Sexual Attraction in Therapy

Clinical Perspectives on Moving Beyond the Taboo - A Guide for Training and Practice

Sexual Attraction in Therapy presents new findings from multiple perspectives into the complex phenomenon of sexual attraction in therapy. Detailed clinical examples and strategies from expert contributors demonstrate how therapists can engage with sexual attraction, when it arises, in positive ways that facilitate client progress and ensure appropriate professional conduct.

• Challenges practitioners to think about sexual attraction as a normal dynamic developing through the unique intimacy of the therapy encounter
• Presents new findings from research to enrich understanding of the lived experience of therapists and how they confront, avoid, make use of the process of sexual attraction
• Provides clinical examples to highlight common challenges faced by practitioners, the strategies they use to overcome them and how they normalize the ‘taboo’ of sexual attraction to make positive use of it in therapy
• Makes an important contribution to current literature on professional practice, an area of increasing importance as more emphasis is placed on issues of ethics, ongoing supervision and appropriate professional conduct
• Expert contributors include Doris McIlwain, Michael Worrell, John Sommers-Flanagan and Martin Milton