Speaking publicly for the first time, the family of a troubled woman treated by St. Cloud psychologist Suzanne James denounced state regulators for not taking stronger action against the therapist for encouraging the woman's delusions of satanic cult rituals and government mind-control experiments.
Though the Minnesota Board of Psychology concluded that James violated numerous laws and regulations governing doctor-patient conduct, regulators did not take away her license or forbid her from treating the woman, who allegedly suffers from multiple personality disorder.
"It's almost like they're treating her as someone who needs help rather than someone who's screwed up someone else's life," said Kelly McCormick, a relative whose complaint initiated the state investigation. "I don't understand how you could find what she did was wrong and yet you allow her to continue to see my" relative.
McCormick and other family members also question whether James received favorable treatment because her husband, Norman L. James, spent 13 years on the state board. His last four-year term expired in 2000.
Angelina Barnes, the board's executive director, said that Norman James' previous role on the board did not influence the outcome in his wife's case and created no conflict of interest. Barnes said she didn't believe any current board members had served with or met Norman James. She said the disciplinary proceeding was "entirely objective."
In a disciplinary report issued in October, the state board found that James made her client sicker, encouraging and occasionally embellishing her lurid tales, even when the woman expressed doubts about the truth of her recovered memories.
But state regulators decided that James could continue seeing the woman and two other patients suffering from multiple personality disorder as long as she discusses her treatment methods with a supervising psychologist for at least two hours each month. James also must undergo counseling and training on professional boundaries and meet other conditions.
McCormick said the state didn't go far enough in protecting the public from James' unsound treatment methods.
"I called them right away and said, 'I'm glad you did something, but I don't think it's enough,'" McCormick said. "I think this lady needs her license taken away."
Barnes said that it is difficult to revoke a psychologist's license, and that regulators look at previous cases when handing out discipline. In 1999 the board banned another psychologist from treating patients in cases involving potential cult abuse because she allegedly had manipulated a client into recalling false memories. Norman James is one of the board members who signed the order.
"Ultimately, the board's goal is ... ensuring the public is protected with the least restrictive remedy," Barnes said. "We have to trust in the process."
Tom Pearson, Suzanne James' attorney, said his client is committed to complying with the state's disciplinary action, but he would not comment further.
'Impaired objectivity'
McCormick said she decided to file a complaint with the state in 2006, after learning that James had introduced their relative to another client. According to the state board's report, the other woman "had a history of criminal behavior since the age of 16, was currently embroiled in legal difficulties due to charges concerning a DWI and the theft of a firearm and an attempt by her family to have her committed due to mental illness."
James told investigators she knew it was "outside the box" to bring the two women to a hotel to avoid members of a cult that had supposedly pursued McCormick's relative for decades. But James said it was the best way to protect her client. The board cited the incident as evidence of James' "impaired objectivity."
After the incident, the client's husband confronted his wife, McCormick said. His wife began to open up about her therapy sessions, which her husband said included hypnotic therapy.
"I don't know how much of the sickness is true and how much has been facilitated by Suzanne," McCormick said. "When the cult thing came out, I thought, she's not dealing in reality."
McCormick's relative told James that her parents sold her two brothers for experiments, and that the brothers later committed suicide. In fact, McCormick said, one brother died of a heart attack and another died in a car accident. James admitted she never tried to corroborate the story.
McCormick said she also never saw any of the 40 personalities that her relative supposedly exhibited to James.
Although they asked their relative to stop seeing James, she refused. So McCormick said she turned to the state board for help. She talked briefly with investigators a few weeks after filing a complaint with the state, but McCormick said that neither she nor the woman's husband were ever formally interviewed. They waited for three years before finally getting a call from the board in October alerting them to James' discipline.
McCormick said she alerted a board staff member last month after James allegedly lied to the patient about a Star Tribune report on the state's disciplinary action against James, telling the woman that the report concerned another disgruntled patient. McCormick said the staff member told her to be patient and let state regulators know if anything else happened.
Barnes said that McCormick should have been told to put her complaint in writing.
McCormick said her relative recently told family members that she would no longer receive counseling from James, but she said family members are still concerned because there is nothing stopping James from treating her.
But state regulators decided that James could continue seeing the woman and two other patients suffering from multiple personality disorder as long as she discusses her treatment methods with a supervising psychologist for at least two hours each month. James also must undergo counseling and training on professional boundaries and meet other conditions.
McCormick said the state didn't go far enough in protecting the public from James' unsound treatment methods.
"I called them right away and said, 'I'm glad you did something, but I don't think it's enough,'" McCormick said. "I think this lady needs her license taken away."
Barnes said that it is difficult to revoke a psychologist's license, and that regulators look at previous cases when handing out discipline. In 1999 the board banned another psychologist from treating patients in cases involving potential cult abuse because she allegedly had manipulated a client into recalling false memories. Norman James is one of the board members who signed the order.
"Ultimately, the board's goal is ... ensuring the public is protected with the least restrictive remedy," Barnes said. "We have to trust in the process."
Tom Pearson, Suzanne James' attorney, said his client is committed to complying with the state's disciplinary action, but he would not comment further.
'Impaired objectivity'
McCormick said she decided to file a complaint with the state in 2006, after learning that James had introduced their relative to another client. According to the state board's report, the other woman "had a history of criminal behavior since the age of 16, was currently embroiled in legal difficulties due to charges concerning a DWI and the theft of a firearm and an attempt by her family to have her committed due to mental illness."
James told investigators she knew it was "outside the box" to bring the two women to a hotel to avoid members of a cult that had supposedly pursued McCormick's relative for decades. But James said it was the best way to protect her client. The board cited the incident as evidence of James' "impaired objectivity."
After the incident, the client's husband confronted his wife, McCormick said. His wife began to open up about her therapy sessions, which her husband said included hypnotic therapy.
"I don't know how much of the sickness is true and how much has been facilitated by Suzanne," McCormick said. "When the cult thing came out, I thought, she's not dealing in reality."
McCormick's relative told James that her parents sold her two brothers for experiments, and that the brothers later committed suicide. In fact, McCormick said, one brother died of a heart attack and another died in a car accident. James admitted she never tried to corroborate the story.
McCormick said she also never saw any of the 40 personalities that her relative supposedly exhibited to James.
Although they asked their relative to stop seeing James, she refused. So McCormick said she turned to the state board for help. She talked briefly with investigators a few weeks after filing a complaint with the state, but McCormick said that neither she nor the woman's husband were ever formally interviewed. They waited for three years before finally getting a call from the board in October alerting them to James' discipline.
McCormick said she alerted a board staff member last month after James allegedly lied to the patient about a Star Tribune report on the state's disciplinary action against James, telling the woman that the report concerned another disgruntled patient. McCormick said the staff member told her to be patient and let state regulators know if anything else happened.
Barnes said that McCormick should have been told to put her complaint in writing.
McCormick said her relative recently told family members that she would no longer receive counseling from James, but she said family members are still concerned because there is nothing stopping James from treating her.
