OUTPATIENT PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH DANGEROUS CLIENTS - A MODEL FOR CLINICAL DECISION-MAKING

The precedent-setting 1976 judicial decision of Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California established a duty to protect whereby ps ychotherapists are expected to exercise reasonable care to protect the potential victims of their clients' violent behavior However, no stan dard of care for dangerous clients has been established. In this artic le, the authors present a model for clinical decision making to determ ine the best interventions for dealing with dangerous outpatient clien ts. The model takes into account the degree of violence risk and the s trength of the therapeutic alliance. Four cases are presented to illus trate the application of the model.