By Joseph Shirazi, Managing Partner, Compass Law Group · CA Bar #265403
Published June 18, 2026 at 9:00 AM PT · Updated May 6, 2026

Did Your Therapist or Psychiatrist Sexually Abuse You? What California Survivors Need to Know About Their Rights

Sexual abuse by a therapist or psychiatrist is one of the most devastating violations of trust a person can experience — a betrayal that happens in the very space designed for healing. According to the CDC’s National Sexual Violence Research Summary, 1 in 4 women and nearly 1 in 9 men in the United States experience contact sexual violence during their lifetimes. When the perpetrator holds a clinical license and exploits a patient’s most vulnerable moments, California law provides survivors with powerful tools to pursue justice and compensation. You are not alone — and you have rights that cannot be taken from you.

Why Is Sexual Abuse by a Therapist or Psychiatrist Recognized as a Serious Legal Harm in California?

Mental health professionals occupy a position of extraordinary trust in their patients’ lives. A therapist or psychiatrist becomes privy to a patient’s deepest fears, unprocessed traumas, and most vulnerable moments — information shared in confidence and with the belief it will be used only for healing. California law explicitly recognizes the power imbalance that defines this relationship. Under California Business and Professions Code § 729, sexual contact between a licensed mental health professional and a current or former patient is illegal, constituting criminal conduct that can range from a misdemeanor to a felony depending on the circumstances and the degree of exploitation involved.

Source: Compass Law Group | Therapist and Psychiatrist Sexual Abuse

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Beyond criminal accountability, survivors have the right to file a civil lawsuit for damages — and a civil case is entirely separate from any criminal proceeding. You do not need a criminal conviction, or even a pending criminal investigation, to pursue a civil claim. The standard of proof in civil court is lower: a “preponderance of the evidence,” meaning it is more likely than not that the abuse occurred. This means survivors can achieve accountability and compensation even in cases where criminal charges were never filed.

California courts have long recognized that therapist sexual abuse creates a unique category of harm. The exploitation of transference — the psychological dynamic in which patients develop deep trust and emotional reliance on their provider — amplifies the psychological damage far beyond what an equivalent act by a stranger would cause. Survivors often experience severe PTSD, re-traumatization, inability to engage in future therapeutic relationships, long-term depression, and profound disruption to their professional and personal lives. An experienced California sexual abuse attorney understands the full depth of this harm and knows how to present it comprehensively in litigation.

What California Laws Protect Survivors of Therapist and Psychiatrist Sexual Abuse?

California has enacted landmark legislation that fundamentally transformed the legal landscape for sexual abuse survivors. Understanding which statute applies to your specific situation is the first critical step in protecting your rights.

AB 218 (2019) — CCP §340.1: Childhood Survivors Have No Deadline
If the sexual abuse by your therapist or psychiatrist occurred before you turned 18, California eliminated the statute of limitations entirely under CCP §340.1, enacted by AB 218. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse can file a civil lawsuit at any age — whether they are 22 or 62 — with no concern about a filing deadline. AB 218 also includes a treble damages provision for institutional defendants who engaged in cover-up conduct, making it one of the most powerful survivor-protection statutes in the nation.

AB 2777 (2022) — CCP §340.16: The Adult Survivor Window Closes December 31, 2026
For survivors who were 18 or older at the time the abuse occurred, California’s AB 2777 created a limited revival window under CCP §340.16. This window reopened previously time-barred claims and gave adult survivors a fixed period to file. The hard deadline is December 31, 2026. After that date, claims under this window are permanently and irreversibly foreclosed. If you are an adult survivor of therapist or psychiatrist sexual abuse, you may have only months remaining to preserve your right to sue.

Government Entities: The Critical 6-Month Notice Requirement
If your therapist or psychiatrist was employed by a county mental health agency, state hospital, public university counseling clinic, or any government-operated mental health facility, the Government Claims Act imposes an additional and separate requirement: you must file a formal government claim within 6 months of the date you discovered — or reasonably should have discovered — the abuse. This deadline is much shorter than the civil lawsuit deadlines above and runs independently of them. Missing it can permanently bar your entire claim against a government entity, even if you still have time under AB 2777. For a detailed explanation of how these deadlines interact in different fact patterns, read our guide on the California statute of limitations for sexual assault.

Who Can Be Held Liable for Therapist or Psychiatrist Sexual Abuse in California?

One of the most powerful principles in California sexual abuse civil litigation is that accountability does not end with the individual who committed the abuse. In many of the most significant cases — including those involving hospital systems, large behavioral health networks, and government-run programs — institutional defendants bear substantial legal responsibility for enabling or concealing abuse that they could and should have stopped. Identifying every potentially liable party is one of the most consequential contributions a skilled attorney makes to a survivor’s case.

