Protecting Yourself from Sexual Harassment Issues as a Solo PT | Aaron LeBauer

How do you protect yourselves from any potential sexual harassment lawsuits that stem from seeing patients one on one in your own practice? I want to talk to you about a serious question that's been posted in the group this week, and it's a very common question, but I want to read it and I want to respond. It was something that got a lot of attention this week. And he says, hey, men, how do you protect yourselves from any potential sexual harassment lawsuits that stem from seeing patients one on one in your own practice? When would it be when it would be your word against theirs? How can we protect ourselves from people who are just looking to make a quick buck off of you? So what I think is really important, and I don't think this is just for men or just for women. There's issues, you know, there's male, female, female, male, and there's male, male, male and female female, like harassment issues. And it's a big issue. It's been happening nationally. It's like, oh, man, what do I do if what's going on? It's just a ton of national attention. However, this is a question that I've seen over and over again. It's not the most common question, but I think it's an important question to address. If you guys know, I started my career as a massage therapist, and massage therapy, things can be a lot different because people know, at least people think physical therapy is just hot packs, ultrasounds, and leg lifts. But for massage therapy, if you don't know what it is, a lot of people think it's of a sexual nature. There's a sexual aspect to massage therapy. There's a lot of problems. Prostitution and, you know, like, sex for sale, whether it's legal or not legal, using massage therapy as the COVID So we can go. When I lived in San Francisco, if you went to Nob Hill, there was a lot of massage places that weren't giving you a therapeutic massage. So hence, a lot of people have a lot of trouble understanding the difference between massage that's therapeutic and massage that's sexual in nature. And majority of the time, that was men not understanding. And a majority of time, but not all the time, it's the female massage therapist that has to protect themselves. And as a male massage therapist, you know, I got a little of that, but not to the extent that my wife Andra, she walked into a room one time and a guy was just laying there naked, like, hi. And she's like, let's get a sheet on you. You know. But we were trained in how to deal with that through massage therapy school. And this question is very different, but similar in nature. It's like, okay, so how do men protect themselves from women claiming you've sexually harassed them and trying to sue you? Now, I think that. I don't think there are a lot of women out there doing that. I really don't think women are going out and saying, okay, so and so, you know, has touched me inappropriately. We were in a room together, and I'm going to sue them so I can get some money. You know, I'm sure that's probably. Well, I'm sure that's probably happened before. I don't think that's anything that we need to worry about. As. As a man, I don't have, you know, for. Let's see, Sarah's worked here for a year and a half, and prior to that, I always treated patients with no one else in the building. I've never had a problem with it. I personally don't have a problem with it. And if you carry yourself in a way that is professional and you tell people, look, okay, here's the muscle. This is the problem. I'm going to touch you. Here is it, you know, we drape, you know, appropriately, you know, then there's. And you touch appropriately with intention, With a healing, therapeutic intention, there's not really going to be an issue. If you're at all concerned, certain you can do. You can have someone else in the building. Certainly if you're a man and you're doing pelvic floor treatments and you're uncomfortable at all with it, that's going to come through. If you're at all comfortable doing orthopedic work with the patient, that's also going to come through. If you're a man doing pelvic floor internal work, you feel like you need a chaperone, well, then you get a chaperone. But if you feel like you need a chaperone to treat patients, then you need to check in with what is your intention for that therapeutic treatment and that therapeutic event? And why do you really feel like you need a chaperone? Is there some interaction going on between you and the patients that you're not aware of? That's something that we trained in massage therapy school that we did not do in PT school and PT school, there's a little bit of touching up, but it was like in massage therapy, I think, because the association between massage and sex is a lot closer, that there's an issue. And you have to have a focused intention with pt, it's hot packs, leg lifts, ultrasound and some therapeutic exercise. And you know, most people don't get that confused with a sexual encounter. So then what you need to do is, you know, be aware of your surroundings, be aware of where your patient's body parts are, be aware of where your body parts are drape appropriately or have patients come partially clothed and you explain it. It's medical in nature. It doesn't have to be super sterile, but it just has to be something that you are comfortable with. And when you're comfortable, your patients are comfortable. Likely if your patients feel uncomfortable, you're uncomfortable with something. And if you can figure out, okay, what is it that I'm uncomfortable with and do the internal work to get that going, this isn't going to be a problem and this should not be our issue. I think a lot of the people out there that have sexually harassed other people and they're being blamed for it, there's something behind it. There is something, but there's some action behind it that they are probably, you know, denying or that they've done, you know, likely you're guilty, you know, if you're, you know, so. So I think as a man, I don't think it's anything that you really have to worry about. Maybe you should be aware of it. I would call it more of a precaution that you figure out in the long run it's kind of like, I don't know, hands on work or cervical manipulation or dry needling. They're precautions, but once you get used to doing it, those precautions aren't even like the front of your mind. They're just an automatic thing. So maybe this is a precaution, but it wouldn't even be something that comes up in my treatment manual. Like you need to be aware of X, Y and Z. So I think that it's a non issue that maybe is sensationalized a little in the media right now. I'm not sensationalizing the media, but it's our view of it. It's always on tv. If you're always watching tv, then it's going to be the forefront of your brain. It's just like that painful hand. If someone's always saying, oh my God, you've got the worst arthritis I've ever seen, it's like, boom. I was like, oh my God. Oh my arthritis is painful. It's like the thing that we're aware of in reality, in practice. I don't think you have to worry about it. I think women more have to worry about men. And I think most women here know how to protect themselves. I am not a woman. I do know that as a man, watching other women learn how to be a massage therapist and being married to one, it's fairly straightforward. This makes me uncomfortable. We're done. Or you know what? I feel completely comfortable with it. And then let's continue. I'm comfortable with the treatment session. Nothing wrong has happened. Okay. But if something gets to the edge of your boundaries, you have every right to stop a treatment session, whether you're a therapist or a patient. And I think that's it for today. But I think this is a great topic. I think it's a great conversation to have. I think we need to be aware of it, but I think we also need to be aware of the harassment going in the other direction. And that may not even be the conversation that the people here feel like they need to have. But if you do, let's have it, because I think it shouldn't be an issue. I think we're here to treat our patients. We're here to run a business, and we're here to. And we're here to help people avoid unnecessary surgery. But we do need to be aware. Okay? On the other hand, we do need to be aware of our surroundings and our body and our intentions. And when you're fully aware and present in the treatment, I don't think this. I don't think going forward, these kinds of things should be something to worry about or to spend lots of money on. To have an extra person in a chaperone, make sure you always have someone else in the building. From my experience, it's been a very minor thing that I've ever had to think about over the years.