From: Judygran Subject: [ASCEML] NEW: In re Psychologist's License of Helen Noel, Ph.D., TOS, K/f, ?/M, ?/M {PG-13], 1/1 Date: Thursday, September 30, 1999 7:57 PM From: Judygran From: Judygran [mailto:judygran@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 11:03 PM To: ascem3@trekfiction.net; Judygran@aol.com; Istannor@aol.com Subject: NEW: In re Psychologist's License of Helen Noel, Ph.D., TOS, K/f, ?/M, ?/M {PG-13], 1/1 My latest in the "McCoy as therapist/supervisor of therapy" debate. Title: In Re Psychologist's License of Helen Noel, Ph.D. Author: Judith Gran, Judygran@aol.com Series: TOS Part: 1/1 Rating: PG-13 (just to be safe) Codes: K/f, possible relationships with McCoy Archive: ASC/EM OK, anywhere else please ask. Disclaimer: Vast borrowing from the American Psychological Association and licensing statutes. No intent to infringe any copyrights in Star Trek; this is fair use. UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS BOARD OF PSYCHOLOGIST EXAMINERS TO: Leonard H. McCoy, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, U.S.S. Enterprise SUBJECT: Report of Investigation, Findings and Recommendations -- Helen Noel, Ph.D. I am writing to inform you of our findings and recommendations concerning the alleged misconduct of Dr. Helen Noel, a member of your staff whom you apparently supervise. As you will recall, we received an anonymous complaint charging that Dr. Noel had engaged in the following violations of the Standards for Providers of Psychological Services of the Federation Psychological Association. 1. Initiating a technique or modality of therapy, namely, the so-called "neural neutralizer," that was outside her demonstrated scope of education, training, supervised experience or appropriate professional experience, in violation of Standard 1.04, "Boundaries of Competence." 2. Attempting to apply a new technique, i.e. the neural neutralizer, without first undertaking appropriate study, training, supervision, and/or consultation from persons who are competent in that area or technique, also in violation of Standard 1.04. 3. Experimenting with the neural neutralizer on a human subject, i.e. Captain James T. Kirk, in violation of the Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research With Human Participants. 4.. Making statements and actions during the course of therapy (i.e. during application of the neural neutralizer) suggesting or inviting the possibility of a post-termination sexual or romantic relationship with the patient or client, in violation of Standard 4.07, " Sexual Intimacies With Former Therapy Patients." 5. Providing therapy, namely, the "neural neutralizer," to a person with whom she previously had engaged in sexual intimacies, in violation of Standard 4.06, Therapy With Former Sexual Partners. Our investigation substantiated the first four of these allegations; the fifth could not be substantiated, due to conflicting interpretations of the evidence. We therefore are suspending Dr. Noel's license for committing immoral or unprofessional conduct including the departure from and failure to conform to the standards of acceptable and prevailing psychological practice, in violation of 63 Fed. C.S.A. § 1208. Dr. Noel is entitled to a hearing before the Board of Psychologist Examiners; if she chooses to exercise her right to a hearing, she should proceed immediately to the nearest Federation outpost, where arrangements will be made to convene a hearing board. Unfortunately, our investigation revealed more systemic problems in the practice of psychology, particularly clinical psychology, within your department. Those deficiencies must be corrected as soon as possible. By copy of this memo, we are notifying your commanding officer, Captain James T. Kirk, and his superiors at Starfleet Command. If this matter cannot be resolved, the Board will be compelled to initiate proceedings to bar the unauthorized and improper practice of clinical psychology on board the U.S.S. Enterprise. Specifically, we have found that by allowing the practice of clinical psychology without the supervision of a professional clinical psychologist, your supervisory and administrative arrangements violate the Specialty Guidelines for the Delivery of Services by Clinical Psychologists. As I'm sure you appreciate, professional psychology in general and clinical psychology as a specialty have labored long and diligently to codify a uniform set of guidelines for the delivery of services by clinical psychologists that would serve the respective needs of users, providers, third-party purchasers, and sanctioners of psychological services. The result is a uniform set of Specialty Guidelines that governs clinical psychological services, regardless of setting or form of remuneration. We cannot emphasize too strongly that Starfleet personnel are *not* exempt from these Guidelines. We note first that although Dr. Helen Noel has a Ph.D. in psychology, she is a research psychologist, not a clinical psychologist. She is therefore unqualified to provide clinical psychology *except* under the supervision of a professional clinical psychologist. A professional clinical psychologist is a person trained in an accredited, properly sequenced doctoral program in clinical psychology to perform interventions directed at identifying and correcting the emotional conflicts, personality disturbances, and skill deficits underlying a person's distress and/or dysfunction including, but not limited to, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, behavior therapy, marital and family therapy, group psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, social-learning approaches, biofeedback techniques, and environmental consultation and design. Apparently you are Dr. Noel's direct supervisor, yet you are not a professional clinical psychologist but a physician practicing general medicine and surgery. You plainly lack the requisite doctoral degree in clinical psychology to supervise persons such as Dr. Noel. It appears, therefore, that you have violated Guideline 1.2, which requires that "Providers of clinical psychological services who do not meet the requirements for the professional clinical psychologist are supervised directly by a professional clinical psychologist who assumes professional responsibility and accountability for the services provided." According to our Guidelines, "[u]ltimate professional responsibility and accountability for [clinical psychology] services ... require that the supervisor review and approve reports and test protocols, review and approve intervention plans and strategies, and review outcomes." You are neither qualified to do this with your staff, nor did you do it during the incident in which Dr. Noel used the neural neutralizer on Captain Kirk. We are confident that if a qualified clinical psychologist had taken responsibility for reviewing and approving use of the neural neutralizer on Captain Kirk before Dr. Noel initiated this intervention, the harm he experienced would not have occurred. What befell Captain Kirk, therefore, is directly attributable to the inadequate supervision provided to psychologists on board the Enterprise and to your own administrative arrangements. We remind you that Guideline 1.3 requires that in any administrative unit in which clinical psychology services are provided, "a professional clinical psychologist is responsible for planning, directing, and reviewing the provision of clinical psychological services. Whenever the clinical psychological service unit is part of a larger professional psychological service encompassing various psychological specialties, a professional psychologist is the administrative head of the service." Obviously, this is not the arrangement on the U.S.S. Enterprise. The supervising clinical psychologist is also responsible for recruiting qualified staff, directing training and research activities of the service, maintaining a high level of professional and ethical practice, and ensuring that staff members function only within the areas of their competency. Obviously, you do not have the professional credentials to perform these responsibilities, and once again, it is plain that this deficiency contributed significantly to the unprofessional conduct exhibited by Dr. Noel and the resultant harm to Captain Kirk. We should add that during the course of our investigation we encountered the impression among many crew members of the U.S.S. Enterprise that you yourself are providing clinical psychology services to members of the crew, in particular to the Captain and the First Officer. If true, it would constitute the unauthorized and unqualified practice of clinical psychology, in violation of Guideline 1.1, and you must cease such activities immediately. I must advise you of the strong possibility that your own unauthorized practice of clinical psychology will become the object of a separate inquiry and will result in charges brought by the Board. I must add that if, as many of our informants have suggested, you are engaged in an intimate relationship with Commander Spock or Captain Kirk or both, the unprofessional and unethical behavior set forth above would be greatly compounded. See Standards 4.06 and 4.07, supra. I recognize that Standard 1.17, "Multiple Relationships," may indeed describe the situation that prevails on the Enterprise. Nevertheless, the Standards still require psychologists in such situations to avoid entering into relationships with other persons if it might impair the psychologist's objectivity. In response to your query whether the complainant was "a green-blooded, pointy-eared son of the Devil," I can only repeat my previous statement that the identity of anonymous complainants is protected by law. However, I am referring your statement to the Federation Office of Civil Rights to determine whether it constitutes discrimination on the basis of species. In sum, we request that you take the following actions: 1. Relieve Dr. Helen Noel of all duties as a psychologist, effective immediately. 2. Eliminate the unauthorized and unsupervised practice of psychotherapy on board the Enterprise, effective immediately. 3. Since it is clear that the pressures of deep space duty create a significant need for psychotherapy treatment on your starship, it is imperative that Starfleet recruit a qualified professional clinical psychologist to supervise the practice of clinical psychology on board the Enterprise, beginning as soon as possible. /end transmission/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Posting to ASCEM is easy; send your messages to All ASCEM messages are copied to a mirror mailing list: http://www.onelist.com/community/ASCEML --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Get EXPERT CONTENT at ONElist! Join PROS&PUNDITS. For details go to: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please send replies intended for the group to Messages sent to asceml@onelist.com will not reach the group.