Perhaps I haven't been clear enough about how serious a matter this actually is. Let me provide you some facts.
Therapists, physicians, and attorneys are fiduciaries for their patients and clients, and this role prevents them from engaging in any activity that is not in the client's best interest. The law recognizes this. Patients or clients harmed by sexual exploitation may seek redress in civil suits for money damages, criminal sanctions, and licensing board actions. Presently, the issues hotly debated among attorneys involved in litigating sexual misconduct suits include issues over the time period within which the patient or client may file suit and whether the professional's malpractice insurance provides coverage for the misconduct.
Patients are harmed by sexual contact with their therapist. Studies of practicing therapists estimate that, in their observations, between eighty-seven and ninety percent of the patients who have had sexual contact with their therapist are damaged. Injuries include sexual dysfunction, anxiety disorders, psychiatric hospitalizations, increased risk of suicide, depression, dissociative behavior, internalized feelings of guilt, shame, anger, confusion, hatred, inability to trust and feelings of worthlessness. Other effects of the sexual contact included anger, shame, humiliation, depression, and anxiety. ***(READ CAREFULLY)In addition, for many victims, realizing that they are harmed and that the therapist was the cause of their harm takes years.*** Only four to eight percent of victims ever report the sexual contact.
There are special characteristics of professional-client relationships which place the professional in a position of ***greater power and authority than the client and, in essence, render it "unfair" for the professional to gain any benefit at the client's expense.*** Legally, many professionals--therapists, physicians, attorneys, professors--are said to stand in a "fiduciary" relationship with respect to their patients, clients, or students. "Fiduciary" is a legal term describing the relationship that exists when one party reposes trust and confidence in the other, more powerful party. ***In a fiduciary relationship, the more powerful party has a duty to act only in the trusting party's best interest.***
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And regarding Georgia law, this is at least a misdemeanor, and if there was intercourse, a FELONY, regardless of the age of either of the parties. Read on...
Beginning in 1983, legislators in several states undertook an examination of sexual abuse by psychotherapists and other professionals to determine whether criminal sanctions were warranted. The first state to enact legislation criminalizing therapist-patient sexual exploitation was Wisconsin. The first felony statute took effect in Minnesota, followed by Wisconsin, North Dakota, Colorado, California, and Maine. Florida, ***Georgia***, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Dakota, New Mexico, Connecticut, Arizona, and Texas passed comparable legislation, with other states considering similar bills.
The exact penalties imposed by the statutes differ from state to state. Seven of the fifteen states that criminalize sexual contact between therapist and patient distinguish between sexual contact and penetration, with the latter offense typically classified as a felony rather than a misdemeanor.
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And, as for so-called "consent":
Perhaps most significantly, the statutes completely eliminate consent as a defense.
READ AGAIN. "COMPLETELY ELIMINATE CONSENT AS A DEFENSE."
Now that you understand the law a little better, maybe you can start untying your personal pretzel-logic about patient-therapist relations.
