Posted by shadows721 on April 26, 2004, at 20:20:05
In reply to Is the attraction mutual?, posted by BigFish on April 13, 2004, at 17:30:22
I know I am going to be jumped on about this. Yes, it's human nature to be "attracted" to another person. However, in the t setting, no one should cross the boundary line. Clients get obsessed with their t with their own self created fantasy. If a t responds, that's considered abuse. A client is considered vunerable to a t. They share their most personal information. If a t says they were in love with me, I would get out of the treatment.
I saw a t do this in an outpatient clinic setting with several female clients. He would outright flirt with them. Interesting enough, none of the clients reported him. I guess they thought they were the "only" ones. I confronted one of the women. She told me how wonderful this guy was and that she was "in love" with him. I said, "yeah, you and 4 other women here." It was outright abuse in my eyes. He was taking advantage of these women with sex abuse history. I reported this joker and he was gone.
There are abusers in every field. Therapy isn't any different. My brother was in therapy and his t asked him out on a date. Again, that's totally inappropriate behavior. Unfortunately, he never went back to therapy. Perpetrators are infact attracted to the vunerable.
I have heard about therapist and clients having sex in their "so called" therapy sessions. Again, it was people who were vunerable. Don't fool yourselves. This is abuse in a very ugly way.
If a therapist is saying he is in love or attracted to a patient, he has crossed the line. He isn't being a therapist anymore. They need to pull themselves out of this setting. It's not right, but there are many of them out there. If they tell you that, how many other vunerable clients do you think they will do this too? Stop this cycle of abuse to yourself and others.
poster:shadows721
thread:336073
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040426/msgs/340357.html