Tampa FL Hypnotist Arrested for Posing as a Doctor

"Sandra Rovhana had all the makings of a doctor. She's well-spoken, intelligent and armed with framed certificates from various institutes. She even has a quiet, calming voice and a remarkable capacity to listen intently. But, she's not a doctor. She doesn't even have a degree."


Read the full story:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/odessa-woman-practicing-as-hypnotherapist-was-unlicensed-police-say/1089104

Mary Sidhwani of Ellicott City, Maryland = FAKE DOCTORATE

Mary Sidhwani is another non-doctors proclaiming, at every possible opportunity, that she holds a doctorate. Our first red flag was that she claims to have earned a "Masters in Clinical Hypnotherapy." Readers of this blog know well and clear that there is no such degree anywhere in the world. Yes, there are many degree mills who will sell you a piece of paper that reads "Masters in Clinical Hypnotherapy." However, it's worth as much as the paper that it's written on.

Next, Mary Sidhwani claims to be a psychotherapist. We researched this with the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists at https://mdbnc.dhmh.md.gov/pctVerification/

As we suspected, there is nobody by the name of Sidhwani anywhere in Maryland licensed to work as a psychotherapist.

Finally, in every web search pertaining to Mary Sidhwani, where she claims to have earned a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, she completely (and conveniently) omits the name of the institution from where she supposedly earned said degree.

Barry Seedman, Sedona, Arizona and New York, FAKE Doctorate,

We found this guy after we busted Wayson Lee for falsely purporting to have a doctorate from the degree mill known as Albert University (See http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/11/wayson-lee-washington-dc-fake-doctorate.html).

This chump claims to be the "leading hypnotherapy instructor in the United States." That's about as accurate as his "PhD."

He claims to hold a PhD in Clinical Hypnotherapy from American State University. Folks who follow our blog know to look at our degree mill resource guide here: http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/11/known-diploma-mills-resource-guide.html

A very interesting blog post that another blogger wrote about Seedman:

Today, I saw a tiny ad in the back of Natural Health magazine for "Albert University", offering doctoral degrees in hypnotherapy and "alternative healing".
The President of this fine institution, "Dr." Barry Seedman, "earned" his degree from American State U, one of the worst diploma mills, and one of the very few to be shut down by Hawaii authorities.
"Dr." Seedman modestly reports that he has won "almost every major award in his field", and goes on to list awards by a bunch of organizations I've never heard of, but no awards from any of the legitimate hypnotherapy groups. Big surprise.
The school offers mail-order Ph.D degrees, which are described as "Technical degrees, similar to Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Chiropractic, and not academic degrees". (!)
Apparently, for the hypnotherapy degree, one submits one's trance inductions on a cassette tape for review. And it's a little frightening that they offer courses that clearly fall in the realm of things that only a licensed psychotherapist should be doing. Not cool.
Oh... and there's almost a full page of accreditation apologia -- the standard stuff, probably ripped from ASU 's site. The school claims to be accredited by the probably nonexistent and almost certainly fraudulent Government Accrediting Association of Delaware.
And when you download the PDF application to the school, we find that it's campus is (surprise!) a PMB address which turns out to also belong to "JW Doan Hypnotherapy."
(That's a new one... a combination Mailboxes Etc and hypnotherapy service...)
However, you are supposed to send your application and $500 fee to the "Eastern office" which, conveniently, is in New York, where "Dr." Seedman lives.
I was hoping that this was one of those well-meaning but clueless holistic folks, but I don't think so. The $6000 fee, and very misleading statements on the value of the degree and the fraudulent accreditation make it pretty clear that the guy is out to scam people.
The amazing thing is that anyone is actually dumb enough to sign up for a program like this. 


=http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/2323-new-phony-albert-university.html

William Mitchell, Springfield, IL - FAKE Doctorate

William Mitchell of Springfield, Illinois claims to have earned a "Professional Doctorate of Hypnotherapy" from Madison University. According to our resource guide, Madison University is a degree mill (See http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/11/known-diploma-mills-resource-guide.html). Degree mill = No Degree.

William Mitchell is a featured "expert" presenter for Scott Sandland's HypnoThoughts Live, a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists, and a member of Robert Otto's International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association.