Parties who may be held legally responsible in a California therapist or psychiatrist sexual abuse lawsuit include:

• The individual therapist or psychiatrist who committed the abuse — directly liable for sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, and professional negligence
• Private therapy practices and group medical offices that employed the abuser and failed to implement adequate supervision, oversight, or patient complaint procedures
• Hospitals and inpatient psychiatric facilities where the abuse occurred, subject to negligent hiring, negligent retention, and negligent supervision liability
• Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and insurance credentialing networks that granted the abuser clinical privileges without adequate background investigation or dismissed prior patient complaints
• Government-operated mental health agencies, county clinics, and public psychiatric hospitals — subject to the Government Claims Act’s 6-month notice requirement and public entity liability standards
• University training clinics and supervised practicum programs when the abuse was committed by a therapist-in-training under the direct clinical supervision of licensed faculty
• Telehealth platforms and digital mental health services that facilitated the therapeutic relationship and had — or should have had — screening, supervision, and reporting procedures in place

Institutional liability typically rests on three legal doctrines: respondeat superior (an employer is responsible for harmful acts committed by an employee within the scope of employment), negligent hiring (the institution failed to conduct adequate background checks or failed to heed warning signs in the abuser’s professional record), and negligent supervision (the institution failed to monitor the therapist or take action on complaints it received). When records reveal prior complaints against the same abuser that were ignored or suppressed — a pattern courts treat as powerful evidence of institutional failure — liability exposure for the institutional defendant can be enormous. Our Los Angeles sexual abuse lawyers have successfully pursued both individual and institutional defendants in complex therapist abuse cases throughout Southern California.

What Compensation Can Survivors of Therapist Sexual Abuse Recover in California?

California civil law recognizes that the harm caused by therapist or psychiatrist sexual abuse extends across every dimension of a survivor’s life — immediate and long-term, economic and deeply personal. The compensation available is designed to address both the tangible financial losses and the profound non-economic harm that survivors carry. In cases involving institutional cover-ups, the amounts can be substantial.

Damages available to California therapist sexual abuse survivors may include:

• Past and future therapy and counseling costs — the ongoing treatment required to address psychological harm caused by the abuse, often continuing for years or decades beyond the abuse itself
• Medical expenses — including inpatient psychiatric treatment, prescription medications, and any physical health consequences associated with the abuse or its aftermath
• Lost wages and diminished earning capacity — when the psychological impact of abuse prevents the survivor from working or causes significant career disruption and lost professional opportunity
• Pain and suffering — compensation for the physical and emotional pain endured during and following the abuse, including the ongoing psychological symptoms that affect daily functioning
• Emotional distress — a standalone and significant category of damages under California law that courts take seriously in cases involving gross professional misconduct and betrayal of therapeutic trust
• Punitive damages — available when an institutional defendant acted with malice, fraud, or oppression; especially significant when a facility engaged in deliberate concealment of known abuse or a documented pattern of complaints

In addition, California Civil Code §52.4 provides specific remedies for gender violence claims, including actual damages, civil penalties up to $25,000 per plaintiff per act of gender violence, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages. When a therapist’s conduct constitutes gender violence under this statute, it opens additional avenues for compensation beyond standard tort damages — often significantly increasing the total recovery available to survivors. Our Beverly Hills sexual abuse attorneys work with medical, psychological, and financial damages experts to build comprehensive presentations that account for the full lifetime impact of therapist sexual abuse on every aspect of a survivor’s life.

California Sexual Abuse Statistics — By the Numbers

Understanding the scale of sexual abuse committed by mental health professionals helps survivors recognize they are part of a larger pattern of systemic failure — one that California’s legislature has responded to with some of the strongest survivor-protection laws in the country.

1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men in the United States experience contact sexual violence at some point during their lifetimes, according to RAINN’s national sexual violence statistics, drawn from the CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.

7–12% of male therapists and 1–3% of female therapists have acknowledged some form of sexual contact or involvement with a patient in professional ethics studies and self-report surveys published in the mental health research literature — representing thousands of documented professional violations across California’s licensed mental health workforce alone.

Fewer than 1 in 3 sexual assaults in the United States are reported to law enforcement, according to national victimization data — underscoring why civil litigation is often the primary — and sometimes only — avenue through which survivors achieve meaningful accountability and official recognition of the harm done to them.

$250 million+ has been recovered on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse and catastrophic injury by the attorneys at Compass Law Group, LLP — including settlements and verdicts against individual abusers, healthcare systems, and institutional defendants throughout California.

