The Nevada Psychological Association, the Utah Psychological Association
& the New Hampshire Psychological Association present

Navigating Ethics Hell: A Journey Toward Aspirational Practice
& AI Technologies: Ethics Use Cases & Potential Pitfalls
Presented by John D. Gavazzi, Psy.D., ABPP
Friday, February 27th, 2026 9:00am - 4:15pm PST
6 Ethics CE Credits

  Approved for Nevada Psychologists, LCSWs and MFTs.
  NPA is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. NPA maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

About the Workshop:

MORNING SESSION: 
Navigating Ethics Hell: A Journey Toward Aspirational Practice
Course Description: 

This workshop explores the complex interplay between ethics, morality, and clinical practice through the unique lens of Dante’s Inferno. Participants embark on a metaphorical journey through “Ethics Hell,” examining how suboptimal ethical decision-making leads to professional missteps and discovering strategies to rise above these challenges and embrace aspirational ethical practice.

Using the acculturation model of ethical development, the workshop provides a practical framework for integrating personal and professional values into clinical practice. Through real-world vignettes and experiential exercises, participants analyze how assimilated, separated, and marginalized strategies produce ethical dilemmas and learn to prevent them.

The workshop will include time for participants to work through ethical vignettes along with instructor-led comments on the process.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this Morning Session, attendees will be able to:
1. Distinguish between compliance-based and aspirational ethical approaches, explaining how an over-reliance on rules can lead to rigid, legalistic practices that miss the broader spirit of ethical principles.
2. Analyze how values-based ("separated") strategies can lead to specific countertransference reactions (e.g., over-protection, value imposition) and undermine evidence-based care and patient autonomy.
3. Predict the potential negative outcomes for client care and professional practice associated with the assimilated, separated, and marginalized ethical acculturation styles.
4. Evaluate a complex ethical dilemma from both an assimilated (rule-based) and separated (values-based) perspective, contrasting the different courses of action and their implications.
5. Identify two specific strategies to move toward integrated practice patterns

AFTERNOON SESSION: 
AI Technologies: Ethics Use Cases & Potential Pitfalls
Course Description: 

This workshop delves into the intersection of psychology, ethics, decision-making, and large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT. Participants will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of LLMs, the significance of effective prompting, practical applications, core ethical principles, and the Ethical Acculturation Model. The session will also explore strategies for incorporating LLMs into clinical practice and ethical decision-making processes. Attendees will engage in hands-on activities with AI tools to enhance their learning experience. Active participation and interaction are essential components of this workshop.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this Afternoon Session, attendees will be able to:
1. List three current use cases of LLMs in the practice of psychology;
2. Describe two ethical issues when using any AI technology, including the potential for algorithmic bias and its impact on diverse populations;
3. Use one prompt for ethical decision-making for any large language model, considering the potential for culturally biased outputs; and,
4. Apply personal moral values in context of professional ethics for one vignette using a large language model as a guide.

Audience:

This presentation is intended for psychologists, other licensed mental health providers, and graduate students of psychology. Level of learning is Intermediate.

About the Speaker:

Dr. John Gavazzi is a psychologist, Board Certified in Clinical Psychology, who has been in practice since 1990. His career spans clinical work, ethics education, and forensic consultation. In addition to maintaining a private practice, Dr. Gavazzi serves as an expert witness for legal teams across the United States as well as the Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology. Dr. Gavazzi also provides consultation services to the Bureau of Disability Determination.

With over 25 years dedicated to ethics education, he is a frequent presenter on topics including professional ethics, decision-making, and mental health law. His expertise has been recognized with the Ethics Educator of the Year award from both the Pennsylvania Psychological Association (2013) and the American Psychological Association (2014).

Dr. Gavazzi is the founder of the widely-read blog, Ethics and Psychology (www.ethicalpsychology.com), which explores the intersection of ethics, morality, philosophy, technology, and healthcare for an international audience, amassing over 11 million page views. His leadership includes serving as Past President of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and Past Chair of its Ethics Committee, underscoring his enduring commitment to advancing the highest ethical standards in the profession.

Registration Fees:

NPA members: $175.00 (Early Bird Discount $150.00 until 1/18/26)
Non-members: $225.00 (Early Bird Discount $185.00 until 1/18/26)
Student members: $50.00 (Registration fees waived for active student members with code)
Student non-members: $100.00

References:

MORNING SESSION: 

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

Barnett, J. E. (2019). The ethical practice of psychotherapy: Clearly within our reach. Psychotherapy, 56(4), 431–440. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000272

Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2019). Principles of biomedical ethics (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Bourke, R., Pullen, R., & Mincher, N. (2021). Understanding ethical drift in professional decision making: dilemmas in practice. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28(8), 1417–1434. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2021.1992679

Cicero, F. R. (2021). Behavioral Ethics: Ethical Practice Is More Than Memorizing Compliance Codes. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 14(4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00585-5

Gavazzi, J. D. (2026). Beyond Good Intentions: Identifying and Remediating Ethical Fading. Forthcoming: On Board with Psychology.

Gavazzi, J. D. (2025). When the Floor Becomes the Ceiling: Ethical Settling in the Practice of Psychology. The Pennsylvania Psychologist, (85)3, 12-13.

Gavazzi, J. D., & Knapp, S. K. (2025, September). Pitfalls in ethical decision-making: Settling, fading, and drift in psychological practice. Psychotherapy Bulletin, 60(4). https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/pitfalls-in-ethical-decision-making-settling-fading-and-drift-in-psychological-practice/

Handelsman, M. M., Gottlieb, M. C., & Knapp, S. (2005). Training ethical psychologists: An acculturation model. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36, 59-65.

Knapp, S., Gottlieb, M. C., & Handelsman, M. M. (2018). The benefits of adopting a positive perspective in ethics education. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 12(3), 196–202. https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000195

Knapp, S., Vandecreek, L., & Fingerhut, R. (2017). Practical ethics for psychologists : a positive approach. American Psychological Association.

Vybíral, Z., Ogles, B. M., Řiháček, T., Urbancová, B., & Gocieková, V. (2023). Negative experiences in psychotherapy from clients’ perspective: A qualitative meta-analysis. Psychotherapy Research, 34(3), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2023.2226813

AFTERNOON SESSION: 

American Psychological Association (2025). Ethical Guidance for AI in the Professional Practice of Health Service Psychology. https://www.apa.org/topics/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning/ethical-guidance-professional-practice.pdf (Learning Objective 2)

Bai, X., Wang, A., Sucholutsky, I., & Griffiths, T. L. (2025). Explicitly unbiased large language models still form biased associations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(8). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2416228122 (Learning Objectives 2, 4)

Barassi, V. (2024). Toward a theory of AI errors: making sense of hallucinations, catastrophic failures, and the fallacy of generative AI. Harvard Data Science Review, Special Issue 5. https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.ad8ebbd4 (Learning Objectives 2, 3)

De Bruin, W. B., Parker, A. M., & Fischhoff, B. (2020). Decision-Making competence: more than intelligence? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(2), 186–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420901592 (Learning Objective 4)

Diaz-Asper, C., Hauglid, M. K., Chandler, C., Cohen, A. S., Foltz, P. W., & Elvevåg, B. (2024). A framework for language technologies in behavioral research and clinical applications: Ethical challenges, implications, and solutions.American Psychologist, 79(1), 79–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001195 (Learning Objective 2, 4)

Dillion, D., Mondal, D., Tandon, N., & Gray, K. (2025b). AI language model rivals expert ethicist in perceived moral expertise. Scientific Reports, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86510-0 (Learning Objectives 3, 4).

Corfmat, M., Martineau, J. T., & Régis, C. (2025). High-reward, high-risk technologies? An ethical and legal account of AI development in healthcare. BMC Medical Ethics, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-024-01158-1 (Learning Objectives 3, 4)

Cossette-Lefebvre, H., & Maclure, J. (2022). AI’s fairness problem: understanding wrongful discrimination in the context of automated decision-making. AI And Ethics, 3(4), 1255–1269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-022-00233-w (Learning Objectives 2, 3, 4)

Farmer, R. L., Lockwood, A. B., Goforth, A., & Thomas, C. (2024). Artificial intelligence in practice: Opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 56(1), 19–32. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000595 (Learning Objectives 1, 2)

Goktas, P., & Grzybowski, A. (2025). Shaping the Future of Healthcare: Ethical Clinical Challenges and Pathways to Trustworthy AI. Journal of clinical medicine, 14(5), 1605.https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14051605 (Learning Objective 3).

Handelsman, M. M., Gottlieb, M. C., & Knapp, S. (2005). Training ethical psychologists: An acculturation model. Professional Psychology Research and Practice, 36(1), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.36.1.59 (Learning Objectives 3, 4)

HHS.gov, Office of Civil Rights (2025, February 3). Guidance Regarding Methods for De-identification of Protected Health Information in Accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/de-identification/index.html (Learning Objectives 2 & 4)

Jaques-Leonard, M. L., Winnick, J. B., Chancey, L. P., Golden, M. E., Gavazzi, J., Brehm, L., Heier, J., Wicoff, M., Rutt, C., & Hosterman, S. (2020). Small town living: Unique ethical challenges of rural pediatric integrated primary care. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 9(4), 412–422. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000339 (Learning Objective 4)

Johnson, M. K., Weeks, S. N., Peacock, G. G., & Rodríguez, M. M. D. (2021). Ethical decision-making models: a taxonomy of models and review of issues. Ethics & Behavior, 32(3), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2021.1913593 (Learning Objective 2, 3)

Schrage, M., & Kiron, D. (2024b, October 29). Intelligent choices reshape Decision-Making and productivity. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/intelligent-choices-reshape-decision-making-and-productivity/ (Learning Objective 4)

Stade, E. C., Stirman, S. W., Ungar, L. H., Boland, C. L., Schwartz, H. A., Yaden, D. B., Sedoc, J., DeRubeis, R. J., Willer, R., & Eichstaedt, J. C. (2024). Large language models could change the future of behavioral healthcare: a proposal for responsible development and evaluation. Npj Mental Health Research, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44184-024-00056-z (Learning Objective 1)

General Information:

Zoom Login Link and Handout Materials: Zoom webinar login link and Handout materials will be sent out electronically to all attendees no later than one week prior to workshop date. Printed handout materials are not available for purchase as this CE training is being offered remotely.

Workshop Location: Live, virtual webinar via Zoom.

Closed Captions: Live audio captions will be provided for this event. If you need additional disability-related accommodations, please contact us by email us at [email protected] or by phone (888) 654-0050. Requests should be made at least two weeks in advance of workshop date.

Refunds & Grievance Policy: Participants may direct questions or grievances to NPA at (888) 654-0050. An administrative fee of $30 will be charged for cancellation of registration. Please note, no refunds will be granted less than 10 days prior to workshop date 02/13/2026.

Approval: Approved by Nevada Board of Psychological Examiners. Nevada Psychological Association (NPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. NPA maintains responsibility for the program and its content. NPA will issue certificates of completion. APA CE rules require that we only issue credits to those who attend the entire workshop. Those logging into the Zoom webinar more than 15 minutes late or logging off before the entire workshop is completed will not receive CE credits (i.e. partial CE credit will not be issued).

There is no potential conflict of interest and/or commercial support for this program or its presenter.