Ethical considerations for the use of ritual techniques in a therapeutic context

This paper is the first ever - and long overdue - attempt by a psychologist to explore ethical issues pertaining to the widespread practice of using sacred ritual as part of a psychotherapeutic process.
I present the "Technical Approach" to ritual as an analytical tool, followed by a discussion of the ethical implications for ritual used in a psychotherapeutic process. After this discussion, I propose a series of best practice guidelines.