Melbourne psychologist Jonathon Walker, who coerced a young, vulnerable client and moved her into his home after they began an intimate relationship, has had his registration as a health worker cancelled.
The Victorian civil and administrative tribunal (Vcat) also disqualified Walker from reapplying for registration as a psychologist or any other health practitioner for five years, and in its decision Vcat said Walker had limited insight into his misconduct.
The decision follows a Vcat hearing in September, where it was heard Walker began treating his then 21-year-old client in 2013, when he was 41. Walker provided psychological services to her on about 16 occasions and treated her for a number of conditions including depression, social anxiety and agoraphobia, the tribunal heard.
In July 2014 Walker began communicating with her outside of her treatment and told her he had developed feelings for her, the Vcat decision said. Walker told his client that he wanted her to live in the self-contained unit on his mother’s property, which was located beside his own house, and she moved in.
The Vcat decision said: “At the time [the client] moved into his mother’s unit, Mr Walker was aware of her difficult financial circumstances; that she was isolated from her family; and that she had left a long-term relationship.”
In 2015, she moved into Walker’s house. In 2017, she ended the relationship.
The Vcat decision said Walker’s communications with his client after she ended the relationship “are viewed by us as an attempt by him to use his professional training as a psychologist to influence and control her, such as when he recommended that she attend counselling … soon after he asked her not to disclose their relationship in counselling or to a future partner”.
At the hearing in September, counsel representing the Psychology Board of Australia said the emails “provide evidence of coercion”.
The Vcat decision, delivered in October, described how after amended allegations were filed against Walker by the Medical Board of Australia, his solicitors ceased to act for him and Walker chose to represent himself. But “for the most part, he has not been engaged in the proceeding”, the decision said, and Walker did not attend his September tribunal hearing.
People accessing psychological treatment “need to know that their psychologist will act in their best interests and will not take advantage of them, or use information obtained in the course of a therapeutic relationship to foster a sexual relationship”, Vcat said.
The decision described how Walker also shared confidential information about seven other clients with the woman. This included emails containing sensitive information, the Vcat decision said.
In written submissions, Walker rejected this assertion, accusing medical regulators of applying confidentiality rules about clients in a selective way.
Walker told Vcat that, when he attended medical appointments, his name was called out in the waiting room in the presence of other patients. He said that if he was “to be admonished for such trivial, inconsequential revelations” made about his clients, it would be reasonable to expect the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to enforce the same standards for confidentiality in waiting-room settings.
Vcat said the submissions from Walker “indicate that his insight is limited”.
While Walker noted the significant age difference between himself and his client, he said she was “mature beyond her years”. Vcat found there was a power imbalance between Walker and his client, and this imbalance “does not disappear once the therapeutic relationship ends”.
Walker also told Vcat that his client was in a “psychologically compromised state” when she made the allegations against him to medical regulators, and he described some of her statements as “dangerous and delusional”.
Vcat found there was a need “both for specific deterrence and for general deterrence” in their reprimanding of Walker.
“We intend to signal to other members of the psychology profession that serious adverse consequences will follow conduct of the kind Mr Walker engaged in so as to deter them from the same conduct, in the interests of maintaining professional standards and public confidence in the profession,” the decision said.
Vcat found he had failed to maintain professional boundaries, failed to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of some of his clients, perverted and frustrated the investigation and knowingly or recklessly provided false or misleading information to regulators.
“The conduct … was engaged in by Mr Walker over a period of years,” the decision said.
“It involved not only a most serious transgression of professional boundaries but also, among other conduct, dishonesty in dealings with the regulator and attempts to interfere in the disciplinary process.”
Do you know more? melissa.davey@theguardian.com
In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
