REAL BODIES: ON THE PSYCHIATRIST'S COUCH - ONE WOMAN'S STORY

"After a few sessions he would bring a bottle of wine `just to relax us' he said, and make it easier for us to talk. He told me a lot about his own life, how his wife spent his money and they rarely had sex. After a while he switched my appointment to the last one of the day so we could have more time together. He never charged me for the extra time. Sometimes I even stayed late to help him with his bills and type up his patient notes. We would talk about his patients, and he asked me for my advice.

When I first went to see him I was uncomfortable that he asked me so much about sex. But we probably talked more about that than anything else. When we first started getting close I had been seeing him for about eight months. I didn't think I was particularly attracted to him, and it wasn't until he asked me what sexual fantasies I was having about him that the dreams started. Until that time I had just been denying my real feelings.

One day I came to a session upset because I had had an argument with my husband. He put his arm around me and held me and kissed me. It was really confusing. I really love my husband and had never thought about having an affair. But he told me that part of my problem was that I had never experienced sex with anyone other than my husband. At first it was mostly kissing and touching, but after a few weeks we had sex.

After almost two years I told him that I needed to see a different therapist. I felt so guilty about my marriage. He got really mad at me and said that if I insisted on seeing someone else he wouldn't be able to see me anymore. About three days later he called and left a message on my answering machine not to come back."

Testimony taken from Therapy Exploitation Link Line, a US support group for women who have experienced sexual exploitation from therapists.