Huntington Pacific University - A Degree Mill

A search of the internet found a page for "Huntington Pacific University" at http://c3e3.com/hpu/.
Here is a website, designed by an amateur. Take away the suffix "hpu" http://c3e3.com and you will find a very cryptic page with a number of broken links titled, "Spiral On Dudes!" Here, somebody named Spiralona claims to be the host of "Sacred Originality Televison." Ok, so this is getting weird. A whois search for c3e3.com yielded an address of at 809 N Branciforte Ave in Santa Cruz, California. Apparantly, it's a very nice house with about $400K. Not what I would call a University.

Anyway, going back to the original link of http://c3e3.com/hpu/, Huntington Pacific University claims to be accredited by the World Associations of Universities and Colleges.  A Google search yielded a defunct website at http://www.waucinternationalaccreditation.com/

Wikipedia says this organization is not recognized by the United States Department of Education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Association_of_Universities_and_Colleges
but was created by a lady named Maxine Asher, directer of the unaccredited American World University. At one point, Maxine offered a New Year's special on all of her degrees, for only $1000. So here's what happened, Maxine created a bogus school that nobody would accredit. So she created her own accrediting agency. Now she's probably making a few bucks from other unaccredited "universities" for the privilage of being accredited (by a non-recognized organization). But hey, they are accredited -WHO CARES RIGHT? Whatever.

We affirm that since "Huntington Pacific University" and the "World Associations of Universities and Colleges" are not recognized, legitimate entities. Any person who claims to have earned a degree from here is CONNING YOU.

"Dr." Keli Henault - PhD FRAUD from Austin, TX

"Dr." Keli Henault, aka Kelli Henualt, aka Kelly Henault, aka Kel Henault, aka Keli Mathieu of Austin Hypnosis Healing Center and hypnotist "trainer" for the EXTREMELY ETHICAL (not) International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association, claims to have earned a PhD in Psychology. However, she fails to state from WHERE she earned this PhD.

Perhaps she is a sociopath, because she seems to believe she has earned a PhD and even goes so far as to mention in a newsgroup that she's "a geek with a PhD." (See below)

The above clue to her PhD scam, however, is that she had apparantly forgot to tell where she earned her PhD. Maybe the where doesn't matter? Certainly, if my brain were to be operated on, I would like to know whether my surgeon studied at Johns Hopkins University or the University of Nepal.

We affirm that Keli Henault is a scam artist purporting to have earned a PhD when she has not. (But you're always free to write and correct us, Keli.)

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UPDATE

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So we emailed her with a simple question, "Please advise from where you earned your PhD." 

She provides two responses, without ever saying where her "PhD" is from and even includes a threat that she will have her "Brother [do] his hacking magic and tell me exactly the name and address of the computer that sent this email...and I will find out that way. Either way, I'm going to find out who you are because I don't appreciate your email and I suspect that you suffer from paranoid delusions."

Well, Not-A-Doctor Keli, your brother, Guido, can "hack" all he wants. It doesn't bother us. What IS bothersome is that you are ripping off hundreds of clients and students by giving them the false notion that you have earned a doctorate.

She includes, "I'm not sure where one gets a "fake" Ph.D. You either do all the work or you don't. You mean I could have gotten a Ph.D. without all that work?"

Yes, that is exactly what we mean. And we believe you know exactly what we mean as well.

Then she writes, "Well, you have a few options. 1. You can make an appointment for hypnotherapy and come into my office and then you'll see all my degrees."

That's actually only one option, Not-A-Doctor Keli. We do believe you have a piece of paper that you hang on your wall that says you have earned a doctorate, but we also believe that piece of paper is worth the cost of the paper because it is not a legitimate, accredited, properly earned doctorate. Perhaps you can take a photo of it with your smartphone, email it to me, and all this will go away (if it's legit)?

Finally, she wrote, "My educational experience is not top secret information, however, since you sent me this very rude email, call me and once you tell me who you are, I will tell you what school in the state of Virginia I received my doctorate degree in psychology."

We sent you a polite email that asked one simple question,  "Please advise from where you earned your PhD." We simply ask that you tell us where you earned your PhD, a question which you conveniently refuse to answer. Why are you being so cryptic? Because your reputation is on the line and you KNOW that you have screwed yourself.

  

We continue to affirm that Keli Henault is a scam artist who falsely purports to have earned a doctorate. 

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UPDATE

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We received more communication from Not-A-Doctor Keli. 

