Lo(u)st in Therapy: Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Therapists' Attitude toward Sexual and Erotic Feelings Scale (TASEF).

Abstract

This study aimed to develop the Therapists' Attitude toward Sexual and Erotic Feelings (TASEF) scale for assessing therapists' attitudes and responses toward sexual and erotic feelings in therapy. A total of 507 therapists participated in two separate studies. Study 1 focused on finalizing the format of the TASEF and evaluating its construct validity. Through Exploratory Graph Analysis, four factors were identified within the TASEF questionnaire: Gratification, which captures the positive affect experienced by therapists in response to a patient's sexual attraction toward them; Fear, which represents therapists' apprehension or discomfort when encountering sexual feelings from the patient; Threat, which reflects the perception of risk or danger that erotic transference poses to the patient, therapist, and the therapeutic process; and Aversion, which encompasses the therapist's discomfort or aversion toward the patient's sexual feelings. Study 2 aimed to confirm the structure of the TASEF questionnaire and assess its overall validity. The results showed that the TASEF demonstrated adequate overall validity, with higher convergence validity observed for the Fear, Aversion, and Threat clusters compared to the Gratification cluster. The TASEF enables therapists to understand and manage their emotional reactions to sexual feelings in therapy, maintaining standards of care.