Therapists' Attitude toward Sexual and Erotic Feelings Scale (TASEF)

Background

The Therapists' Attitude toward Sexual and Erotic Feelings Scale (TASEF) is a 19-item questionnaire used to assess how therapists think, feel, and respond when encountering sexual and erotic feelings within the therapeutic relationship. The survey was published by Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan and colleagues in 2024 as a tool to help clinicians understand, measure, and manage their erotic transference and countertransference reactions.

It assesses a therapist's response to encountering sexual content within the therapeutic relationship on four subscales:

1. Gratification (7 items): A therapist's positive affect towards a patient’s sexual attraction toward them
2. Fear (6 items): A therapist's apprehension when encountering sexual feelings from the patient
3. Aversion (3 items): A therapist’s aversion toward the patient’s sexual feelings
4. Threat (3 items): A therapist's perception of risk or danger that erotic transference poses to the patient

The TASEF shows decent internal consistency on subscales 'Fear', 'Aversion' and 'Fear' (Cronbach’s Alpha >= 0.75) and consistently lower consistency measures for subscale 'Gratification'.

Task Procedure

Participants rate how much 19 statements, such as "It is important to me to be seen as attractive in the eyes of some of my patients" describe their reactions on 5 response anchors ranging from 'Not at all'(1 points) to 'Very much' (6 points). There are no reversed-scored items in this survey.

What it Measures

The Therapists' Attitude toward Sexual and Erotic Feelings Scale (TASEF) assesses a therapist's erotic transference and countertransference reactions

Psychological domains

• Emotion Regulation: Ability to monitor, evaluate, and modify the intensity, duration, and expression of our emotional responses.
• Transference/Countertransference: Unconscious projections of emotions from past relationships onto the people in the current therapeutic relationship
• Risk Assessment: Systematic process of identifying potential hazards, estimating the likelihood and severity of harm occurring and finding ways to deal with them

Main Performance Metrics

• Gratification Score: Average of individual scores (Range: 1-5); high scores indicate 'high gratification for experiencing erotic transference within the therapeutic relationship'
• Fear Score: Average of individual scores (Range: 1-5); high scores indicate 'high (emotional) apprehension regarding erotic feelings within the therapeutic relationship'
• Aversion Score: Average of individual scores (Range: 1-5); high scores indicate 'high degree of aversion/repulsion of dealing with erotic topics in the therapeutic relationship'
• Threat Score: Average of individual scores (Range: 1-5); high scores indicate reporting 'a high degree of cognitive risk calculations regarding transference and countertransference reactions'

Psychiatric Conditions

The TASEF is typically used in Research and in Clinical Supervision and Training.

References

Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Therapists' Attitude toward Sexual and Erotic Feelings Scale (TASEF).

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Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan, Omer Lans & Lee Reuveni (2024) Lo(u)st in Therapy: Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Therapists’ Attitude toward Sexual and Erotic Feelings Scale (TASEF), Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 50:1, 35-54, DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2023.2246477

Lazaridou, M., & Sofroni, I. (2025). A correlational study of Greek therapists’ responses to sexual and erotic feelings during psychotherapy. European Psychiatry, 68(S1), S742–S743. https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2025.1506