SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX<\/a><\/p>\nOn Dec. 16, Bell allegedly met with S.L. and her husband, B.L., for another session of marriage therapy. Bell then went on vacation with his wife and family, during which he and S.L. \u201cexchanged hundreds of text messages and emails,\u201d the board alleges.<\/p>\n
In his messages to S.L., Bell allegedly indicated he wanted to be \u201cfriends\u201d with S.L. and remain married to his wife. S.L. allegedly responded by expressing feelings of abandonment, the board alleges.<\/p>\n
According to the board, after Bell returned from vacation, S.L. visited him in his office and watched him record an episode of \u201cDr. Gary Bell\u2019s Absurd Psychology,\u201d his podcast and internet radio program. Days later, in January 2018, Bell\u2019s wife found her husband\u2019s text messages to S.L., called S.L., and the two women spoke at length. A few days later, the board says, S.L. appeared at Bell\u2019s home, leading to a confrontation.<\/p>\n
The board alleges S.L. then filed a criminal complaint against Bell, after which Bell sought a restraining order against S.L. and, in the process, \u201cmisrepresented the nature of his relationship with S.L.,\u201d characterizing her as a stalker who had made unwelcome advances toward him. By the end of February 2018, B.L. had filed for divorce.<\/p>\n
According to the board, Bell was criminally charged with sexual exploitation of a client and, for his statements in seeking a restraining order, felony perjury. In November 2018, both charges were dismissed.<\/p>\n
The California board charged Bell with unprofessional conduct through gross negligence or incompetence for having sex with a client and for sharing personal information with a client. He was also charged with intentionally or recklessly causing harm to a client and with engaging in dishonest, corrupt or fraudulent acts.<\/p>\n
In April 2020, the board voted to revoke Bell\u2019s California license but agreed to stay that revocation and place the license on probation for seven years, during which time Bell would submit to a psychological evaluation and therapy. Bell agreed to pay the board $14,000 to offset the cost of its investigation and prosecution of the case.<\/p>\n
In its recent, published decision to grant Bell an Iowa license to practice marital and family therapy, the Iowa Board of Behavioral Health Professionals made no mention of any of the allegations against Bell, noting only that he had been subject to some sort of settlement agreement and disciplinary order issued by the California board.<\/p>\n
Bell\u2019s Iowa license will be subject to one year of probation, during which time his practice will be subject to monitoring by another Iowa-licensed marital and family therapist.<\/p>\n
The Iowa Capital Dispatch was not able to reach Bell for comment.<\/p>\n
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iowa regulators have awarded a marital-therapy license to a man who had sex with a female client while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[236026,236024,105,24386,236025,236027,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-819361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-california-board","9":"tag-gary-bell","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-iowa","12":"tag-marriage-counseling","13":"tag-marriage-counselor","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116211859269425397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}