Another thing to keep in mind for anyone who wants to report is that the therapist will submit the copies or the summary of your records to the board, which means that the board investigators and everyone connected to your case will read all the private details of your life that the therapist put in the records, some of which could be embarrassing and might reflect negatively on your credibility.

This, in and of itself, will not shift the board's judgment in the therapist's favor. The client's credibility or likability is not a factor in their decision making process because it is the therapist's, not the client's actions, that are under investigation and the subject of potential disciplinary actions. The client is not the focus of the board's attention, the therapist is.

But, in the process of investigating and evaluating your case, many people will read your records, so, if you are sensitive to this fact, you need to keep that in mind when filing a complaint. However, your therapy records will never become a public record, so you don't have to worry about that. The details of your case will go public if and when the whole process is complete and the board reaches the settlement with the therapist or if the therapist gets disciplined through the court system. But when the board makes the details of the case public, it uses a very generalized language and doesn't reveal the client's full name, only initials.