A psychotherapist-client relationship is established between
a psychotherapist and a person once a psychotherapist renders, or purports to
render, clinical social work, marriage and family therapy or mental health
services including, but not limited to, psychotherapy, counseling, assessment
or treatment to that person. A formal contractual relationship, the scheduling
of professional appointments, or payment of a fee for services are not
necessary conditions for the establishment of a psychotherapist-client
relationship, although each of these may be evidence that such a relationship
exists.
(1) Sexual misconduct, as
defined in Rule
64B4-10.002, F.A.C., with a
client is prohibited.
(2) For
purposes of determining the existence of sexual misconduct the
psychotherapist-client relationship, once established, is deemed to continue
for a minimum of 2 years after termination of psychotherapy or the date of the
last professional contact with the client. However, beyond that 2 year time
period, the mere passage of time since the client's last visit with the
psychotherapist is not the sole determinative of whether or not the
psychotherapist-client relationship has been terminated. Some of the factors
considered by the Board in determining whether the psychotherapist-client
relationship has terminated include, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) Formal termination procedures;
(b) Transfer of the client's case to another
psychotherapist;
(c) The length of
the professional relationship;
(d)
The extent to which the client has confided personal or private information to
the psychotherapist;
(e) The nature
of the client's problem; and,
(f)
The degree of emotional dependence that the client has on the
psychotherapist.
(3) The
psychotherapist shall not engage in or request sexual contact with a former
client at any time if engaging with that client would be exploitative, abusive
or detrimental to that client's welfare or if the sexual contact is a result of
the exploitation of trust, knowledge, influence or emotions, derived from the
professional relationship.
(4) A
client's consent to, initiation of, or participation in sexual behavior or
involvement with a psychotherapist does not change the nature of the conduct
nor lift the prohibition.
