Cite as (APA style): Ursica, R., Dokunova, E. Frolov, P. Moskalenko, L., Moldovan, A., Hum, G., Lytvynenko K. & Peseschkian, H. (2026). Ethical Principles and Guidelines of the World Association for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy (WAPP). The Global Psychotherapist, 6(2), 229-250. http://doi.org/10.52982/lkj330
Abstract: This article presents the current Ethical Principles and Guidelines of the World Association for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy (WAPP), developed by the WAPP Ethical Advisory Task Force and approved by the WAPP General Assembly in February 2025. The framework is situated within the longer tradition of professional ethics in the healing professions: from the Hippocratic Oath and the Declaration of Geneva to contemporary codes in psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and replaces WAPP’s brief 2004 ethical guidelines. With more than 3,000 members across 65 countries, WAPP faced the distinctive task of articulating coherent professional responsibilities that hold across markedly different legal systems, professional structures, and cultural contexts, while deferring to national law where it applies. The framework comprises eight ethical principles grounded in the theory of Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy: hope, consultation, self-help, uniqueness of personality, balance, transcultural sensitivity, simplicity and universality, and focus on development, together with ten chapters of detailed guidelines addressing responsibility to clients, assessment techniques, the therapeutic relationship, collaboration with other professionals, online practice, social media and advertising, obligations toward WAPP, training, supervision, and research and publication, the latter including provisions on the ethical use of artificial intelligence. A concluding section sets out the composition and procedures of the WAPP Ethics Committee. Reproduced here without substantive modification, the framework is offered as a living reference document for education, supervision, research, and the handling of ethical questions within the international Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy community.
Keywords: Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy, ethical principles, ethical guidelines, PPT after Peseschkian