Ethics and Professional Practices

We recognize that through our certification process, the ITAA establishes a social contract that invites the public to trust that all members of the ITAA acknowledge and adhere to the ethical principles in this document.

We also recognize that members do not always utilize these ethical principles and, therefore, that confrontation of a member is sometimes desirable and/or necessary.

We further recognize that should individual’s behavior show a lack of integration of or consistency with these principles, his/her membership may be suspended by the ITAA until such time as that integration is assured.

1. An ITAA member acknowledges the dignity of all humanity regardless of physiological, psychological, sociological or economic status.
2. It is the primary protective responsibility of members of the ITAA to provide their best possible services to the client and to act in such a way as to cause no intentional or deliberate harm to any client.
3. Members of the ITAA should strive to develop in their clients awareness of and functioning from a position of dignity, autonomy and personal responsibility.
4. The ethical practice of transactional analysis involves entering into an informed contractual relationship with a client which the member of the ITAA and the client should have the competence and intent to fulfil. When a client is unable or unwilling to function autonomously and responsibly within this contractual relationship, the member of the ITAA must resolve this relationship in such a way as to bring no harm to the client.
5. A member of the ITAA will not exploit a client in any manner, including, but not limited to, financial and sexual matters. Sexual relations between an ITAA member and a client are prohibited.
6. Members of the ITAA will not enter into or maintain a professional contract where other activities or relationships between an ITAA member and a client might jeopardize the professional contract.
7. The professional relationship between a member of the ITAA and the client is defined by the contract, and that professional relationship ends with the termination of the contract. However, certain professional responsibilities continue beyond the termination of the contract. They include, but are not limited to, the following: a) maintenance of agreed-upon confidentiality; b) avoidance of any exploitation of the former relationship; c) provision for any needed follow-up care.
8. Members of the ITAA will operate and conduct services to clients with full responsibility to existing laws of the state and/or country in which they reside.
9.  In establishing a professional relationship, members of the ITAA assume responsibility for providing a suitable environment, including such things as specifying the nature of confidentiality observed, providing for physical safety appropriate to the form of activity involved, and obtaining informed consent for high-risk procedures.
10. If members of the ITAA become aware that personal conflicts or medical problems might interfere with their ability to carry out a contractual relationship, they must either terminate the contract in a professionally responsible manner, or insure that the client has the full information needed to make a decision about remaining in the contractual relationship.
11. Members of the ITAA shall in their public statements, whether written or verbal, refrain from derogatory statements, inferences and/ or innuendoes that disparage the standing, qualifications or character of members, bearing in mind their responsibility as representatives of the ITAA and of transactional analysis.
12. Members of the ITAA accept responsibility to confront a colleague whom they have reasonable cause to believe is acting in an unethical manner, and, failing resolution, may report that colleague to the appropriate professional body.

We affirm these principles as common to the practice of ITAA members unless a member explicitly states in writing his/her differences from these positions. In such an instance, the client’s attention to any such differences must also be noted in writing as part of their contract setting process.

Source: ITAA