Therapist-patient sexual relations: results of a national survey in Israel.
BACKGROUND
Studies focusing on Patient-Therapist sexual relations have been carried out mainly in the U.S. This study comes to broadly explore this phenomenon in Israel.


METHODS
An indirect questionnaire was sent to all 1,817 psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers who are members of the Israeli Psychiatric Association, Psychologists Association and Psychotherapy Association, respectively.


RESULTS
29% of the responding therapists reported that at least one of their patients had experienced sexual relations with the most recent, former therapist.


CONCLUSIONS
The design of our survey made it impossible for us to conduct a follow-up after termination of therapy and to differentiate intercourse from nonintercourse sexual exploitation.


CONCLUSIONS
Similar numbers of the gender of the exploiting therapist and exploited patients were obtained for both the indirect current Israeli study and previous U.S. studies. This may suggest that such parameters are influenced by common norms regarding the relationships between men and women of both societies, and from the psychotherapeutic dyadic situation.
Aviv
Alex
A
The Program of Psychotherapy, School of Continuing Medical Education and Abarbanel Mental Health Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel. alexaviv@gmail.com
Levine
Joseph
J
Shelef
Assaf
A
Speiser
Nili
N
Elizur
Avner
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires