Sexual Abuse by Health Professionals: A Personal Search for Meaning and Healing

Robert B. MacIntyre is head of the Centre for Relationship Therapy and
Education in Orangeville, Ontario.

Sexual Abuse by Health Professionals is written in two voices. In one,
the author details her experience of having been sexually abused and
emotionally exploited by her psychiatrist over a six-and-a-half-year
period. She also describes her recovery from this abuse, including her
confrontation with the therapist three years later and her subsequent
filing of a formal complaint against him. This engrossing narrative goes
a long way toward exploring how an intelligent and capable woman can
become involved in a relationship that reduces her self-esteem, impairs
her judgment, and negatively affects her marriage and life: the opposite
of what therapy is intended to do.

In the second voice, the author, a psychiatrist and professor of
psychiatry, examines the professional literature on the subject of
sexual abuse by health professionals, including the characteristics of
those likely to offend and the stages through which victims are led into
the abusive situation. A compelling case is made for the need for
improved training for therapists and for increased support for the
survivors of abuse.

Penfold’s solid and insightful book focuses much-needed attention on
the seriousness of boundary violations and patient exploitation by
health-care professionals; it should be on the reading list of anyone in
the helping professions.