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Sex Offender As Therapist?!

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BuckarooBanzai

MyPTSD Pro
My brother is a registered sex offender (incest with a minor). He spent some six years in prison.

While in prison, he earned a BA in psychology, and some sort of pastoral license, from an unaccredited Bible college. After his release, he found THREE accredited universities willing to accept him for an MA or PhD in counseling.

The first university actually allowed him to participate in their practicum. More than once. I cannot figure out how he practiced, even under supervision, in a clinic given his sex offender status. I reported him to the university. They allowed him to graduate with his MA in counseling, but wouldn't allow him to complete his doctorate.

Another university then allowed him to matriculate into their doctoral program in counseling. They also had him teaching an undergraduate course in psychology (Interpersonal Relationship Skills!). At this point, he opened a group practice with other students under supervision. I complained to the licensing board. They shut down his practice.

Apparently, he doesn't have a license. But, he does now have his doctorate in counseling. So, he set up a new private practice called, "XX Coaching and Counseling". Due to his pastor's license and his doctorate, plus the fact that 'anyone' can coach, he is in business. He doesn't claim to be licensed, but on his personal page, under his name, he of course lists his MA and PhD in counseling. So, most people would assume he is a licensed counselor.

This is making me crazy.

Also, I have a hard time trusting therapists, now that I know just how easy it is to get into the business.

I am very troubled.
 
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That is dreadful. Good on you for taking action.

You say it was incest, which means the minor was related to him. Was he charged mainly because it was incest Or because it was a minor? By that I guess I am asking if it was a consensual relationship albeit illegal. My thinking is that would make a difference on his risk of reoffending.

Is he on the register for a set period or for life ( my father is registered for life). What restrictions are imposed? Is he restricted in employment and contact with minors? Does he have to legally declare his conviction when applying for a job. (he would have to in the UK)? Does he have to attend the Police station on a regular basis?

If he is trading unlicensed but any reasonable person would misinterpret his advertising as being licences could trading standards take it up? It could be seen as false or at the very least misleading, advertising.

Good on you for being so astute with this. We do not need people like this becoming therapists.
 
There are HORRID people praticing "mental health counslor" (without the "liecenced") in this country! I went to 4, two of which im positive were sex offenders as they both acted on my come ons. One advanced at me before i then replied with an advance (what my brain says im supposed to do). Im positive he, at least, is a sex offender.

My nephew is in prision right now as an adult on a minor (12 yr old) and will be in there a good while.

I agree with continued education in prison but a "counselor"? Come on!

Good on your for the reports and id advise on any and all professional page he has (all over it a millon times) that he is a registered sex offender and even link them to his face on the sex offender website!
 
It's hard to know how to answer your questions, because he hasn't been honest with our family about any of this. In fact, he pleaded guilty in order to keep all of the sordid details from coming out in public. He told our parents, and anyone who asks, that this was a consensual relationship he had with his step daughter AFTER she became an adult. And yet, the sex offender registery and the court documents all say otherwise.

When I was 20 y/o, and he was 19, I suspected he was in trouble because he was spending a LOT of time alone with a particular fatherless boy. It was way over the top. But I couldn't say or do anything because the boy and his mother weren't complaining; they thought my brother a great guy.

Next thing I knew, when I was about 30 y/o, our other brother led me to believe that this offender brother had molested him, beginning when he was six years old.

Then, I did a parentectomy and disappeared from the family. Abusive parents plus all of this was too much.

I came back to the family some twenty years later, when our father was dying, to find out that the offender brother was getting out of prison for the incest offense.

OK. So this is what I know. His step-daughter, in her late teens, became engaged. They went to their pastor for pre-marital counseling. In one session, the step-daughter told the pastor what had happened with my brother. I wasn't there to hear what she said, but I do know that whatever she said troubled him so much, he called the police and the police put out a bench warrant for his arrest.

By that point, though, he had left his wife and moved out of state, apparently living under an alias. While working, then, a female colleague accused him of either sexual harrasment or worse. Somehow, he was brought into the police station for questioning. They found a bench warrant out for his arrest in State 1, and sent him back to face the court.

