Sexual Dilemmas For The Helping Professional: Revised and Expanded Edition

by Jerry Edelwich, Archie Brodsky

Overview

This volume speaks directly to the issues that underlie sexual dynamics between clinicians and clients. Substantially updated and enlarged, this second edition addresses head-on the heightened openness and awareness of the contemporary consulting room.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138004863
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/11/2014
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

JERRY EDELWICH, M.S.W., C.I.S.W., is Assistant Professor of Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Counseling at Manchester Community College, Manchester, Connecticut. He pioneered both in studying the formerly taboo area of client-clinician sexual dynamics and in developing practical guidelines for clinician training in this area. Edelwich is Director of the New England Association of Reality Therapy, which conducts training on a regional, national, and international scale. ARCHIE BRODSKY, a professional writer, is senior research associate at the Program in Psychiatry and the Law, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

1 Troubled Waters 1

2 Seduction 7

Therapeutic and Antitherapeutic Seduction 10

How Clients Seduce 13

Why Clients Seduce 20

From the Clinician's Viewpoint 26

Who Seduces Whom? 30

3 Power 33

Client Power 33

Clinician Power 39

4 Opportunity 51

Vulnerability 57

Opportunity for the Client 62

Opportunity for the Clinician 68

A Culture of Opportunity 76

5 Self-interest 78

Ethical Implications of Sexual Acting Out With Clients 79

Countervailing Self-interest: What Does One Stand to Lose? 83

Rates of Incidence 86

Documentation of Harmful Effects 91

Intimacies With Former Clients 93

6 Morality 123

Moralistic Reactions 113

Ethical Responses to Feelings of Attraction and Seductive Behavior 119

The Limits of Involvement: Boundary Violations 138

The Supervisor's Role 144

7 The Question of Personal Regard 151

Common Evasions 153

"Referrals Out": Rationalizations and Realities 154

Recommended Approaches 160

8 Like Client, Like Clinician 165

Matching Clinician to Client: Who Should Be Seen by Whom? 165

Advising Clients on Sexual Questions 174

Like Client, Like Client 178

9 Relationships Among Staff Members 182

Liaisons Between Staff Members 182

Sex and the Pecking Order 189

Sexual Harassment 192

10 Liabilities 201

Malpractice and Other Civil Actions 202

The Ethical Basis of Liability: Second Thoughts 213

Criminal Prosecution 217

Professional Sanctions 221

Duties and Dilemmas of the Treating Therapist 225

Organizational Liability 229

11 Guidelines 232

References 249

Index 259

About the Authors 271