Just Ethics: Moral Courage in Clinical Practice

This webinar is presented by Jeanne Slattery, Ph.D., John Gavazzi, PsyD, ABPP, and Linda Knauss, PhD, ABPP
Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Time: 9:00 am PT/ 10:00 am MT/ 11:00 am CT/ 12:00 pm ET

Webinar length is approx. 90 mins, ZOOM link will be sent in a registration confirmation email and will be emailed directly to you a few days before the event.

Psychologists who stay silent on systemic harms may end up absorbing the failures of those systems during psychotherapy sessions. Every barrier a client hits, such as high deductibles, a six-month waitlist, stigma, or a cultural mismatch with a prior provider, arrives in session as a clinical issue that can hinder treatment. This program challenges participants to enhance the therapeutic frame by adopting a bifocal approach to psychotherapy: one lens on the individual and one lens on the cultural, economic, and social systems that shape that individual's distress.

The program moves through three connected themes. First, participants learn the three levels of everyday advocacy and map their own current and possible advocacy actions. Second, participants examine positionality, meaning how a psychologist's identity, power, and personal history shape whether, when, and how they advocate, including the risks of intrusive advocacy and ethical fading. Third, participants apply both frameworks to a pressing contemporary case: antisemitism. Drawing on current data, the psychological impact of antisemitism on clients and colleagues, and the APA Resolution on Antisemitism (2026), participants will leave with concrete actions psychologists can take at the individual, community, and systems levels.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

Describe the three levels of everyday advocacy (individual/client, grassroots/community, and state/system).
Analyze how a psychologist's positionality (identity, power, privilege, and personal history) influences advocacy decisions, including the risks of intrusive advocacy and of ethical fading.
Explain the psychological impact of antisemitism on clients' mental health, identity expression, and help-seeking behavior.
Apply the levels-of-advocacy and positionality frameworks to develop clinically appropriate and ethically grounded responses to antisemitism in the therapy room, the community, and professional systems.

Jeanne M Slattery Jeanne M. Slattery, Ph.D., is professor and assistant chair of Psychology at Pennsylvania Western University and has authored or coauthored three books: Empathic counseling: Building skills to empower change (2020); Trauma, meaning, and spirituality: Translating research into clinical practice (2017); and Counseling diverse clients: Bringing context into therapy (2004). She is serving as a member of American Psychological Association’s Council of Representatives and is a past president of Pennsylvania Psychological Association. She has a small private practice working with adults and teens with mood and anxiety disorders, especially due to a history of trauma.

John Gavazzi, Psy.D., ABPP is a board-certified clinical psychologist based in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, where he maintains an independent practice. For over 25 years, he has specialized in ethics education, delivering workshops and publishing articles on ethics, mental health law, and clinical decision-making. Dr. Gavazzi was recognized as Ethics Educator of the Year by APA and PPA. PPA recently awarded him with Distinguished Contributions to the Science and Professional Psychology. He is a past President of PPA and past Chair of the Ethics Committee.

Linda K. Knauss, Ph.D., ABPP is a Professor Emerita at Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology. Dr. Knauss is the Past-chair of the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Committee, the American Board of Professional Psychology’s Ethics Committee, the Pennsylvania Psychological Association's Ethics Committee, and has served as Co-chair of the Philadelphia Society of Clinical Psychologists' Ethics Committee. In 2024, Dr. Knauss received the American Psychological Association Ethics Committee Lifetime Award for Accomplishments in Ethics Education. Dr. Knauss also received the 2019 Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Science and Profession of Psychology from the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, an APA Presidential Citation in 2015 for her work in APA, and the 2002 Ethics Educators Award from the Pennsylvania Psychological Association's Ethics Committee. Dr. Knauss taught courses in ethics at Widener University, Immaculata University, and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She authored several book chapters and journal articles on ethics and teaches many continuing education workshops on a variety of ethical issues. Dr. Knauss maintains a private clinical practice where she sees children, adolescents, adults, and families.

References

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code

American Psychological Association. (2026). Resolution on antisemitism. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/resolution-antisemitism-2026

Mbroh, H., Najjab, A., Knapp, S., & Gottlieb, M. C. (2020). Prejudiced patients: Ethical considerations for addressing patients' prejudicial comments in psychotherapy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 51(3), 284–290. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000280

Stevenson, B. (2014). Just mercy: A story of justice and redemption. Spiegel & Grau.