We base our ethics on values, principles, and personal qualities that we strive to embody in our lives - both professional and personal. We lead by example.

We expect all Quest of Life staff and volunteers to follow our ethical framework. You should read it and understand what each point means and why it is important. If unsure, please bring it up during Case Review or Office Hours.

Note for coaches and facilitators: This ethical framework covers some of tha major points to consider when making decisions, however it is no way complete and does not cover every possible scenario or risk. Ethical questions are often complex and sometimes there isn't a clear best course of action. Any time you're unsure about an ethical decision, please talk to your supervisor.

Mean what you say, and say what you mean. We strive to be genuine and live according to our values, even when it's difficult.

Temper your authenticity with compassion. Ultimately, we do this work because we want to help people. We strive to act from a place of kindness to others and ourselves.

We respect that people's choices, values, and opinions are their own. We don't try to control others. We approach conversations from a place of curiosity, looking to understand others' experiences rather than trying to problem-solve or change them.

We empower clients to do their own thinking, make their own decisions, and take control over their own lives. Our goal is for clients to not need our support.

Life is so much better when played co-op. We're here to lift each other up, not tear each other down.

We value individuality, humanity, and difference. We actively create a space where everyone feels welcome, valued, and supported, no matter their background, identity, or experiences. We strive to be aware of our biases and avoid making assumptions about people.

We acknowledge our limitations and strive to continue learning and growing on a personal, ethical and professional front.

This section is primarily intended for coaches and facilitatators, but applies to any client-facing roles.

Consider what’s in the client’s best interest when making decisions on how to interact with them (without compromising your own boundaries or client autonomy)

Try to be aware of our own biases and emotions when interacting with clients.

• Seek out support and/or training in areas in which you risk imposing our personal values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours onto clients. Be proactive in reaching out to your supervisor if you need help or if you're unsure about an ethical decision.
• Be aware of your emotions and how they’re affecting you and your interactions with clients.
• Be aware of transference/countertransference and talk to your supervisor.
• Be aware of power dynamics within your relationships with clients and their potential impact.

Follow through on your promises, show up consistently and on time, and give plenty of notice whenever possible if we need to change a prior arrangement.

• Show up to sessions on time.
• Giving plenty of notice if we need to reschedule or cancel a session.
• Keep your promises, e.g. sharing resources after a session is over or returning to a topic if we said you’d come back to it later
• Set and maintaining clear boundaries.

Take responsibility to understand and be aware of power dynamics and their impact on your relationships with clients.

• This includes power or status differences that may be present due to the coach/facilitator role, but also other factors including but not limited to age, cultural, educational or socioeconomic differences.

Self-disclosure can be a valuable tool if used carefully, but do take care when using self-disclosure in conversation with clients. Consider whether sharing your experience is in the client's best interest.

• Maintain awareness of why you want to self-disclose. Is it for your client's benefit or yours? What are you trying to achieve?

Some thoughts/feelings to look out for:

• Your own desire to connect: "I really relate to something a client said and want to share my experience"
• Advice disguised as self-disclosure: "I want to show the client something they're not seeing by talking about my experience."
• Leading clients to particular insights: "I don't know how to get the client to see something that I want them to see."

Actively encourage and enable client autonomy. Work towards THEIR goals and strive not to control or influence their decisions.

• People are experts on their own lives. We only get to hear about a tiny slice of their experience. How could we possibly know what the right choice is for the client?
• Empower clients to take control of their lives and make their own choices.

It is your responsibility to make sure clients know and understand what our services are for, how they work, as well as what the rules, expectations, boundaries, risks and limitations are. We don’t pressure clients into doing things they don’t want to.

• Respect clients’ boundaries and don’t push them to do or share things they don’t want to.
• If you’re unsure if something you're doing is okay, ask for permission.
• If a client seems uncomfortable, consider checking in with them.
• If a client is pushing your boundaries make sure that is addressed and make sure that the client understands where exactly the boundary, why it’s there, and what will happen if they continue to push it.

All of the below apply to current AND past clients.

• Avoid any kind of dual relationships (romantic, professional or otherwise) with current and former clients or their relatives or romantic partners. We’re also careful if we have any close mutual friends
• Never provide services to individuals who already have any kind of existing relationship with us.
• Understand the risks of dual relationships both for the client and the volunteer.
• Never engage in romantic or sexual activities with clients.

You are not expected to provide support to clients outside of sessions. Answering quick questions around topics such as scheduling or sharing resources that you promised during sessions is okay, but please avoid diving into any bigger discussions with your groups. Please also avoid one-on-one interactions with clients via DMs. Instead, please encourage them to raise the issue in group, or direct them to open a ticket in the #support-desk channel in our main (green) Discord server.

Why?

• Any one-on-one conversation a facilitator has with a client contributes towards creating a different kind of relationship with that client from the relationship they have with rest of the group
• To maintain your own boundaries - we provide a limited service and it is not our responsibility to support clients in other areas of their lives
• You may be happy to do more for clients, but they may then learn to expect the same extent of support from other facilitators
• If clients open a ticket to express a concern about something that's happening within your group, the support team will encourage them to raise the issue in group and update you if appropriate

Do not accept gifts from clients.

Strive to be aware of your skills and limitations and refer clients out when appropriate.

• What we offer is peer support. We are not trained professionals. It can be very tempting to try to do more for clients than we’re qualified to do, especially when they are actively asking for more and reassuring us that it would be helpful.
• Take the responsibility to be aware of any factors that might influence your ability to work safely and effectively including, but not limited to, burnout, personal biases and sensitive topics. Be proactive in raising potential issues with your supervisor or in Case Reviews.

