Patient/Therapist Sexual Contact

Written by Dateline NBC

According to a report published in August of 1996 by the public health watch dog group, Public Citizen Health Research Group, the number of all doctors disciplined for sexual misconduct doubled from 1990 to 1994. Of the total disciplinary actions taken against doctors, 5.1% were for sexual abuse of patients or other sexual misconduct. The American Psychiatric Association, a professional organization for psychiatrists which enforces its own code of ethics suspends or expels an average of 12 members per year for various forms of patient exploitation, most of them sexual. The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards estimates 100 Psychologists lose their licenses annually for sexual misconduct. In addition, The American Psychological Association, a professional organization for Psychologists, estimates 10 members are expelled annually for sexual misconduct.

Psychiatrists
Are You Being Exploited?

The American Psychiatric Association's committee on Ethics offers these suggestions to help you tell if your therapist may be stepping over the ethical line. You should be wary if your therapist:

* Begins to disclose personal problems or begins to discuss his or her personal life, including sexual experience, in detail;

* Offers not to charge for sessions or greatly reduces the fee, even when payment is not a hardship;

* Offers to socialize with you outside the office or outside office hours;

* Begins to touch you in seemingly "comforting" ways, such as hugging, putting an arm around you during therapy, holding your hand or caressing you;

* Begins to regularly extend therapy sessions significantly beyond the normal session-by ten to fifteen minutes or more;

* Suggests a relationship beyond that of therapist and patient - offering you the opportunity to participate in business deals, for instance, or soliciting stock market advice.

If you feel a psychiatrist has sexually exploited you, there are three courses of action open to you . You may:

• File a written ethical complaint with the District branch of the American Psychiatric Association in your area, or with APA directly. The APA has no statute of limitations on such complaints;

• * File a written complaint with the appropriate professional licensing board in your state (depending on your state, psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric social workers may have different licensing bodies). Most states have statutes of limitation on such complaints, so it is best to file a complaint as near to the time of the alleged abuse as possible.

• Begin a civil or, depending on where you live, criminal action. States having either civil or criminal laws against therapist/patient sexual contact include California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

NOTE: The American Medical Association advises those with complaints to contact their state or county medical association.

Psychologists

The ethical code of the American Psychological Association as well as most professional organizations specifically prohibits sexual contact between therapists and their clients. Bringing sex into therapy is believed to destroy trust and objectivity. While clients often feel love and even sexual attraction toward their therapists, it is considered a "bad idea" to end therapy in order to start a personal relationship. Sexual contact includes a wide range of behaviors besides intercourse, and these behaviors aim to arouse sexual feelings. They range from suggestive verbal remarks, to erotic hugging and kissing, to manual or oral genital contact. If anything makes you uncomfortable in therapy, talk to your therapist about it . An ethical therapist will want to discuss your feelings and try to understand them. It is possible that you may be misunderstanding your therapist's intentions. However, if you are still uncomfortable after the discussion and the therapist persists in his or her actions, you should consider taking additional steps such as talking to another therapist or changing your therapist.

If you think the therapist's behavior is inappropriate:

• Report the therapist's actions to a supervisor or agency director if the therapist is employed in an agency, to a state licensing board if the therapist is licensed and you think his or her behavior is unprofessional or illegal, to a state professional association or to a national professional association.

• If you think the therapist's behavior has harmed you or is illegal, it may be appropriate to file a civil lawsuit or a criminal complaint against the therapist.