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.

Fight back! Post our blog everywhere!

We received word that some of the sleaze bag degree frauds identified here are trying hard to bury our blog by lowering our Google rankings. Please help us fight back by posting our blog URL: http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/  everywhere you can.

It's simple. Use Google and find similar sites (fake academic credentials aren't just limited to the hypnosis profession). In the comments section, post our URL. Be sure to include something relevant so it doesn't come across as spammy.

We realize that many of you are concerned about your identities. Simply go to Gmail and create an entirely unique email account for yourself. It's that simple.

Happy posting!

How Many FAKE Doctorates Will Be Presenting At Scott Sandland's HypnoThoughts Live?

Over the next few days, we will be pointing out those with FAKE doctorates who are scheduled to present at Scott Sandland's HypnoThought's Live. Could THIS be the reason why he shut down any discussion about fake doctorates on his website? Could this be part of that self-serving agenda we wrote about earlier?

To quote Romper Room's Miss Sally and her Magic Mirror...And I see the following people who are SO FANTASTIC AT WHAT THEY DO, THEY HAVE TO LIE ABOUT HAVING A DOCTORATE....there's Roy Hunter, Nancy Barwick, Roger Moore and Anne Spencer (remember Scott Sandland's testimonials?), Robert Otto, Melissa Tiers, Marla Brucker, William Mitchell, Shelley Stockwell, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Interestingly, there are at least three individuals with real, bonafide doctorates presenting here. How must Kweethia Neill, Don Pelles, and Brian David Phillips, who actually did the legitimate doctoral work, feel about their cohorts who LIE about their academic credentials?

Kay Walkinshaw - FAKE PhD

Kay F. Walkinshaw, a hypnosis provider in Potomac, MD and Annandale, VA claims to have a PhD but will not say in what field or the name of the school she attended. She is a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and also the "founder" of the International Council for Medical and Clinical Therapists. She is also a member of the American Holistic Medical Association, American Counseling Association, American Mental Health Counselors Association, Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists, International Association of Regression Research Therapists, Association of Research and Enlightenment, the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, and the National Federation of Neurolinguistic Psychology. She also teaches a non-credit hypnosis course at the the Northern Virginia Community College. None care that she has a Doctorate of FRAUD.

A word from our sponsors

Our blog was recently mentioned on 23NLPeople.com, and it was said that many people, especially on the hypnosis forum "www.hypnothoughts.com" did not support our work, providing threats of litigation and so forth. Very simply, these individuals feel threatened. They feel threatened because they, or their friends, falsely claim to have earned a doctorate or master's degree. Some are showboating (aka brown-nosing) to win the admiration of some well-known hypnotists and/or business partners who are doing the scamming. The argument that "so and so is highly respected" doesn't explain or give anybody the right to enhance their credibility by citing false academic credentials. If they are indeed THAT good, they wouldn't need to.

Actually, we have received scores of emails from people who want to high-five us. There is a silent majority who agree with our mission and who are observing the actions and rants of those who are guilty, and also observing those who are nay-saying us. To you, we raise our glasses and toast you.

A question remains -are these individuals simply misinformed and mere victims of these diploma mills? Or are these people maliciously trying to dupe potential customers and students. In other words, are these people truly idiots who think they can earn a degree by not properly attending school or are they pure-bread scam artists? Our answer is, "does it matter?" No it does not. If you are one of these people, we urge you to STOP USING YOUR FAKE CREDENTIALS no matter how real you think they are. Otherwise we will continue to expose you. Don't think you're immune if you're hiding in Micronesia. We are receiving tips from well-meaning individuals daily. You will eventually appear on this site.

While it appears that we are focusing on the hypnosis profession, this wasn't intentionally the case when we first created this forum. It was our intention to call out those in any profession who falsely claim credentials that they haven't properly and rightfully earned. However, it seems as though the hypnosis profession is rampant with such individuals. As such, when one knows how to identify these perpetrators, it quite simple to know who they are.

There something to be said about these so-called ethical organizations such as the National Guild of Hypnotists and the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association/International Association of Counselors and Therapists hybrid (the NGH is supposedly non-profit [at least according to the IRS] where Dwight Damon has been the president for decades (who actually elected him president, nobody will ever know as no dues-paying member can recall an actual election). On another note, has anybody actually witnessed Dwight Damon hypnotize ANYBODY?) and the IMDHA and IACT are private businesses both owned by Robert Otto). There are several other hypnosis "organizations" but these are two/three of the largest.

These organizations have Codes of Ethics which many hypnotists proudly boast that they adhere to, giving their clientele some sort of confidence. However, it is clear that none of these organizations actually care about or enforce these codes and many involved in these organization's hierarchies are guilty of using fictitious degrees. They are merely lip-service. If these Codes of Ethics meant anything, the fraudulent use of fictitious degrees would cease to exist. However, the last thing any of these organizations want to do is eliminate a source of dues. Let's examine the Codes of Ethics of these organizations:

National Guild of Hypnotists

E. Credentials: Members shall always be honest about the nature of their titles and degrees when referring to them to the general public, the media, and within the confines of our profession.

International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association

Integrity
Members seek to promote integrity in the teaching and practice of hypnosis. In these activities members are honest, fair and respectable of others. To the extent feasible, members attempt to clarify for relevant parties the roles they are performing and to the function appropriately in accordance with those roles. Members rely on scientific or professionally derived knowledge when making professional judgments or when engaging in professional endeavors.

