ArticleAcademic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry2023
How Therapists Experience and Manage Patients' Romantic and Sexual Feelings for Them.
Article in Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sexual Feelings in the Psychotherapy Room: Comparing Their Occurrence in Patients With Unipolar Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Neither of These.Bipolar disorders · 2025Article
- Comment on "The Vital Importance of Professionalism in Medical Education".Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2024Article
- The Vital Importance of Professionalism in Medical Education.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveMany therapists will one day be confronted with a patient who develops romantic or sexual feelings toward them. Studies on this topic often remain theoretical in nature and less often focus on how therapists manage such situations. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate how therapists experience this occurrence and manage their feelings.
methodsEight focus groups were conducted with 36 participants in Flanders (Belgium). Both therapists-in-training and therapists-in-practice participated, having different educational backgrounds. The data were explored using the principles of thematic analysis.
resultsTherapists indicated that they try to dissuade any further development of their patients' romantic or sexual feelings by using strategies such as emphasizing their personal relational status, adjusting their appearance, and avoiding any physical contact with their patients. Some therapists question their own professional behavior, feeling guilty, confused, or insecure, wondering if they may have, in some way, provoked these feelings. Therapists who are at an earlier stage in their careers experience more difficulties managing their patients' romantic or sexual feelings toward them and worry they will not be considered a good professional therapist if such a situation occurs.
conclusionsEducational programs in psychotherapy should be more cognizant of the incidence of patients' developing romantic or sexual feelings toward therapists and provide more comprehensive and practical instruction on how to cope with such feelings.
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Registered trials
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