A psychologist based in Perth has been banned from practice for four years after it was deemed he engaged in a sexual relationship with a client by the WA State Administrative Tribunal (SAT).
Dr Douglas Brewer, whose speciality within the field is the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), reportedly allowed a 26-year-old female patient who he was treating, to frequently use his office to study for her exams and would then drive her home.
The woman had been diagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety.
Per the Weekend Australian, the pair had sex four times over the course of five months. Three of these instances occurred at his office and one at the woman’s home.
He also hired the woman to work at his clinic as an office assistant, which she did for three months.
In September of 2021, Dr Brewer told the woman he was in love with her. However, their relationship would go on to end two months later in November.
When The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) contacted the psychologist in December, he denied any suggestion the two were in a sexual relationship.
The SAT determined that Dr Brewer hadn’t been transparent about the nature of the relationship.
Dr Brewer had previously been a well-known and respected voice on the treatment of PTSD, especially in the state of WA.
In 2017, he was quoted as a source in an article by The West Australian newspaper called “PTSD: Picking up the pieces” as part of Mental Health Week.
In the story, he made special mention of the high rates of women suffering from PTSD.
“There is this incredible frequency with which trauma is faced by women and rarely dealt with,” he remarked in the interview.
“If you take a mental health ward, usually we have more women than men, and the majority of those women will have undiagnosed PTSD. They are there being treated for symptoms but not for the cause of the problem in the first place.”
He has now been barred from re-registering for another four years, per the Daily Mail.
Image credit: Nuttawan Jayawan via iStock.
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