lamzydivey

My psychiatrist sexually exploited me when I was 21 and in undergrad. He was a campus psychiatrist who then moved me to his private practice off campus. I reported him to the medical board and he voluntarily surrendered his license but got it back a few years later. How can this happen? Why was I not contacted or had no say in this? Is it because he is an MD that he had a much lesser punishment than if he was licensed by a mental health board? For all purposes he was my psychotherapist as he wasn't prescribing me any meds, just talk therapy.

I am not sure, this happened in California. If you search his name on the medical board licensing website, it does come up with the reason he surrendered his license and even includes the court documents. Also, all the documents when he got his license reinstated. It makes it out to be my fault though, as a “seductive patient” he was a victim of, that he didn’t have the skills to handle at the time. Really frustrating. It’s been ten years so I’m trying to move on but it hurts to feel like no one could protect you, like you said, especially a therapist, the one person you trusted implicitly over anyone. Thanks for your kind words and the work you did.

I suppose having it on his record could provide me with some solace, but how many people actually look their doctor’s licenses up? It’s frustrating to know he is able to practice again, and his current patients are none the wiser.

I just read in another comment you wrote:

The most common way is they are sent to treatment programs -- there are quite a few treatment centers for this across the nation. Many of them involved taking polygraphs and going to a lot of therapy sessions and then often having a requirement to have a chaperone in the room with some patients after being allowed to come back to seeing patients. However, most patients will not know that their doctor has been disciplined unless they know how to look it up and the discipline was public.

This is exactly what happened to me. He went to lots of therapy sessions and apparently some other therapist deemed him of unlikely to offend again and he got his license back. He is allowed to practice again although I do think he does need a chaperone in the room but like you said, most patients will have no idea he was disciplined.

I had no idea this was such an epidemic. Thank you for all the work you've done in uncovering this. Just this thread alone makes me feel more validated.

The victims of such doctor abuse never receive anything. All I wanted was an apology and I got nothing from the medical board nor the psychiatrist who exploited me. We are never even contacted or asked for our side of the story.