“…With regards to working with abused women, this principle suggests that the client has the right to make her own decision about leaving an abusive partner and that the therapist's role is to provide an empathie, supportive, and informative environment, providing no advice about terminating the relationship (see Hunter, 2001;Huston, 1984;Kitchener, 1984;Melito, 2003, for discussions). A caveat to this principle and counter to an ant i paternalistic stance (Mill, 1861(Mill, /1957 are philosophical principles (Feinberg, 1973) and biomédical ethics (Beauchamp & Childress, 1979 suggesting that "special safeguards may be necessary to protect the rights and welfare of persons or communities whose vulnerabilities impair autonomous decisions making" (APA, 2002, p. 4), which are discussed next.…”