Advocate or Social Crusader?

Some therapists seem to interpret the ethics code’s call for “advocacy” as a mandate to become social crusaders. But CAMFT is clear about where our primary responsibility lies. The Code states that marriage and family therapists “advance the welfare of families and individuals, respect the rights of those persons seeking their assistance, and make reasonable efforts to ensure that their services are used appropriately.”   

That ethical charge is specific and relational—it is about the actual clients in the room, not broad political movements or imagined constituencies. Our bandwidth is finite, and our first duty is to the people who have entrusted us with their care, not to everyone who might resemble them demographically or socially.

When we expand “advocacy” beyond its intended scope, we risk neglecting the very individuals the Code instructs us to prioritize. Ethical advocacy begins with competent, present, attuned clinical work—not with assuming a public activist role that eclipses our therapeutic responsibilities.