A job satisfaction survey of U.S. workers highlighted mental health counseling as one of the country's most challenging yet personally fulfilling careers. Therapists told surveyors they enjoy helping to improve their clients' lives. Many described the gratification they feel helping others move through difficult life transitions and learn to handle personal challenges in a healthy manner. Therapists also said they enjoy being part of a profession that enables them to put their values into action by doing something meaningful that can have a positive effect on the world.
Therapists like the flexibility of being able to work in a variety of job settings, including mental health centers, community health centers, and private practice. They also noted that a mental-health counseling career can be financially rewarding. Therapists and mental health counselors in South Carolina–particularly those based in Charleston, North Charleston, Greenville, Columbia, Rock Hill, Mount Pleasant, and Summerville–earn some of the highest incomes in the state.
Unfortunately, all this can be put at risk if someone files a complaint against a licensed South Carolina therapist with the Division of Professional and Occupational Licensing Board. The Division regulates all those holding professional licenses in South Carolina, including professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, addiction counselors, and psycho-educational specialists.
The Lento Law Firm's professional license defense attorneys advise and represent South Carolina licensed mental-health professionals whose licenses have been challenged by the Licensing Board. From first contact through resolution of the problem, the Lento Law Firm Team offers sensitive, exacting attention to their clients' cases, from the initial interview all the way through the resolution of the matter. If you find out the Board is looking into a complaint against you or discover you've done something that is considered a reportable action, then call the Lento Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or use our contact form.
The Hard Work of Becoming a Licensed South Carolina Mental-Health Counselor
Licensed therapists devote a considerable amount of time, money, and energy to earning their degrees. It takes years of dedicated study to become a licensed mental health counselor. South Carolina requires that a candidate for licensure submit evidence that they have earned a master's degree, specialist's degree, or doctoral (PhD) degree that includes sixty post-graduate hours of supervised counseling experience. It's a proud day when South Carolina grants you that license. No therapist contacted by the Licensing Board should risk losing it all by not seeking legal representation with the Lento Law Firm.
The South Carolina Occupational Licensing Board's Mission
The official mission of the South Carolina Occupational Licensing Board is to ensure that all licensed professionals adhere to professional standards. The Board insists its role is not to punish individuals but to protect the public's health, safety, and welfare. Nevertheless, licensed therapists sometimes find themselves singled out for an investigation based on charges that are exaggerated, distorted, or omit crucial details.
The shock a mental-health counselor feels after learning someone has filed a complaint is soon followed by the challenge of responding to the Board within the given deadline. A therapist who misses the deadline risks a default judgment and a suspended license.
Responding to a complaint and dealing with Board staff can be stressful and intimidating. That's why so many South Carolina mental-health counselors have sought out the Lento Law Firm. The Firm's professional license defense attorneys have had years of experience representing therapists and mental health counselors before South Carolina's Professional and Occupational Licensing Board.
Who Can File a Complaint Against a Therapist or Mental-Health Counselor?
Anyone can file a complaint, but the Board doesn't take every complaint at face value. A review process exists to determine whether the complaint is credible enough to be worth channeling Board time and resources into an investigation. A designated screener must first read the complaint carefully and evaluate the allegations. If the charges don't amount to any sort of regulatory violation, the Board will dismiss the complaint and inform the complainant of its decision.
In addition to individual complaints, health agencies and private employers that employ therapists and mental health counselors are required to report lapses in protocol to the Division of Professional and Occupational Licensing Board. A therapist may then receive a letter informing them they have been cited for record-keeping violations, such as failing to maintain adequate records on their patients and clients.
Who Investigates Complaints About Licensed Therapists?
If the screener decides a complaint has merit, they pass it on to South Carolina's Office of Investigations and Enforcement (OIE), the state agency tasked with investigating complaints against all licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, addiction mental-health counselors, and psycho-educational specialists. At that point, it is assigned to a specialist familiar with state regulations regarding licensing requirements.
The Board's Investigative Process
After reviewing the complaint, if the Office of Investigations and Enforcement finds sufficient evidence to believe an investigation is warranted, they will send a letter to the licensed therapist laying out the allegations and asking for an explanation. If the therapist fails to respond by the deadline listed in the letter or provides an unsatisfactory response, the Office will obtain authorization from the Division to file a formal complaint.
The Lento Law Firm Client Intake Process
After a South Carolina therapist makes initial contact with the Lento Law Firm, they will hear from a member of the Lento Law Firm Team. The Team member will ask for more details and discuss key documents and witnesses so they can begin collecting relevant records and interviewing third parties with personal knowledge of the circumstances of the alleged infraction.
The Lento Law Firm team member then begins putting together a fact-based argument that puts the therapist's conduct in the best light, including any mitigating circumstances. In making its determination, the Licensing Board seriously considers mitigating circumstances such as lack of any prior record of discipline and personal or work-related issues.
