Saturday, March 29
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Counseling Ethics & Legal Issues Academy
Program ID #269, Room 313C
Addressing Sexual Attraction in the Counseling Relationship
60-Minute Session, Advanced
Kirsten W. Murray, John Sommers-Flanagan
Supervisors and counselors typically avoid discussing sexual attraction. Often supervisors even ignore obvious signs of attraction as they observe their supervisees. Interestingly, it has been reported that supervisees are often relieved when their supervisors broach sexual attraction issues in supervision. In this session we will discuss the nature of sexual attraction in counseling, provide a model for broaching sexual attraction in supervision, describe strategies for coping with sexual attraction and preventing sexual acting out, and facilitate a discussion on how you currently manage and address sexual attraction and how you might continue to do so even more effectively in the future.