Code of Ethical Conduct
Mission
A Spiritual Life Coach strives to uphold the highest ethical standards in all services rendered and to act affirmatively toward maintaining public trust in the tarot/spiritual profession. A spiritualist’s professional practice is grounded on use of the divination tools to assist clients with tapping into their own intuitions, spirituality, or creativity.
Article One | Professionalism
Adherence to Applicable Laws. A spiritual life coach will take the initiative to be knowledgeable of all applicable laws including but not limited to fortune telling statutes and local municipal codes that may cover their business or the practice of tarot.
Scope of Profession. The spiritual life coach applies divination practices in a way that falls outside the scope of occult sciences and is not performing divination in a manner that claims or purports to tell fortunes, or with the ability to foretell with any certainty future events, or disclose in unequivocal terms the mental faculties of any persons.
Role of the Spiritual Life Coach. The spiritual life coach provides a client with spiritual guidance and serves to empower the client toward making more spiritually empowered decisions for him or herself within the framework of the client’s own personal spiritual beliefs or practices.
Limitations. A spiritual life coach shall never claim the ability to cure another of ailments outside the lawful practice of medicine or provide financial benefits outside the lawful practice of financial analysis and management. The spiritual life coach shall never purport to offer legal, medical, or financial advice. Unless the spiritual life coach also possesses the applicable educational background, licensures, certifications, and/or qualifications to be a psychologist, therapist, counselor, or other mental health professional, he or she shall not purport to be one.
Referrals to Qualified Professionals. A spiritual life coach owes a reasonable duty of care to his or her client and if an inquiry touches upon legal matters, even by a tangential connection or in passing, the spiritual life coach will refer the client to seek the counsel of a licensed attorney. If an inquiry touches upon health or medical matters, even by a tangential connection or in passing, the spiritual life coach will refer the client to seek diagnosis by a licensed medical doctor. If an inquiry touches upon financial or real property matters, even by a tangential connection or in passing, the spiritual life coach will refer the client to seek advice from a qualified financial consultant, analyst, or real estate professional.
Duty to Reject Subsequent Reading Requests. If at any time a spiritual life coach believes or has reason to believe that a client is using spiritual consultations to substitute, and not merely supplement, counseling from a qualified mental health professional, then he or she has a duty to reject subsequent reading requests from the client and to refer the client to seek qualified mental professional support. However, spiritual consultations may be used as a supplement to qualified counseling or serve the function of life coaching or general spiritual guidance.
No Dishonesty, Fraud, Deceit, or Misrepresentations. A spiritual life coach shall not use divination in a way that purports definitive and absolute knowledge of the future or of matters that are otherwise hidden or occult. The spiritual life coach shall not represent him or herself as matter-of-factly having communication, access to, or knowledge of any supernatural phenomena. The spiritual life coach shall never guarantee any one outcome, positive or negative. A spiritual life coach shall never engage in deceptive business or unfair trade practices. A spiritual life coach shall make no misrepresentations about his or her competency, certifications, qualifications, or abilities.
Third Party Consent. A spiritual life coach is discouraged from providing reading services on inquiries into the personal affairs, business, intentions, mental faculties, or activities of third parties who are not present for the reading, unless the client represents and warrants to the spiritual life coach that such third party’s express consent has been obtained. A spiritual life coach may reasonably rely on such a representation made by a client, though best practices would include noting the reliance in writing in the spiritual life coach’s notes. However, a spiritual life coach may provide reading services on inquiries about how the client’s affairs, business, intentions, mental faculties, or activities might be affected by that third party.
Article Two | Communications
The Reading Process. A spiritual life coach is encouraged to make reasonable efforts to communicate his or her reading or interpretive process and analytical or intuitive methods, particular traditions, or the interpretive framework utilized. A spiritual life coach will refrain from communicating to a client about curses or the manifestation of malicious intentions through supernatural or occult means.
Disclosures. A spiritual life coach shall make reasonable efforts to disclose to all clients that spiritual guidance cannot replace the counseling services of a mental health professional, and a spiritual life coach can never guarantee his or her accuracy in the interpretation of a reading. Also, if and when a spiritual practice would be explicitly barred by a jurisdiction’s applicable laws, then the spiritual life coach must communicate to the client in clear, unambiguous terms that such readings are to be for entertainment purposes. See also Article Five, Disclosures.
