Psychologist Marcel Saxone banned after affair with married client

A psychologist has been banned from working with other clients after a married woman alleged they spoke about sex and exchanged hundreds of emails.

Psychologist Marcel Saxone has been banned from working with other clients.

A psychologist claims his client became “so angered” at him for rebuffing their illicit friendship that she “sought revenge” by telling authorities they were in a sexual relationship.

Marcel Saxone has been banned from working with clients after a married woman reported him to authorities over their relationship, which she said “included numerous descriptions of sexual activity”.

A tribunal found Mr Saxone was lying when he denied the affair, with evidence of the pair exchanging 732 emails, speaking on the phone, via text, and hosting the woman at his home over four years to 2017.

The ex-registered psychologist even went as far to tell the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that the woman “sought revenge and vindication by fabricating the sexual relationship” and reporting him to the Psychology Board of Australia.

She was “manipulative and prone to jealousy and rage, particularly when things did not go her way,” he claimed.

Mr Saxone also said he had a “hunch” that she had Borderline Personality Disorder, despite not being qualified to diagnose conditions and there being no evidence of her having the disorder.

“He was asked whether he had raised the condition in an attempt to undermine the client’s credibility and to show her to be unreliable,” a tribunal reported.

“Saxone denied that proposition and said he was not qualified to diagnose. He stated he had no intention to ‘bad mouth the poor woman’ to whom he said he had caused enough damage.”

He later withdrew his contention that she had the condition.

The woman told the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency that she had been involved in sex acts with Mr Saxone, but they didn’t have intercourse.

“Once he told me that he was afraid that if we intercourse I would get pregnant,” she said.

“He also made a comment that day that he needs to leave something for his wife meaning that he couldn’t spend all his energy onto me.”

A panel of three tribunal members found his conduct “involved multiple breaches of the boundaries” between a treating psychologist and his client after he conceded to providing substandard care and failing to keep adequate clinical records.

Court documents show Mr Saxone had 91 consultations with the woman over two years from February 2013, but continued to have undocumented and “intense” sessions for 18 months afterwards, where he accepted gifts in exchange for psychological services.

The client reported Mr Saxone to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency in August 2018, on the same day she told a friend and registered psychologist about Mr Saxone’s conduct.

He was suspended a month later, and continued to be suspended, claiming he didn’t plan to return to practice.

An investigation by the Psychology Board of Australia referred the complaint to VCAT in September 2020, with the tribunal handing down its findings last month following a four-day hearing.

Among witnesses to give evidence was the woman’s psychologist friend and her husband, who was once also a client of Mr Saxone’s.

A panel of VCAT members upheld four allegations against Mr Saxone in late April, with a further hearing to be held at a future date.