It doesn't matter. The law doesn't require a therapist to have a prove of abuse. The law says that a therapist has to only have a "reasonable suspicion" that abuse might be taking place in order to report. No one expects a therapist to be an investigator or a judge. It is not their responsibility. Their responsibility is to exercise their sound judgment and based on that to decide if something warrants reporting.

Also, it doesn't matter if it's a second hand knowledge. If the knowledge is gained while a therapist is functioning in their professional capacity, they are still required to report it, again, if they believe that abuse might be taking place.


This also doesn't matter. It makes no difference how many times it was reported before. The fact that something has been reported before doesn't relieve a therapist of their legal responsibility to report it. I had to report cases that were reported many times before. Mandate is mandate, nothing changes it.


This is understandable. And it was totally appropriate for her to caution you about it. What was not appropriate is to put the entire responsibility for taking care of this issue on you when she, in fact, had her own responsibility to report your brother's behavior around minors to CPS, which she didn't fulfill.

And, also, while it's completely understandable that she was concerned about well-being of your children and wanted to put you on alert, it was unprofessional of her to demand that you cut ties with your brother. Not letting him be around your daughters is one thing, but ending the relationship all together is another.

I want to make it clear that I am not expressing an opinion on whether you should or shouldn't have ended the relationship with your brother. I have no opinion on that. I believe it is entirely your personal choice and I also believe your therapist should've left it up to you to decide.

She could've and should've explained the situation as she was seeing it and alerted you to all the dangers both to your children and to you, but the choice of what to do was ultimately yours.

If you had allowed your brother to be around your daughters and something had happened, you could've been legally in trouble, as well as your brother (not to mention the harm that would've been done to your children, of course), which is, again, something perfectly appropriate for her to tell you. But the choice of what to do with this information was ultimately yours and responsibility for any consequences would've been yours.

She should've only taken care of her professional responsibility, which, in this case, was to report your brother's behavior.