No Duty to Retain Records. A spiritual life coach does not owe a client any duty to retain the client’s reading records. A spiritual life coach may, at the discretion of his or her customary practice, retain records or files on client readings.
Records Retention. If a spiritual life coach does elect to retain client records, then he or she must develop and maintain appropriate record-keeping systems for storing his or her clients’ personal information in a manner that will reasonably preserve the clients’ confidentiality and privacy.
Article Three | Fees
Statement of Fees. A spiritual life coach shall state his or her service fees before the start of a reading and cannot later raise or increase the stated fee unless prior contractual terms allow for the increase. The spiritual life coach must clearly communicate his or her fee schedule and payment terms prior to the commencement of any reading. A fee for any service that is $500.00 USD or more must be contractually agreed upon in writing.
No Pressure for Additional Services. A spiritual life coach shall never pressure, compel, or even imply to clients that additional paid services from him or her are needed after the reading. A spiritual life coach shall never purport to possess the power to manipulate the outcome of events through supernatural or occult means.
Referral Fees. If a spiritual life coach makes a referral, then he or she must disclose whether any referral fees have been paid as compensation or consideration for the referral.
Article Four | Confidentiality
Duty of Confidentiality. Although there is not likely to be a legal evidentiary privilege between a spiritual life coach and client, a spiritual life coach nonetheless agrees on his or her own accord to be bound by a duty of confidentiality. A spiritual life coach shall not reveal personal or private information relating to a client reading unless that client has given informed consent.
Reasonable Diligence to Protect Confidentiality. The spiritual life coach shall exercise reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of or access to information relating to his or her clients, which includes password protection to any electronic accounts, computers, or data storage units that would include client files and lock and key to any physical storage units containing hard copy files.
Exceptions. However, spiritual life coach may reveal personal or otherwise private information relating to a client reading if the spiritual life coach reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent substantial bodily harm or death, or a court order overrides the confidentiality. Partial information from a spiritual reading may be disclosed under the client’s anonymity for academic, civic, census, survey, or research purposes.
Article Five | Disclosures
General Practice Disclosures. A spiritual life coach shall post a disclosure statement prominently at office locations, storefronts, on websites, reading venues, or commercial marketing materials that states essentially as follows:
Disclosure Statement: A spiritual life coach cannot predict the future with certainty and you should not rely on a spiritual reading to make any decision that would affect your legal, financial, or medical condition. If your inquiry involves the law, finance, or medicine, then you should seek the advice of a licensed or qualified legal, financial, or medical professional. Also, a spiritual reading cannot replace qualified mental health care. A spiritual reading can only facilitate how you cope spiritually with a given situation. In certain jurisdictions, a spiritual life coach is required to disclose to you that spiritual readings should be for entertainment purposes only, and if such a law applies to your reading, then you are hereby on notice thereof. Your spiritual life coach is bound by a self-imposed code of ethics, which can be provided to you upon request.
Certification Disclosures. A spiritual life coach is not required to be certified. However, if he or she obtains a certification related to tarot or any other spiritual practice, the spiritual life coach will disclose the certifying body or organization that issued the certification.
Article Six | Public Service
A spiritual life coach is encouraged to dedicate at least 10% of his or her practice per year to public service, such as offering reading services to support fundraisers for non-profit organizations or charitable causes, free readings to persons of limited financial means, teaching tarot or a about a spiritual practice to others free of charge, creating educational materials on tarot or spiritual practice for the public free of charge, or participating in activities with the mission of improving a spiritual practice or the tarot profession.
Article Seven | Continuing Education
A spiritual life coach shall take the initiative to continue his or her spiritual practice for the full duration of and throughout his or her professional practice. A spiritual life coach is encouraged to take classes or workshops on their craft, attend spiritual conferences, meet and collaborate with other spiritual life coaches, regularly read, practice, and discuss their spiritual practice, and exercise diligent efforts to hone their spiritual life coach’s craft and skill.
Last Updated: December 25, 2023