ABSTRACT
It is well documented that sexual intimacy between therapist and client is both unethical and potentially harmful (Bates & Brodsky, 1989; Bouhoutsos, Holroyd, Lerman, Forer, & Greenberg, 1983; Edelwich & Brodsky, 1991; Gabbard, 1989; Pope, 1988; Rutter, 1989: Strean, 1993). e American Association for Marriage and Family erapy (AAMFT) Code of Ethics (2001) clearly prohibits sexual intimacy between couple and family therapists and clients in Subprinciples 1.4 and 1.5:
However, the topic of sexual ethics in the eld of couple and family therapy (as well as other helping professions) is much more complex than the issue of whether or not one engages in sexual relations with clients. e actual incidence of sexual relations with clients may be on the decline, but sexual abuse perpetrators account for about 4.4% of all therapists (7% males; 1.5% females) when data from national studies are pooled (Pope, 2001).
