In Maryland today, the Board of Professional Counselors does not do criminal checks or back ground checks on people who apply for a license to be a therapist. They do ask a question on their application about if you have been charged with a crime or have a criminal record. I have a question like that on my application to be a bartender. If they don't want you to know they have a criminal record they are going to lie.
What this means is a person with a criminal record like for instance a child molester-yes I realize they do have stricter laws on child molesters but let's just use that in this situation. A convicted child molester serves time in prison and while there decides to get his degree as a therapist, he gets out of jail comes to Maryland and applies for his license, he of course lies on his application about having a criminal record and gets his license to practice. He decides to open up practice as a child therapist where he is around children all the time. The board doesn't care because they don't know about his record and don't care to know about his record. The therapist is back at the hands of all those children. Then he gets reported, the board does an investigation and finds out about his criminal record, slaps his hands, fines him-which of course the Board profits from, and he surrenders his license. Does this sound like a good way to practice in Maryland? How would you like to know that the therapist you are going to has a criminal record? Here are a few links to check out some of what I am written.
Board of Professional Counselors http://dhmh.maryland.gov/bopc/SitePages/Home.aspx
How to file a complaint with http://dhmh.maryland.gov/bopc/SitePages/complaint.aspx
Discipline matters http://dhmh.maryland.gov/bopc/SitePages/disciplinematters.aspx
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