Many Women Psychologists Harassed

More than half of the nation’s women psychologists have been sexually harassed by their patients, a new survey suggests.

Questionnaires were sent to 750 female psychologists nationwide. Of the 354 who responded, 53.4 percent said they had been sexually harassed at least once by a patient.

“There’s been a lot of publicity in recent years about therapists abusing patients. What this study indicates is that patients are not the only ones at risk in the therapeutic encounter,” said the author, Robert A. deMayo of Pepperdine University.

Overall, deMayo said the incidents average fewer than one for every 5,000 therapy sessions. He also noted that psychologists may be more at risk because they are constantly involved in closed-door sessions.

The study appears in the current issue of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.

DeMayo noted that a 1993 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found 77 percent of women physicians said they were sexually harassed at least once by a patient.

Joni Johnston, a clinical psychologist in Del Mar, Calif., who specializes in corporate sexual harassment cases, called the survey surprising.

“I was really surprised at the frequency. It is something I have personally experienced,” she said. “As part of our training, we are often taught to interpret … sexual behavior on the part of our clients as part of the relationship in terms of transference. It can be very, very easy to err on the side of interpreting vs. setting limits.”

In her case, Johnston confided in a colleague and they came up with a solution that allowed the client’s sessions to proceed.

“It was very clearly a problem this client was having. It wasn’t about me,” she said.