PACFA sets high standards of ethical conduct for the counselling and psychotherapy profession. This supports the ethical practice of counsellors and psychotherapists and helps to protect the public from harm.
PACFA members, including practitioners, affiliates, students, educators, trainers and researchers, are required to work to the PACFA Code of Ethics 2017. PACFA Member Associations registrants are also required to abide by the Code of Ethics of any PACFA Member Associations to which they belong. PACFA and its Member Associations have complaints handling processes where there are concerns that the ethics standards have not been met. Practitioners are held accountable for any breaches of the relevant codes of ethics.
See information on how to make a complaint. All complaints are heard in accordance with PACFA’s Professional Conduct Procedures 2024. PACFA’s ethical standards are implemented and reviewed by the PACFA Ethics Committee.
PACFA also provides training in ethics and ethical practice to support practitioners and to maintain high ethical standards.
As a useful resource for those interested in exploring duty of care: the recording of the “What is a mental health clinician’s duty of care? Implications of the new mental health and wellbeing act” webinar is available. This webinar is an external resource by La Trobe Law School.