Make sure clients understand confidentiality within sessions and its limits.

• Generally, what’s said in session stays in session. Clients should be able to trust that whatever they share with us will remain confidential. There are some exception to this, and they need to be aware of what those exceptions are (see below).
• During Case Reviews, Office Hours or Supervision, always talk in general terms and avoid disclosing any identifying information about clients. This includes not using client names, or anything that would give away who you’re talking about.
• We don’t have the same legal protections that counseling or therapy does, and so there might be circumstances where you might be required by law to disclose something clients have talked about. Generally we recommend making sure that clients understand these limitations in order to make sure they retain their confidentiality, and ask them to not disclose anything illegal.

Sessions should be held in private space where you can’t be overheard.

• Any coaching or group conversation should be private. Avoid working from a space where you could be overheard. Wearing headphones isn’t enough - reflecting something back to a client can reveal a lot of personal information to an observer.
• Never share identifying information about clients anywhere, including your website.

Confidentiality and privacy extends to session notes.

• Make sure any notes you take are stored securely and that no third parties have access to them. Anonymise client names in your notes.
• Once group is over, any physical notes or notes stored on your device should be promptly destroyed.
• Make sure digital notes are stored in line with GDPR. For example, avoid storing client data on non-compliant servers. Be careful with what software you use, especially if you use cloud storage.

Confidentiality and privacy extends to online spaces.

• Do not google clients
• Do not look up information about clients that they didn’t directly disclose to you.
• Do not watch content made by clients, even if it randomly pops up in your feed. The only exception to this is if they explicitly ask you to look at something specific they made. Sharing one video with you doesn’t give you permission to engage with the rest of their content. Keep in mind that whatever you know about a client that didn’t come directly from them could interfere with your coaching relationship, the trust you’ve built, and any assumptions you might be making.

Only agree to contracts and to operate under the ethical framework if you actually agree with the policies and principles and if your personal values are in alignment.

• We value authenticity and don’t want to put volunteers in a position where they would have to act in ways that would go against their values.
• It's much easier to follow ethical principles if we understand why they exists and if we're internally aligned with them.
• If you disagree with something, please talk to us! Maybe there's something important we've overlooked!
• If our values are fundamentally misaligned with how you approach coaching or facilitation, it might be that we're just not the best fit for each other.

Don't use Quest of Life spaces (groups or the server) as a platform to find clients for our private practice or to find participants for other projects.

• We want to avoid the potential for exploitation. Clients may sometimes feel indebted to a facilitator or the organisation, especially if they've been receiving services at no cost.
• We want to treat clients with the clearest of consciousness. Conflict of interest such as recruitment would interfere with, or endanger the coach-client relationship.
• We want to avoid creating a space where volunteers could have an interest in competing for clients' attention.

Actively discourage unethical behavior among other volunteers.

• If you see a volunteer engaging in unethical behavior, challenge it and encourage them to bring the issue up to their supervisor.
• Report incidents of unethical behavior or potential concerns to supervisors.

Please don't actively invite or encourage clients to become facilitators, but feel free to answer questions or point people to our website if they initiate a conversation about the topic.

• One of the qualities we screen for in volunteers is being proactive since we rely on people's ability to work independently and to proactively raise issues or ask for help as needed.
• We want to avoid clients feeling pressured into volunteering. Because our groups are free, it would be easy to accidentally make someone feel like they owe the organisation and/or the community.
• We’re looking for volunteers with a strong drive to do this work. It can be easy to get someone excited to sign up for training, especially if we give the impression that we’re hand picking candidates, but that initial excitement doesn’t always last.

• We all have different strengths and weaknesses and it’s inevitable and completely normal that we run into situations in our work where we’re not sure what to do. These are wonderful learning opportunities for yourself and potentially for other volunteers if you share your experience during Case Reviews or Office Hours.
• Sometimes it can be difficult to be objective when we have a conflict of interest or when emotions are running high. For example, say you really like a client, have a mutual interest and would love to start a YouTube channel together, and you feel like there wouldn’t be any issues with boundaries or navigating a dual relationship. Is this ethical? In situations like these, your supervisor can help you work through your feelings and figure out how to handle the situation.

Build and maintain a strong support system.

• Our work can be difficult and emotionally draining. It is therefore crucial to have a strong support network, ideally both within and outside the organisation.

Reach out for help when you need it, whether that’s through our personal support network or support available through Quest of Life.

• If you’re struggling with something, we’re here to help.

Prioritise self care and look out for signs of burnout or compassion fatigue. Take time off when you need and don’t wait until work becomes unmanageable.

• We care about you and don’t want you to sacrifice your own wellbeing!
• We understand that this work can be draining. You won’t get penalised for needing time for self-care. Please do give us a bit of notice if you can though so that we can find someone to cover your sessions if necessary.
• It’s much easier to recover from a little bit of burnout than from a place where your batteries are completely drained.

• Blurring boundaries can be a factor leading to compassion fatigue or burnout.
• If you’re unsure about where your boundaries should be or how to set them, consider bringing this up during Office Hours or Case Reviews.

If you want to report volunteer behaviour was not aligned with our Ethical Framework, please submit a ticket in the #support-desk channel in our Discord server.

What happens next:

• Quest of Life will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 30 working days

If the complaint is about a Quest of Life volunteer, we will:

• Review the evidence provided.
• Request additional evidence/documentation as necessary and/or request a call to ask further questions.
• Review the entire case and determine what actions to take.
• Update you on the decision within 90 days from the initial complaint

You may appeal our decision within 30 days of receiving the update.