Sexual Involvement : Therapist’s Client Wins Damages

A 44-year-old Thousand Oaks woman who sued her psychotherapist for malpractice, alleging that their sexual relationship left her an emotional wreck, was awarded $162,000 in damages Friday.

The woman, Lynda Gifford, had sought $1 million in damages and had rejected a pretrial settlement offer of $300,000, court officials said.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Robert M. Letteau, who issued the award in the non-jury trial, lambasted therapists who engage in sex with their patients, but said that Gifford’s present emotional problems could not be blamed entirely on her psychologist’s breach of ethics.

‘Inappropriate Conduct’

“All therapists in this state and everywhere should know that this is inappropriate conduct,” the judge said.

“We have certain weaknesses, feet of clay, so to speak. We all make mistakes. But, when you’re a highly trained professional, you have extra responsibilities.”

Gifford asserted that her psychologist, Sanford Brotman, 61, of Encino, engaged in sex with her for four years and continued to bill her for therapy sessions. She testified that she was “repulsed” by the relationship but thought the sex was part of her therapy.

Gifford said she first went to Brotman as a patient in 1977 and that he initiated sex with her in late 1978.

Brotman acknowledged in testimony that the two became intimate, but said the sexual relationship lasted only two years. Both acknowledged that it ended in early 1983.

Brotman claimed that he urged Gifford to find another therapist immediately after the affair began, but that she refused and insisted on continuing treatment with him. Brotman said he stopped charging her for therapy shortly after they became intimate.

“He fell in love, and he fell hard,” Brotman’s attorney, Judith Gold, told the judge. “He plunged headlong into his own disaster.”

A Business Link

Brotman also acknowledged in testimony that he and Gifford became business partners in 1982 in an emergency medical clinic in Woodland Hills that later failed. Members of professional psychology organizations testified that a business relationship with a patient also is unethical.

Both were married during the liaison. Gifford divorced and later remarried her ex-husband, according to testimony during the two-month trial.

As a result of the personal and business relationships with Gifford, Brotman testified, he is now separated from his wife and is suspended from practicing psychology in California. He said he has filed for bankruptcy.

“It does seem to me that the man’s paid dearly for his mistakes,” Letteau said near the end of the trial.

Gifford’s attorney, Michael H. White, said she has been ruined by Brotman’s “abuse” of her.

“This was not a case of sex between two consenting adults,” White told the judge. “If anything, it was a case of rape, a violation of a sacred trust.”

White said Gifford has been hospitalized since she attempted suicide last week by taking an overdose of Valium and anti-depressants. He blamed the suicide attempt, in part, on the stresses of the trial.

White said after the verdict that the award will not be sufficient to pay for the long-term psychotherapy his client needs.

In rendering the award, the judge said it is clear that Brotman was negligent professionally. Letteau said, however, that he doubted Gifford’s veracity on the witness stand and believed that her emotional problems stem in large part from poor relationships with other people in her life, including her husband and mother.

Brotman’s license to practice psychology has been suspended by the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance, an official confirmed. Brotman said he is attempting to fulfill certain terms of the suspension that would allow him to return to practice.