AN OXFORD psychotherapist has been suspended from the profession after allegations he had a sexual relationship with a patient.

Rob Waygood was accused of persuading a female client not to get married in order to pursue a relationship with her.

A UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) panel last October ruled Mr Waygood should receive just a warning but a review has seen him suspended from practising for six months.

An initial complaint came to the UKCP alleging that Mr Waygood had breached his responsibility by talking about his own sexuality and sexual history to a client.

He was also accused of hugging and kissing his client on the hair and neck in March 2011, visiting the client’s house in April 2011, and beginning a sexual affair in April or May 2011.

The UKCP’s panel decision published last month reads: “The panel was satisfied the registrant had made early admissions in respect of these allegations and had not sought to deny the allegations, nor indeed to put the aggrieved party to the task of giving evidence.”

But it added: “The panel determined that the registrant’s behaviour was so serious that the reputation of both the profession and that of the regulators was at enormous risk and that in the circumstances it would only be on the rarest of occasions that suspension was not the appropriate sanction.”