Finding out there is offender working in T office

Ok... being an LPC does not mean anything.
There are many fantastic, talented, super ethical LPCs and many shady-AF PsyDs and Psychiatrists.
So that's really REALLY beside the point.

Wow. That is no place for a child predator. Geeze, wonder why he sought a favor to set up shop in a therapy practice with people who likely are easy targets? If his crime was so sophisticated the FBI was challenged, I would be worried about hacking and holes drilled in walls, including restrooms, etc.--yes, this happens all over the place.

I don't give a flip about him having done his time. If you've ever had your images snapped by a pedo and distributed, you tend to not believe that doing time is going to fix that.

I personally don't believe in "time served" for rapists and pedophiles. They are always dangerous and often reoffend, causing more trauma and destroying more lives. They can fall off a cliff as far as I'm concerned. Rapists in particular (IF they are even sentenced which is a big IF) get ridiculously low sentences. So this idea that they get to rebuild their lives is nonsense imo. It's not like they were driving without a license (which is dangerous enough). Your therapist renting him a room may be legal but it's a big red flag when it comes to his basic common sense as well as his ethics. No wonder you fired that guy!

I'm glad he's licensed because it opens up more options for sanction.

He's a reverend as well, not sure that matters and on the board for an organization that advocates for sex traffic victims.

I don’t know why the registry is still being argued about when OP asked this not become a thread on that and the poster who is being responded to has left the thread so it won’t become that argument.

Given that the registry is the law, Sarabeth, I think your therapist is showing really questionable ethics (especially if he sees kids). I think FKM’s suggestion of a letter of concern to his board is a really good one. It spares you the trauma of making a complaint while alerting them to the problem. Plus all they have to do is look at the registry to see the truth. (Even a licensing board should be able to manage that.) Nepotism—which can cover doing a favor for a friend using professional resources—is also unethical.

I’m glad you fired him.

Oh wow... I was just browsing (taking a break from work) and read your post. And then saw that this was the same T that wanted to prove his trustworthiness by having you talk to other clients... and just *wow*.

If it helps to know, my first reaction to your post about that guy working out of your T's office was to literally say out loud, "Oh heck no!"

How are you feeling about this T? From over here, at this point, he just seems like such a bad match. I mean, between the whole "I'm great! Want to meet my other clients? They can tell you, I'm great!" thing and now this... This makes me seriously question his judgment. And, I feel like working with Ts, you are in such a vulnerable place - you really need to be able to trust that they have good judgment when they're making recommendations or observations. With stuff like this, I don't know how you actually move forward with the therapeutic work when you can't trust your Ts judgment.

Anyway... I'd seriously consider finding a new T. I'm sorry, I know it's not easy. But, do you feel like you're making any progress with this guy? Or are you having to spend all your energy addressing issues like this, which honestly shouldn't be an issue. By that, I mean that your T should not have even considered letting this guy rent the space. It's crazy to think that he thought it was OK. It's crazy to think that he thought no clients would ever find out. It's crazy to think that clients would not be upset. And, given the level of secrecy/sophistication in the crime - it's crazy (in my mind) that your T trusts him to not put his clients at any kind of risk.

When your T does things like this, knowing it's likely to cause significant issues for his clients, it's really disrespectful to the clients, but also wastes your time/money. Because now, instead of focusing on yourself and your therapy - you have to go to a session and waste time/money trying to sort this out and trying to figure out how to maintain a sense of safety. Ugh - I am so sorry you're dealing with this!

I'm so shocked by this. I wouldn't feel safe around someone like that regardless of them doing time in prison.

My feelings? Intense and all over the map. So very triggering for me on so many levels. I feel betrayed, stupid, tricked, abandoned, invisible, uncared for, unsafe in general again, etc. It will take time to work through this one. His not caring when I confronted it and no ounce of compassion for any impact to me was hardest part maybe that and it deepened my already shaky feeling of being safe or of my safety mattering at all. Very raw... thank you so very much for the support here!!

Well I can certainly understand you feeling betrayed, tricked, abandoned, invisible and unsafe....I am going to have to quibble with the stupid part. I think you have shown enormous resourcefulness, bravery and savvy through all of this. Also, not invisible....and certainly not here on this forum.

You may look back on this and feel proud of yourself for facing it head on. Actually I'm pretty impressed.

OK, now I'm getting a really bad vibe. Maybe he's just a clueless "do-gooder" and too stupid to understand the ethical breech involved. I hope this is so. But this also smacks of a cover: like the most vocal homophobes that turn out to be deep in the closet? I would also mention these facts of his background in your letter to the licensing board. Because if he is the head of a church, and he's shady, he's also in proximity to kids. And the non-profit, if it's legitimate, is not going to want this guy anywhere near them. But you don't want to accuse him of anything, nor contact either board directly, in order to protect yourself from any legal blowback. If the licensing board takes your letter seriously (I really hope they do) and investigates, any further steps are best left to them. If you feel uncomfortable writing such a letter, you may want to consult a T with a solid reputation and in a respected position--not for therapy, but as a consultation about reporting. Or a lawyer. Hopefully, they will see evidence worthy of sanction.

And Sarabeth, remember that you felt something was "off" about this guy. That intuition should give you confidence.

