Varieties of
Professional Sexual Misconduct
by Gary Richard Schoener
Gary Schoener is a licensed psychologist and Executive Director of the Walk-In
Counseling Center in Minneapolis, MN. He is the senior author of "Psychotherapists'
Sexual Involvement with Clients: Intervention and Prevention", co-author of
"Assisting Impaired Psychologists", and has written many
articles on this topic. Schoener has consulted in more than 3000 cases of sexual
misconduct by professionals and was a member of the Task Force on Sexual Impropriety of the
American Psychological Association and its Advisory Committee on the Impaired
Psychologist. The Walk-In Counseling Center was the recipient of the 1977 Gold
Achievement Award in Hospital and Community Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric
Association.
This article has been reproduced with permission from the
Walk-In Counseling Center. Copyright © 1998 WICC.
Originally created as a presentation, this has been edited
by AdvocateWeb with the author's permission.
Sexual misconduct by psychotherapists, clergy, & other
professionals ranges widely. The categories below are not mutually exclusive.
While an attempt is made to present a continuum, one could easily rearrange the
order. It can involve any age client and any gender pairing. The
client/patient/parishioner may not consider himself/herself to be a victim. It
should be noted that if some of these behaviors occur in the professional's personal life,
there may be reason to question their professional work.
- RAPE
(as traditionally defined)
- Anesthetized or sleeping hospital patient or homebound parishioner who is ill
- Use of drugs, alcohol, or hypnosis (in counseling) to diminish resistance
- Forcible sexual assault
- STATUTORY RAPE
sex with a minor (child vs. adolescent)
- SEX BY FRAUD
sex disguised as treatment
- Breast exams, pelvics, touching of genitals, by counselor or hospital chaplain
pretending to be doctor
- "You need to learn to love," or " to be intimate" (Henry Ward
Beecher syndrome)
- "SNEAKY SEX"
- Surreptitious touch during hug or other encounter; "pelvic thrusting"
- Frotteurism -- "sneaky touch"
- Watching while undressing; voyeurism in health club or on retreat; at camp
- SEXUAL HARASSMENT
can be quid pro quo; or creation of hostile environment
- Sexual comments or jokes, voyeuristic inquiry
- Pressuring for dates
- Unwanted touch, hugs, kissing
- INTENSELY SEXUAL INTERACTION
verbal and fantasy
- ROMANTIC-LIKE RELATIONSHIP SOLELY WITHIN THE PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT
Sexual contact, with or without claim of love or promise of "future together",
only in counseling sessions or meetings
- ROMANTIC INVOLVEMENT WHICH GOES OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICE
- During the professional relationship
- Following termination of the professional relationship (real or bogus termination).
Former parishioner or counselee (is the person really "former"?): can
involve a visitor to the church, friend of a church member
- Involving marriage or long-term commitment
Walk-In Counseling Center (WICC) grants permission for a printout to be made,
but asks that multiple reproductions for use as handouts be made known to them.
Please contact them, if you are considering this, to see if they have a more recent
handout or one even more suited to your intended purpose. Any use should properly
credit the sources -- WICC and the AdvocateWeb site
(http://www.advocateweb.org). For permission to reproduce more than one copy,
contact: Walk-In Counseling Center, 2421 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55404.
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