§ 81.002.Sexual Exploitation Cause of Action

The cause of action, and it is stated in three alternatives.

A provider is liable to a patient or former patient for damages if the patient suffers, directly or indirectly, a physical, mental, or emotional injury caused by, resulting from, or arising out of:

sexual contact between the patient and the provider; sexual exploitation of the patient by the provider; or therapeutic deception of the patient by the provider.

"Former patient" is as protected as a current one. The therapeutic relationship creates a dependency that does not end when the sessions do, and the chapter treats it that way — subject to the defence available where treatment ended more than two years before and the person was not emotionally dependent.

The injury may be physical, mental, or emotional, and may be caused directly or indirectly. The damages section then confirms that mental anguish damages are recoverable even if no other injury is shown, which matters because the harm here is characteristically psychological.

The three routes are alternatives, not elements. Any one suffices. Therapeutic deception requires no sexual contact at all — the representation that such contact would be part of treatment is itself actionable.

Consent is not a defence, and neither is the fact that the conduct occurred outside sessions or off the premises.