December 31, 2026 is the hard and permanent deadline under California AB 2777 (CCP §340.16) for adult survivors to file previously time-barred civil claims — one of the most consequential legal deadlines currently facing any sexual abuse survivor in California, and one that will not be extended.

How Compass Law Group, LLP Advocates for Therapist and Psychiatrist Sexual Abuse Survivors

“Every client who comes to us after therapist sexual abuse has already done something profoundly courageous — they’ve decided to speak about what happened,” says Joseph Shirazi, Managing Partner of Compass Law Group, LLP. “Our role is to make everything that follows as supportive, transparent, and legally effective as possible. These cases require both rigorous legal skill and genuine human care, and our entire team is built around providing both from the very first call.”

Compass Law Group, LLP has recovered more than $250 million for survivors of sexual abuse and serious personal injury across California. Our founding attorneys — Joseph Shirazi (California Bar #265403) and Simon Esfandi (California Bar #275307) — bring deep experience in complex sexual abuse litigation involving licensed mental health professionals, behavioral health networks, government entities, and large hospital systems. Across our full range of practice areas — including sexual abuse, catastrophic physical injury, and spinal cord injury claims — our attorneys are known for comprehensive, survivor-centered representation.

We serve survivors throughout California from offices in Beverly Hills (our headquarters), Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, and Bell Gardens. No matter where you are in California — whether your therapist worked in a private group practice, a hospital system, a telehealth platform, or a government-funded community mental health center — our attorneys are positioned and resourced to pursue your case wherever accountability leads.

Survivors in Northern California can speak directly with our Sacramento sexual abuse lawyers or our San Francisco sexual abuse attorneys — both teams carry the same commitment to confidentiality, no-cost consultations, and the option to remain completely anonymous throughout the legal process. Every case Compass Law Group accepts is handled on a strict No Win, No Fee contingency basis: if we do not recover compensation for you, you owe us absolutely nothing. As a dedicated California sexual abuse law firm, we believe that financial barriers should never prevent a survivor from accessing the best possible legal representation. Call us today at (213) 320-1001 — our team is available, your call is confidential, and your first consultation is completely free.

References

1. California Code of Civil Procedure §340.1 (AB 218) — Sexual Abuse Statute of Limitations
2. RAINN — National Sexual Violence Statistics
3. California Code of Civil Procedure §340.16 (AB 2777) — Adult Survivor Revival Window

Joseph Shirazi
Managing Partner, Compass Law Group, LLP
California Bar #265403
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is unique.

Source: Compass Law Group | Therapist and Psychiatrist Sexual Abuse

Steps to Take After Therapist or Psychiatrist Sexual Abuse

1. Prioritize your safety and emotional support first. Your immediate well-being is more important than any legal step. Reach out to a trusted friend, family member, or crisis counselor. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-4673) is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and connects survivors with confidential local support, advocacy resources, and trained counselors who understand trauma.
2. Document everything you remember while the details are fresh. Write a detailed, dated written account of what happened — including specific dates, locations, what was said, what occurred, and the names of any potential witnesses. Store this document somewhere secure, separate from any devices or accounts the abuser or their employer might access. Contemporaneous written accounts carry significant evidentiary weight in civil proceedings and can be invaluable years later.
3. Preserve all records and communications without deleting anything. Save text messages, emails, voicemails, appointment confirmation records, billing statements, intake forms, insurance claims, and any written materials from the therapist or their office. Screenshot digital communications and back them up to a secure location. Even seemingly minor items — a billing record, a scheduling email — can become critical evidence during discovery.
4. Report to the appropriate California licensing board. Psychiatrists are licensed by the Medical Board of California; licensed therapists (LCSWs, MFTs) fall under the California Board of Behavioral Sciences; psychologists are regulated by the California Board of Psychology. Filing a formal complaint creates an official regulatory record, may trigger an investigation, and can uncover other survivors who have reported the same abuser — strengthening civil and potentially criminal accountability for the abuser’s conduct.
5. Consult a California sexual abuse attorney without delay. The December 31, 2026 deadline under AB 2777 (CCP §340.16) is absolute for adult survivors — and cases involving government entities require a formal claim within just 6 months of discovery. An attorney can evaluate your specific facts, identify every potential defendant including institutional parties, calculate all applicable deadlines, and immediately begin preserving evidence before it is lost or destroyed by the other side.
6. Avoid discussing the case publicly or with representatives of the abuser’s employer. Once you have decided to pursue legal action, statements made on social media, to insurance adjusters, or to administrators at the abuser’s practice can be selectively used to challenge your credibility. After you retain an attorney, direct all communications about your case through counsel only — your lawyer becomes your protected intermediary.

Source: Compass Law Group | Therapist and Psychiatrist Sexual Abuse

▶ Call (213) 320-1001 ▶ Free Consultation