Citation

Robillard CL, Dixon-Gordon KL, Turner BJ. Can. Psychol. 2022; 63(3): 392-404.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Canadian Psychological Association, Publisher University of Manitoba)

DOI

10.1037/cap0000297

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It is estimated that 50%-60% of adolescents who access outpatient mental health services experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) and 22%-39% of outpatient psychotherapists lose a client to suicide in their career. Despite the pervasiveness of STBs in outpatient settings, graduate students often receive limited training in navigating the competing ethical principles and priorities inherent to this area of clinical practice. This article proposes that training in dialectical thinking, which refers to arriving to a reasonable course of action by continuously reconciling opposing perspectives, offers a novel and potentially transformative opportunity to help graduate students establish readiness for independent practice. We describe and model how dialectical thinking can be applied to common ethical dilemmas that arise when working with youth experiencing STBs, specifically within the domains of informed consent, confidentiality, record-keeping, hospitalization, Internet searches, and extending therapy limits. Furthermore, we discuss how graduate training programs can teach dialectical thinking to their students via a combination of didactics, experiential learning, and supervision. In our view, equipping graduate trainees with dialectical thinking skills has the potential to foster the necessary competence, willingness, and confidence to undertake this life-saving work © 2021. Canadian Psychological Association

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Ethics; Youth; Dialectical behavior therapy; Dialectics