N.J. Admin. Code § 13:34-6.4 - Sexual misconduct and harassment

(a) By this section, the Board is identifying for its licensees conduct which it shall deem to be violative of law as set forth in (j) below.

(b) As used in this section, the following terms have the following meanings unless the context indicates otherwise:

1. "Client" means any person who is the recipient of a professional service rendered by a licensee for purposes of diagnosis, treatment or a consultation relating to treatment. "Client," for purposes of this section, also means a person who is the subject of professional examination or assessment even if the purpose of that examination or assessment is unrelated to treatment.

2. "Client-therapist relationship" means the association between a therapist and a client wherein the therapist owes a continuing duty to the client to be available to render marriage and family therapy services consistent with his or her training and experience.

3. "Harassment" means one egregious act or repeated comments, contacts, or gestures which are based upon the following and which have the purpose or effect of intimidating or offending the individual based upon his or her race, religion, color, gender, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability.

4. "Licensee" means any person authorized by the State Board of Marriage and Family Therapy Examiners to engage in marriage and family therapy.

5. "Sexual contact" means the knowing touching of a person's body directly or through clothing, where the circumstances surrounding the touching would be construed by a reasonable person to be motivated by the licensee's own prurient interest or for sexual arousal or gratification. "Sexual contact" includes, but is not limited to, the imposition of the licensee's body upon a part of the patient's body, sexual penetration, or the insertion or imposition of any object or any part of a licensee or patient's body into or near the genital, anal or other opening of the other person's body.

6. "Sexual harassment" means solicitation of any sexual act, physical advances, or verbal or non-verbal conduct that is sexual in nature, and which occurs in connection with a licensee's activities or role as a provider of marriage and family therapy services that either: is unwelcome, offensive to a reasonable person, or creates a hostile workplace environment, and the licensee knows, should know, or is told this; or is sufficiently severe or intense to be abusive to a reasonable person in that context. "Sexual harassment" may consist of a single extreme or severe act or of multiple acts and may include, but is not limited to, conduct of a licensee with a client, co-worker, employee, student, or supervisee, whether or not such individual is in a subordinate position to the licensee. "Sexual harassment" may include conduct of a non-sexual nature if it is based upon the sex of an individual.

(c) A licensee shall not seek, solicit or engage in sexual contact with a client with whom he or she has a current client-therapist relationship.

(d) A licensee shall not seek, solicit or engage in sexual contact with a current client's immediate family member, a former client, a former client's immediate family member or a former student when marriage and family therapy services were rendered to the client, former client or former student in the immediately preceding 24 months, or with a current student, supervisee, supervisor or research participant.

1. The 24-month rule shall not apply and the prohibition shall extend indefinitely in circumstances where the former client is or should be recognized by the licensee as clearly vulnerable by reason of emotional or cognitive disorder or exploitative influence by the licensee.

(e) A licensee shall not seek or solicit sexual contact with any person in exchange for professional services.

(f) A licensee shall not accept as a client an individual who, within the immediately preceding 24 months, was the licensee's sexual partner.

(g) A licensee shall not engage in any discussion of an intimate sexual nature with a client that serves the licensee's prurient interests or is for the sexual arousal or the sexual gratification of the licensee or client, or constitutes sexual abuse of the client. Such discussion shall not include disclosure by the licensee of his or her own intimate sexual relationships.

(h) A licensee shall not condone or engage in any form of harassment in a professional setting including, but not limited to, an office, hospital or health care facility or outside the professional setting.

(i) A licensee shall not engage in any other activity (such as, but not limited to, voyeurism or exposure of the genitalia of the licensee) which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the activity serves the licensee's personal prurient interests or is for the sexual arousal or the sexual gratification of the licensee or client, or constitutes sexual abuse of the client.

(j) Violation of any of the prohibitions or directives set forth at (c) through (h) above shall be deemed to constitute malpractice pursuant to N.J.S.A. 45:1-21(c) or (d) or professional misconduct pursuant to N.J.S.A. 45:1-21(e).

(k) It shall not be a defense to any action under this section that:

1. The patient solicited or consented to sexual contact with the licensee; or

2. The licensee was in love with or had affection for the patient.

Notes

N.J. Admin. Code § 13:34-6.4

Recodified from N.J.A.C. 13:34-5.4 by R.2008 d.56, effective 3/17/2008.
See: 39 N.J.R. 840(a), 40 N.J.R. 1674(a).
Former N.J.A.C. 13:34-6.4, Use of professional credentials and certifications, recodified to N.J.A.C. 13:34-7.4.
Amended by R.2009 d.301, effective 10/5/2009.
See: 41 N.J.R. 1946(a), 41 N.J.R. 3813(a).
Section was "Sexual conduct and harassment". In (c), inserted "seek, solicit or" and "current"; and rewrote the introductory paragraph of (d).