What Others Are Saying About Kylea's Book:
Reviews by: Jack Kornfield, Ph.D., Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., Sara Wright, Ph.D., Angeles Arrien, Arnold Mindell, Ph.D., Robert Newport, M.D., Becky Williams, Carol Campbell, Joy Manne', Kathleen Silver, Judy Harrow

I want to highly recommend Kylea's book, "The Ethics of Caring." It is truly in a class by itself in the literature on ethics in therapy. I've read many books in this area and have been on a Board responsible for reviewing and approving the code of ethics for a large professional association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT), and, to my knowledge, Kylea's book is unique in the field. It combines the rigors of professionalism with a deep and complex understanding of the human heart, soul and mind. It really is an important book. If you are a professor or teacher you might want to consider it as required reading.

Each one of the "helping professions" has its own professional organization and its own professional code of ethics. There are books written to help counselors and therapists understand these codes and apply them to perplexing situations. Most such books read like legal casebooks. The idea is to help us avoid the consequences of code infractions: professional sanctions or even lawsuits. The code itself is not to be questioned, just applied.

That is certainly important information for professional practitioners who want to keep their licenses and avoid liability suits. But it's not the whole story. We need to think about avoiding harm to clients and ourselves, of course. But it's surely at least as important to think about how to go beyond what is proper or legal to what is best. Taylor's approach does this. She's not satisfied with just avoiding preventable problems. Her goal, instead, is to help her readers create and maintain "right relationship" with their clients. She's also concerned to help practitioners develop an internal locus of control, a strong personal sense of wise, kind and helpful ways to work with people, an ethic of care instead of rules.

Because of this, you won't find dogmatic judgmental statements in this book. Instead, Taylor takes a nuanced and compassionate approach. By understanding how good people become confused about what they should or should not do, we are both warned and strengthened. Her chapters on money, sex and power contain some of the most insightful discussions of these complex issues that I have ever seen.

"The Ethics of Caring is an extraordinarily helpful and groundbreaking new book for healers, clergy, therapists, and bodyworkers that illuminates what is necessary to offer wise and trustworthy relations to their clients. The Ethics of Caring alerts healers not to underestimate the power of energies that arise in nonordinary states through transference and countertransference, and the palpable physical, emotional, and psychic vulnerabilities that come in these states."

- Jack Kornfield, Ph.D, author of After the Ecstacy, the Laundry, A Path with Heart, from his Foreword in The Ethics of Caring

"Serious ethical considerations represent an important aspect of any therapeutic endeavor. The work with non-ordinary states of consciousness brings specific new challenges and problems that go beyond those encountered in traditional verbal and experiential approaches. Kylea Taylor's book, The Ethics of Caring, is a pioneering venture into these new territories, providing important guidelines for practitioners and students."

- Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D, author of The Future of Psychology, The Holotropic Mind, The Adventure of Self-Discovery, Beyond the Brain, Realms of the Human Unconscious and co-author of The Stormy Search for Self.

"This is a wonderful resource book that can be an invaluable professional guide for maintaining ethics and integrity within the helping professions."

- Angeles Arrien, Ph.D, author of The Four-Fold Way

"The Ethics of Caring is a state of the art approach to dealing with relationship issues and in particular body contact arising in therapy. Her courage will inspire others to tackle issues which break open the boundary between politics and individual experience."

- Arnold Mindell, Ph.D, author of The Quantum Mind, The Leader as Martial Artist, Sitting in the Fire, The Shaman's Body, The Dreambody in Relationships, and Coma

"The Ethics of Caring is an unique book addressing in an honest and humble way the dangers and pitfalls that all therapists face daily in their practices. It treats the specialized conditions of altered consciousness, therapeutically induced or otherwise, in a coherent and logically consistent way. It offers a conceptual framework which is widely accepted outside our culture, but has not been previously discussed in any standard texts on either ethics or therapeutic interpersonal dynamics (e.g., transference and countertransference.) This book is exceptionally valuable to students and practicing therapists alike."

- Robert R. Newport, M.D, psychiatrist

"We have found that the usefulness and relevancy of The Ethics of Caring grows with the helping professional as she/he transits the stages from novice to seasoned one....caring ethics is a spiritual path."

- Becky Williams, Director, Twin Lakes College of the Healing Arts, Santa Cruz, CA

"I have gained many insights as I have read The Ethics of Caring, both personally and as a teacher and bodywork practitioner. Kylea Taylor's delineation of ordinary and nonordinary states, the chakra centers involved, and the ethical awareness required in unique, at least in the reading I have done."

- Carol Campbell, Trager Instructor

"If you want to trust your process safely, whether as therapist or as client, this book is indispensable reading. Every therapist can use it as a bedside book, using the self-reflections provided at the end of each chapter as meditations to end the day well."

- Joy Manne, author of Soul Therapy, from review to be published in The Therapist

"In each section the reader is given clear examples and lists of questions which help probe the reader's own inner work in relation to that given chapter. You do not walk away from this book without a bit of self-examination and without additional viewpoints from which to approach clients."

- Kathleen Silver, from review on Breathnet listserv

This book is six years old. Why am I reviewing it now? Because, to my chagrin, I only just discovered it. I wish I'd read it much sooner. In my opinion, The Ethics of Caring can begin to do for Pagan elders what Robin Wood's equally excellent When, Why ... If does for our beginners. Fortunately, it's still easily available through the publisher at: www.hanfordmead.com.

There are few written resources for those of us who teach Pagan spirituality, lead covens or groves, or serve as religious elders in the NeoPagan movement. For now, we need to glean good ideas and information from non-Pagan writing. As long as we do this, we will also need to struggle with problems of translation and adaptation. We tend to balk at externally imposed rules of any kind, especially at those that seem simplistic or rigid, and most especially at blanket prohibitions. We prefer "high choice" situational ethics which emphasize freedom and responsibility over obedience.

Taylor's very different approach is much more appropriate for us, in two major ways. She's not satisfied with just avoiding preventable problems. Her goal, instead, is to help her readers create and maintain "right relationship" with their clients and to guide them toward developing an "internal locus of control," a personal sense of the wise, kind and helpful ways to work with people, creating an ethic of care instead of rules. Taylor takes a nuanced and compassionate approach. By understanding how good people become confused about what they should or should not do, we are both warned and strengthened. Her chapters on money, sex and power contain some of the most insightful discussions of these complex issues that I have ever seen.

The book's structure is based on the chakra system. Because many of us are familiar with the chakras, the information will be easy for us to assimilate. The writing is mostly clear and accessible, with good endnotes and a glossary for those who are not familiar with some of the jargon. What's more, Taylor's own therapeutic practice, as with many alternative or New Age approaches, involves a lot of work with clients in altered states of consciousness. So the core of the book is an exploration of the special needs, issues and vulnerabilities of people who are exploring non-ordinary reality, which we would call the Inner Planes or the Otherworld. This strong emphasis is obviously and directly applicable to our ways. Although I have a few quibbles, this is the best book of its kind currently available. Recommended.

- review by Judy Harrow
Pan Gaia magazine, Winter 2002-2003