So sorry, this sounds very very upsetting on so many different levels. I can understand how the world feels unsafe, here was a very dangerous and manipulative man practising( whatever it is he practises) right beside your t and then to find out your t rented him the room and knew about it.
That’s just really shocking and a really poor judgement in your ts behalf.
First code of ethics for therapists is “first do no harm” . His lack of compassion and understanding is frightening and also his lack of safety for his clients, especially if he sees children.
I imagine you are feeling all kinds of different emotions and hopefully some anger at your t.
I don’t blame this parole man, he trying to start again and is probably delighted somebody gave him the chance. I feel that healing is a very strong word and I only use it in relation to medical wounds and ailments because therapists who call themselves healers actually make me sick.
I think that you would and could be oblivious to many such men working in various roles in the community, getting this knowledge is really shocking but what’s worse is your ts reaction.
I would absolutely report him for this.

They're also not any less educated than LCSW's. Together, those master's level practitioners make up the bulk of working clinical therapists. Their training and experience can be much better geared toward exclusive therapy than that of psychiatrists and non-clinical psychologists.

I can understand being upset, and it sounds like you have other reasons to distrust this T so it's good that you're moving on. For me, though, I don't think I'd feel very worried unless I had actually interacted with the person in question.

I can see that. I don't know if I interacted with him or not. I'm dissociative, and so I don't remember everything that happens. I think because he adverties to specialize in D.I.D. he has clients coming there who allow Littles out to do therapy work or the process can trigger less functional parts forward. So extra caution to protect us in those vulnerable moments is needed. He spent a lot of time being critical of my hesitancy to relax and trust him. He would go on and on about he knows how to be safe like he doesn't do any sudden movements or get too close to his clients or all these things he does so well so I should feel safe. And then he goes and does this without giving me the informed choice if that kind of environment is what I want. I thought I was going to a therapeutic office that works with trauma survivors and other issues. I had no idea I was stepping into a program that would rent rooms to sexual offenders to do whatever unrelated business they want out of that room. Simply disclosing that in his paperwork in general terms would give clients a chance to choose. Something like one or more of the rooms in this Suite may be rented out to other businesses unrelated to therapy or this practice. I rent these rooms to people who are not held to the same standards of a therapist and could include sexual offenders on the registry or people with criminal backgrounds.

Yeah. And sad to say, but pedophiles are expert manipulators, often appearing to be the pillars of the community, camp counselors, church figures, charity advocates, authorities on issues effecting vulnerable populations. The news is full of such high profile cases. If he isn't among them, he's certainly acting in ways that cast doubt.

Yeah, been having this fear running in the back of my brain for awhile.

But you've protected yourself. Your intuition and willingness to trust yourself are intact.

Yes, I hope I get to a point where my intuition doesn't need outside validation for me to act on it. If I had acted when my gut knew...I'd been spared other mistreatment I haven't written here about.

Although the man has a right to reboot his life after serving time, it’s the therapist who is showing terrible judgement by letting this guy rent a space. Like there was no other way to help him get back on his feet that doesn’t bring risk to his patients?

Exactly.

Please, please tell me that you realize you're not stupid... you're the opposite of stupid! None of this stuff was made public, but you:
- were observant and paying attention to the situation in the building
- were able to find out who was renting the other rooms
- were able to look them up and find that they were on the offender registry
- were able to confront your T about this! (*This is huge! Lots of people find confrontations like this really hard!)
- And it sounds like you've made the decision to move on, and not see this T again (did I get that right?). Which is also huge, because a lot of people (me included!) can get sort of "stuck" with a T who's not working out, for whatever reason, and can be a little hesitant to leave.

Frankly, I think you're *awesome*! I mean, look at what you did!

(If you meant stupid for not knowing... how could you? It wasn't disclosed, and nobody could really have expected this. I haven't heard of anyone routinely screening all the people in their T's office, because nobody expects a T to bring in someone like this!)

I hope you can recognize the good things that you've done, and start to process some of the feelings. I'd be really upset too, and your T just sounds like an idiot. I'm sorry (!) but seriously, anyone who tells a therapy patient, "I know how to be safe. I do a very good job of it. So, you should feel safe." is just completely unqualified to do this work. It is beyond ridiculous and makes it look like there's something wrong with you, as opposed to recognizing that OF COURSE you don't feel safe (trauma does that to a person!) and asking for feedback on whether there's anything else that you need to help you feel safer.

I wish you had been here a couple years ago... I posted something (not sure I can find it now) about the T I was seeing then, basically a list of everything he was doing wrong (making me feel unsafe). I was advised to bring it to him... I did, and he was surprised, but took it seriously and did his best to stop doing things (like putting his feet on the couch that I was sitting on!) that freaked me out.

Heck, even my current therapist... we're struggling, it's awkward, we're not sure why. I've told her that it's like this with ALL therapists and that I suck at therapy, and she very, very strongly told me that this is all on her, it's her job to figure it out and create a safe environment. Not my job to force myself to feel safe.

I'd feel the same Sara.
Awful. I don't care if a sex offender has done their time. Victims of their crime don't have an end to the torment they cause.

I would not be comfortable either with a pedophile in the building, so I wholeheartedly agree with your actions.

Agree with Guilloche. You should be proud of yourself!

I read this book about a year ago:

The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence is a nonfiction self-help book (Dell Publishing 1997, republished with new epilogue 1998) written by Gavin de Becker. The book demonstrates how every individual should learn to trust the inherent "gift" of their gut instinct. By learning to recognize various warning signs and precursors to violence, it becomes possible to avoid potential trauma and harm.
(This was copied from Wickipedia.)

It stresses that human beings are equipped with quite good instincts to detect potential danger if we would only listen to the signals. All my life I've ignored those instincts for fear of looking stupid or embarrassing myself or someone else. Now, if the alarm bells go off, I try to pay attention.