After constructing a strong, well-organized explanation, the Lento Law Firm's attorneys contact the Licensing Board and advocate forcefully but diplomatically on behalf of their clients. Our lawyers are prepared and ready to provide representation at an informal meeting, a settlement conference, or an administrative hearing.
The Administrative Hearing
Administrative hearings are conducted much like courthouse trials. They have the same formality as trials, and all witnesses must swear an oath to tell the truth. The major differences are that they are held in a non-courtroom setting (often a conference room), and there is more flexibility in the process.
A hearing opens with the hearing officer calling the room to order and asking all participants to identify themselves. The Licensing Board always presents its case first. An OIE lawyer acts as the prosecutor and presents the Licensing Board's case using witnesses and documents. Your attorney will then be given the opportunity to cross-examine their witnesses.
Next, you and your attorney present your side of the case. The attorney will ask you questions and show you documents you have previously provided that could help refute the Board's case. You and the attorney will have practiced going over your testimony a few days before the hearing so you will know what to say. The OIE lawyer will then be allowed to cross-examine you. Unlike in TV shows, no surprise witnesses or documents are allowed to be brought out in an administrative hearing because both parties have been required to disclose all their evidence.
Hearing officers act as neutral facilitators. They are not authorized to decide the matter: That responsibility falls to members ofthe South Carolina Board of Examiners. The Board always takes some time to come to a decision, so days and perhaps weeks may pass before they issue a decision.
Administrative hearings are time-consuming and stressful. Only rarely do they result in a better outcome than could have been achieved through a negotiated settlement. Because of this, most therapists defer to their attorney's experience and judgment and rely on them to negotiate a settlement with the OIE before a hearing is scheduled.
Board Actions and Penalties
Licensed counselors and therapists who opt to deal with the Division of Professional and Occupational Licensing Board on their own often end up receiving a public reprimand. The Board publishes the full names and details of actions taken against any licensed therapists who receive a public reprimand or a stronger sanction. This information is available online for anyone who searches the Board's website.
Recent Board Orders
Below are a few examples of recent disciplinary actions against South Carolina mental health counselors who received public reprovals or stronger sanctions. Some were suspended and required to work under a supervisor for several months.
In all cases, their names were publicly posted online, along with descriptions of their offenses. Other penalties included financial sanctions in the form of fines and being assessed for investigative costs. Assessment costs are at the Administrator's discretion and can be quite substantial.
Disclosure of Confidential Information
A South Carolina therapist became involved in a custody dispute between a married couple whom he had previously counseled. At the husband's request and without seeking the wife's consent, he filed an affidavit with a family-law judge that disclosed confidential communications. After reading the affidavit, the court ordered the woman to undergo psychiatric testing. In addition to other sanctions, the therapist received a public reprimand and was ordered to take ethics training.
Practicing Outside the Scope of Practice and Fraudulent Billing
For three years, a South Carolina therapist treated patients without a clinical supervisor, although she was not permitted to do so. The therapist also billed insurance companies using the Medicaid identification number of another counselor, who she later claimed was her supervisor. The counselor was not her supervisor, was not licensed as a supervisor, and had no knowledge that the other woman was using her number. The truth came to light when the counselor learned someone else was using her number and filed a fraud report with the Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to other sanctions, the Board issued a public reprimand and ordered the counselor to take a continuing education course in proper billing practices.
Failure To Properly Document Treatment Sessions
A South Carolina therapist working one-on-one with patients at a psychiatric residential treatment facility fell months behind on his client documentation in violation of state law. He was ordered to enroll in a continuing education course related to documentation at his own expense and to complete thirty hours of Board-approved supervision before he would be allowed to resume treating patients on his own.
Boundary-Crossing Violations
South Carolina law prohibits a therapist from developing any sort of outside relationship with a patient until two years have passed since the patient ended treatment with the therapist. Quite a few therapists developed personal relationships with patients outside of the therapy sessions that crossed ethical boundaries. The counselors were sanctioned for developing inappropriate relationships that crossed patient-therapist boundaries, including:
- making non-consensual romantic overtures;
- engaging in consensual romantic relationships;
- allowing a client to move in with the therapist and her family;
- inviting a patient to volunteer with a charitable nonprofit in which the therapist held a leadership role, then becoming the patient's supervisor while continuing to hold therapy sessions
Some of the therapists were suspended and required to work under supervision for several months. Most received public reprovals. In all cases, the details of their inappropriate activities were publicly posted to the Board's website.
The Value in Having a Lento Law Firm Professional License-Defense Lawyer By Your Side
Your license is your livelihood. Just as you're knowledgeable and experienced in your field, so are Lento Law Firm attorneys knowledgeable and experienced at representing mental-health professionals before the South Carolina's Division of Professional and Occupational Licensing Board. Don't gamble with your livelihood by trying to deal with the Board on your own. Call the Lento Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or use our contact form.
