The Ethical Weight of Emotion: Therapist Identity and Practice with Sexual Offenders
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Feschuk, Amber
Issue Date
2025-12-02
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
therapist emotion , ethical practice , clinical supervision , education , training , forensic , sexual offending treatment , counselling psychology , professional identity , reflexivity , post-structuralism , qualitative methodology
Alternative Title
Abstract
Therapists who work with individuals who have committed sexual offenses often navigate a complex intersection of emotional labor, ethical responsibility, and institutional constraint. Although counselling psychology promotes ideals of neutrality, empathy, and professionalism, the literature suggests these expectations frequently collide with the emotional and moral intensity of forensic work, yet research seldom explores how therapists make sense of these tensions. Guided by a post-structural theoretical orientation, this capstone project synthesizes existing literature to propose a qualitative study examining how experienced practitioners might interpret, navigate, and integrate their emotional and ethical responses in this context. The proposed design outlines semi-structured interviews aimed at illuminating how power, discourse, and professional norms shape therapists' meaning making and identity negotiations. This project highlights the limits in current scholarship and argues for the importance of emotional reflexivity within counselling psychology to strengthen training, supervision, and ethical practice in sexual offender treatment.