapy

The Ethical Guidelines reflect the principles and values of the Austrian Society for Drama/Theatre Therapy.
By providing standards of professional competence, these guidelines protect drama and theatre therapists in the practice of their profession as well as their clients.
Members of the ÖGDTT are committed to these ethical guidelines and their principles and understand them as the basis of their professional actions in all related therapeutic, counselling, supervisory, professional-political, scientific and journalistic contexts as well as in training and further education.

Basic attitudes and professional responsibilities of drama and theatre therapists:

• treat every person with respect and appreciation, regardless of age, gender, ethnic origin, culture, status, sexual orientation, world view and religion.
• comply with ethical and legal standards of conduct.
• respect the clients' right to self-determination and promote their personal responsibility.
• take responsibility for a trusting, protected and beneficial relationship with the client.
• commit themselves to a responsible handling of this special relationship of trust with clients.
• avoid entanglements that limit professional independence and judgement towards clients and/or lead to abuse. (Abuse occurs when members of the theatre therapy profession are unfaithful to their duties towards clients in order to satisfy their personal interests, especially of a sexual, economic, social, emotional, political or religious nature).

• commit to inform the clients at the beginning of the therapy about the method, the framework conditions (setting, frequency, possible duration, financial expenditure, etc.), limits and possibilities and the therapeutic confidentiality.
• only use methods and means in the therapeutic process that they have been trained to use.
• observe confidentiality in all aspects of your work with clients, supervision, further training and publications.
• take precautions or seek relief when their own professional capacity is impaired by illness, accident or personal crisis.
• respect the client's right to discontinue or change therapy at any time and only work as long as it serves the client's interest or progress.
• Treat communications from your clients confidentially in accordance with the legal regulations and comply with the data protection regulations. (all relevant information may only be used with explicit and written consent).
• continuously inform themselves about the relevant legal regulations and institutional and organisational framework conditions concerning therapeutic activities in the overall context of the health care system and psychosocial institutions.
• commit to engage responsibly when offering therapeutic services to the public; i.e. untruthful advertising, advertising unrelated to the profession, misleading advertising or market-shouting advertising is considered inadmissible.
• ensure the quality of their own professional work through regular further training, intervision and supervision.
• In the interest of upholding the professional standards of theatre therapy work, cooperate with other systems and professionals and include their competences and resources for the benefit of the clients.
• Do not engage any inappropriate competitive behaviour towards professional colleagues and representatives of other health professions, but strive for tolerance and constructive cooperation when dealing with them.
• Avoid statements that are false, misleading or deceptive in relation to research, business practices or other work activities related to drama/ drama therapy.