Surprised?
Well, if you didn’t know already, a therapist CAN have a felony record. In MO there is a law that prevents licensure boards from discriminating against people with a felony or misdemeanor.
There are LOTS of feelings about this on both sides of the fence. First off, I will say that rehabilitated people exist in all walks of life and are a beautiful thing. Actually, can be some of the most dynamic, beautiful people out there.
Why, then, would I bring up convicted felons at all?
Well, because not all of them are rehabilitated and are preying on the community any way they can. Yes, even the ones who have spent the time to get a counseling degree. I equate these people to “devout” religious people who are ass holes on Monday.
Not all felons are created equally.
Some people have a felony on their record because of a DUI, insurance fraud or tax evasion. Maybe it was a long time ago, maybe it was bad luck, wrong place at the wrong time. However, there are felonies that are committed that directly grate against the counseling profession. Anything having to do with theft of financial information, impersonation of another person and identity theft. Yes, the MO born gives these people the chance at getting a license too.
The worst part of supervising a criminal that has victims is that the victims can inadvertently be assigned to their assailant. This makes the supervision process and hiring process difficult for these types of felons.
The ONLY thing you can do is ask questions of potential supervisees and employees. Run your own background check on them. Consult an employment attorney regarding how to handle it in the case you come across someone who has a history that scares you for the potential clients. After all, you are signing off on them and taking on all the liability. Taking on a new therapist as a state supervisee vs employee have an added benefit of not being subject to employment laws and discrimination. If you are a supervisor and don’t want to continue supervision for one reason or another, that is your propagative. In an employer-employee relationship things get dicy because an employee that you believe isn’t ethically fit to serve your clients can turn around and sue you for hostile termination, especially if they fall under a protected class.
God Speed