ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what happens after a boundary violation occurs. There is a continued need to keep others from learning about the violation, which requires further manipulation of the environment as well as friends, colleagues, and family. In general there are two options for professionals engaging in a sexual boundary violation: either end the behavior or continue it. Professionals who continue the behavior attempt to depict normalcy in their lives and present as unchanged in any way to friends, family, and colleagues. Common sense would dictate that the secretiveness, duplicity, shifting power differentials, and underlying mental health issues for the client and professional would lead them to be short-lived. I. Nachmani and E. Somer found clients idealized professionals before and often during a sexual relationship; words such as “God, guru, prophet, savior, angel” were some of the descriptors used. Relationships between professionals and patients seem to be short-lived, end poorly, and have emotional ramifications for both parties.
