Therapist Code of Ethics

by Natalie Russ

after Kendra DeColo

Therapists: remember how it felt to be at the beginning, alone, your desires almost unbearable, how you kept trying to contain them.

1. to your patients you are a milkless mother. tell them you cannot feed them. show them your sorrow but not your relief. you must have both.

2.         of course, you are not milkless. therapy is in the sips they get from you without you being allowed to give them. you must allow and disallow, a paradox of transgression.

3.         consult the governing bodies on this matter of how to be human and not human, all at once. when considering, remember that this world no longer knows what human is.

4.         as you strive to disguise the body into something less fragile, remember that the writers of the profession believe this is possible. there is no simple way to say [you] are ungovernable.

5.         if you have a heart attack during session, the jig will be up. as you turn fully human, the therapy breaks. this breaking is necessary and unacceptable.

6.         if a bomb goes off during session, therapy ends as you are rendered two humans and must proceed accordingly. this involves crying, fleeing, or rescuing each other from rubble.

7.    if a bomb goes off in the patient's life, maintain your position. this is the crime you commit to prevent crimes you must not commit. it’s impossible to know which crimes are worse. 

8.         a patient may set off the bomb, to try to make you human. they may burn the whole place down to get where [they] need to go. you both encourage and discourage this.

9.         you will set off bombs too, trying to make them human. never confess yes, I wanted to hurt [you], for the very fact I thought [you] couldn't feel. you can't feel either – it’s required.

10.      you are expected to dispense wisdom, like psalms into the muck and wet hay. you may or may not have any. you are the modern oracle, always half charlatan.