Sexual Boundary Violations Therapeutic, Supervisory, and Academic Contexts

by Celenza, Andrea

• ISBN13: 9780765708533
• ISBN10: 0765708531
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-24
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.

Summary

Sexual boundary violations are considered the most serious ethical infractions in the mental health profession, as well as in higher education and pastoral counseling. Recognized as unethical due to the power imbalance inherent in the structure of the therapist-patient and teacher-student dyads, erotic contact between therapists and patients has been revealed in prevalence studies to occur at an unacceptably, high incidence rate (9 to 12 percent) among mental health practitioners. There exist few programs, teaching methods, and preventative measures that adequately address the problem of sexual boundary violations, despite the fact that openly discussing this problem is no longer taboo. Sexual Boundary Violations addresses this gap, providing educators, trainers, and clinicians with a resource to aid in developing programs, ethics workshops, seminars, and other educative or clinical teaching projects. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Andrea Celenza PhD, is Assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School. She has authored and presented numerous papers on therapists who have engaged in sexual misconduct with a focus on training, supervisor, and rehabilitation issues. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Karl A. Menninger Memorial Award, the Felix Helena Deutsch Prize, and the Symonds Prize. She is in private practice in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xxiii
Nature and Scope of the Problem
How Do They Happen?	p. 3
This Couldn't Happen to Me	p. 15
Precursors to Therapist Sexual Misconduct	p. 27
When Is a Couch Just a Couch?	p. 43
The Therapeutic Context	p. 55
Academic and Supervisory Contexts	p. 65
Sexual Misconduct in the Clergy	p. 77
Reporting, Fallout, and Recovery
Reporting and Other Ethical Responsibilities	p. 95
Collateral Damage and Recovery	p. 111
Helping the Victims	p. 129
Rehabilitation
Therapy of the Transgressor	p. 145
Helping the Helpers: Supervision of the Transgressor	p. 159
Prevention
Responsible Responsivity	p. 179
Love and Hate in the Countertransference: Preventing Violations Through Supervision	p. 191
Boundary Violations Vulnerability Index (BVVI)	p. 201
Teaching Boundaries, Experiencing Boundaries	p. 211
Appendices Empirical Research
Personal and Interpersonal Characteristics of Transgressors	p. 225
Co-investigator
A Rorschach Investigation	p. 243
Co-investigator
References	p. 259
Index	p. 277
About the Author	p. 281
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