Now this fraud thinks we are somebody named John. Our apologies to John, if you're reading this. In any case, she continues to avoid stating the name of the institution from where she "earned" her "PhD." She also believes we are obsessed with her. We do have an obsession, Not-A-Doctor Keli, but it's not about you personally, it's about frauds who falsely claim to have earned a PhD.

She then follows up with more emails, and finally wrote the she received her PhD at the University of Melbourne. If you recall, she earlier wrote that she received her PhD in Virginia. So we asked:

Is that in Virginia?

But then she wrote that she earned a PhD at the University of Melbourne, in Melbourne AU. She's already burying herself in a pile of lies. Add to that, her Facebook page reads that she earned a PhD from the University of Melbourne in the UK. In case you don't know, that's neither Virginia or Australia.

We researched to see if Not-A-Doctor Keli had written a dissertation at the University of Melbourne. We checked with the University's library and we also checked ProQuest's Dissertation Database. There were no hits for anything written by Not-A-Doctor Keli, under any available current or previous name.

We continue to affirm that Keli Joi Henault is a scam artist purporting to hold a doctorate who, in fact, DOES NOT.  

Do You Know A PhD Scam Artist?

Do You Know A PhD Scam Artist?

Post their information here. Please include their name, location, what they claim, how it's a scam, etc. We do not accept responsibility for any information that is posted.

Cal Banyan & Rev. Giles - Advocates speaking out against Fake PhDs

I caught an interesting article posted in 2008 by Cal Banyan, when he referred to Rev. Scott Giles' article entitled, "Shooting Yourself in the Foot Part #1: Real v. Fake Credentials." Banyan wrote:

Bravo Rev. C. Scot Giles, DNGH! In case you don’t know who Rev. Giles is, he writes for the National Guild of Hypnotists, Journal of Hypnotism, which just arrived in my mailbox today. I loved his latest article, Shooting Yourself in the Foot Part #1: Real v. Fake Credentials. In this article, he talks about such things as “The Mail-Order Degree“, “The Internet Ordination” and “The Silly Title“.
My favorite part was about fake hypnosis degrees. I just can’t stand it when someone comes up to me and tells me that they have a “PhD” or other kind of “doctorate” in hypnosis! I don’t know about every country in the world, but I do know that there is no such thing in the USA.
I don’t mean to make people who have these fake degrees angry at me, but I just have to tell them that you are doing EVERYONE a HUGE disservice by promoting yourself and your service by holding out these fake degrees in hypnotism, hypnosis and hypnotherapy.First of all, as Rev. Giles will tell you, these degrees, even if they take some work to get, do not rise to the level of study required to achieve a real academic degree. These fake hypnosis degrees are not recognized by any organization who would grant a real degree. In most cases you will find that these “degree granting” organizations will say that they ARE accredited. But with a bit more research, you will find that they created the organization that is accrediting them! Essentially, this means that they have accredited themselves. This is bad for the hypnotist who will be found out eventually. It is bad for the profession because when hypnotists are discovered to have false credentials, it makes everyone in the profession look bad. It is bad for our clients, because they are being misled to select a hypnotist based on false credentials. I have known people with these false degrees who could not hypnotize anyone! Nor could they carry on a intelligent conversation on the topic of hypnosis, hypnotherapy or hypnotism. I personally think these fake degrees should be outlawed. Bravo Rev. Giles for writing your article, and thank you NGH for printing it! 

This is wonderful testimony about the dangers of hypnotists bearing false credentials. There is one problem, however, in that both Banyan and Giles are leaders of the National Guild of Hypnotists, an organization who tends to turn their heads at fake credentials. Simply review this blog to see a number of NGH members who lie about the credentials. I applaud Banyan and Giles, but they have the influence to make such changes at the NGH and, well, obviously nothing has changed since 2008.

To read the entire article, go to: http://www.calbanyan.com/archives/2008/03/05/rev-giles-on-real-v-fake-credentials/

Masud Ansari - FAKE DOCTORATE

Masud Ansari claims to be the president of the Institute for Ethical and Clinical Hypnosis. A shame organization that is not very ethical, apparently, since he claims to hold a Doctorate from the American Institute of Hypnotherapy in Clinical Hypnotherapy, a known degree mill. Ansari claims to have earned awards from the National Guild of Hypnotists. He practices in Washington, DC.