My brother pleaded guilty to incest with a minor. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

As soon as he came off parole, he moved out of state to attend graduate school in counseling. He is not on parole, I assume, because he was allowed to move to another state. At the new state, he must appear to have his picture taken and his regististration updated every six or twelve months. Also, he must update his registration every time he moves or takes on a new job.

I have a 'subscription' to his sex offender registry page. They must email me every single time he changes something on the registry. On the registry, he has, all along, listed his schooling, that he works at the university, and the names of his businesses, so apparently he is on the up-and-up.

The only lie I have recently caught him in, though, troubles me, too. His first name is Charles, so that's the name he is registered under. BUT, no one every calls him Charles, only Chuck. So, when he set up his private practices, he set them up under 'Chuck'. This made it harder for potential employers or clients to find out about his sex offender status. So, rat fink that I am, I contacted the sex offender registry in his state and finked on him; I insisted they list 'Chuck' as an alias on his registry page, so people could find him under that name - and they did.

I have absolutely no idea whether he is allowed to work or be with minors. I do know there is apparently a law as to where he can live, as to how close he can live to schools and such.

That's about all I know.
 
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...id advise on any and all professional page he has (all over it a millon times) that he is a registered sex offender and even link them to his face on the sex offender website!

There is no way to post to his website, so I cannot warn anyone that way.

I did, however, find that he had about fifteen listings with Psychology Today, in their therapist ads, and I certainly shot PT a dirty email demanding they dump him. They did within twenty-four hours.

Ben
 
Stickler, I contacted the licensing board of his state. That's how I prevented him from getting licensed. However, it is apparently legal for him to do what he is doing now, as long as he doesn't claim to be licensed.

Regarding calling the newspapers, this is where it gets rough for me. He now has tens, if not a hundred, thousand dollars in loans to repay, now that he has graduated with his PhD. He needs to work. His repayment schedule is something like $1,000 per month. I am afraid to go after him 100%, especially now that he has listed on his sex offender registry page that he is homeless and living out of his car. He is looking for full-time work but can't find anything.

I feel guilty ruining him to the point where he cannot stay alive.

I am so terribly conflicted.

Ben
 
I don't know how sentencing works in the U.S but 6 years prison in the UK would indicate a fairly serious offence. If he has restrictions on where he can live, it's likely he is out in license and the terms of the license will determine the kind of work he can do.

I'd be surprised if the terms of any license would allow him to work with vulnerable people although, as you say, anyone can set up as an unlicensed counsellor. What an awful situation.
 
Does your state have an online site that lists all registered sex offenders?

You can print out his "page" that identified his sex offender status and mail it to everyone in his neighborhood. Plaster it around town if you so desire. It's all public knowledge so it's perfectly legal.

I really don't care about the circumstances of his conviction. In the end it doesn't matter! Why? There are a MILLION other jobs that he could do that wouldn't put him in close, personal, intimate proximity to others------this field is probably the most vulnerable to victimization given the nature of therapy. He's deliberately chosen to enter a field that gives him ready access to "victims". Disgusting IMHO. These aren't the actions of someone who is innocent and sorry-----he's deliberately trying to skirt the system. And I have to believe it's for more than just a love of psychology.
 
Remember, you aren't ruining him.

He chose to take on all that debt.

You are choosing to save other people from being victimized.

I wouldn't hesitate to make a 100 sexual abusers homeless and destitute if it meant saving people from becoming victims.

He can always get a job doing something else.
 
I feel guilty ruining him to the point where he cannot stay alive.
As a pastoral 'counselor', is it an option for him to work with the incarcerated?

My opinion: you need to be upfront with him, and tell him that as long as he's trying to operate in private practice, you are going to be dogging him. If you believe that's your ethical responsibility, then, there it is.

And if you want to help him, try and think about ways you'd be comfortable with him pursuing this particular career path. I'd think that being limited to working with adults in restricted settings would be a possibility. But only you will know what you are going to be comfortable with.
 
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