International Association of Counselors and Therapists

Section A4 reads, "4. The member neither claims nor implies professional qualifications exceeding those possessed by them and is responsible for correcting any misrepresentations of these qualifications by others."

As one can see, ethics, integrity, and the whole shabang are clearly outlined in these organization's Codes of Ethics. YET....the preponderance of fake academic credentials is overwhelming. These organizations are also, supposedly, preparing for the day when hypnosis is regulated be mandating CEUs and the such. Unfortunately, they aren't preparing well enough because, as long as there are individuals who are committing fraud by boasting fake academic credentials, nobody will ever respect the profession as a whole.

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Taken from http://www.23nlpeople.com/blog/2012/11/fake-qualifications-phds-and-hypnotherapy.htm

On my Brass Bollocks training where I open the doors to the business end of my work and show exactly how and what I did and do now to run a successful business I repeatedly expound a simple principle:
"Humility will save you from humiliation."
It shouldn't be a difficult concept but in the world of personal development where everyone is chasing a high status in the industry, it is a very rare thing indeed.
I believe that I can accurately predict how quick a new practitioner will fail and return to their day job.  The quickest failure will follow a single use of a single word. "Us"
On the practitioner's contact page they write, "Contact Us" instead of "Contact Me" - this is true as a predictor of failure where there is a solo practitioner, rather than a group or two practitioners on the site.
Why do they write "Contact Us"?  Well, because he or she is trying to appear more than they actually are.
Their very first point of contact with their customer is built on a simple little deception, a lie.  Not exactly the best start, don't you think?
And the reason their business will fail?  Because they are deceiving themselves as to the true nature of their business and they will continue to build on this lie as they ever inflate their ego and bolster a false identity.
A fairly common extension of this lie is the use of false and fake qualifications and certifications.  The fake PHD is just one example.
Another tragically common example is the endless creation of self serving "Regulation Boards" "Associations", "Societies", Institutes" and so forth all in an attempt to affording status and prestige, when in fact they are just merely a brief invention to "endorse" their own practice and courses.
What this does is contaminate the marketplace so much that the public no longer know what is a genuine society (i.e. it actually has members, a charter, etc) and what is just a webpage on the 'net purporting to be such.  Actually, I think so many hypnotherapists are utterly ignorant and in their quest for status don't ever bother checking these things out themselves.  They just send off a cheque, receive a certificate and that is that - they are a member, have a logo and so on, and so they perpetuate the lie and the falsehood.
I managed to terminate the totally fake and illegal "British Board of NLP" operation 2 years ago by threatening to bring a criminal action against its "chairman" unless he removed all traces of the website and notified his "members" of such.  Yet, if you google it today, you will still find people claiming to be members of "The British Board of NLP", displaying a logo and claiming status as a result.  It worries me when supposed experts in mental health display such crass stupidity. And I do think this is stupidity rather than a deliberate fraud.
And here's the funny thing - they display these logos, memberships and false qualifications so that we...err...trust them.
It's worth mentioning here that a few years ago the original "chairman" of the "British Board of NLP" sent me a legal letter threatening me with litigation for libel unless I immediately ceased my public statements about their shenanigans. I couldn't help but wonder how interesting it would be to see them actually try to prove in court that the 'British Board of NLP' actually existed.  It didn't and never did, so it was impossible for me to libel it. I never heard anything further from them until "it" (actually, this was just the domain name for the website and company name, which wasn't actually "The British Board of NLP") changed hands and the nonsense started up all over again.
I've recently challenged people about the use of fake PHDs on a hypnosis forum and interestingly received a collective outrage from forum members suggesting that to do so was somehow unsporting and that I was.  Needless to say the usual threats of litigation followed and expressions of outrage followed.
You can read the reactions here: http://www.hypnothoughts.com/forum/topics/doctor-or-phd-in-hypnotherapy-how-valid
A recent anonymous blog (http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.co.uk) has taken to "outing" the hypnotherapists who claim to have PhDs when they allegedly don't have any such thing. Whilst I cannot claim to know the validity of the claims that are made on this blog, I thoroughly applaud the sentiment.
The hypnotherapy community appear outraged because apparently such a blog is unprofessional and brings the profession into disrepute.  Well, I have news for them - so is lying about one's qualification in order to con clients out of their money.
My inbox is starting to receive emails from outraged individuals who think I am the one posting the Fake PhD blog and telling me to cease and desist.  I'm not anything to do with the blog of course, I first saw this blog when a link to it was posted on the Hypnothoughts forum.
Here's the link to the BBC program about such nonsense that was aired in 2009 to which I was a main contributor behind the scenes and make a fleeting appearance. https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=176394112754

Wayson Lee, Washington DC, FAKE Doctorate! UPDATED!

Wayson Lee of Washington, DC, claims to have earned a Doctor of Clinical Hypnosis and even refers to himself as Doc Wayson. However, he fails to state where he earned his doctorate, and he further fails to mention that THERE IS NO SUCH DEGREE AS A DOCTOR OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS.

Wayson Lee, you are a FRAUD.

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 UPDATE

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We received an email from this guy today. He wrote:

So he says that he's not claiming "PhD nor Doctor in Clinical Hypnotherapy." Right, we did a little bit of digging. His LinkedIn profile says he earned the Doctor of Clinical Hypnosis at Albert U. He's not claiming to have a Doctorate? Interesting how he puts himself in the company of Ormond McGill (who did not have a doctorate), Will Horton (who DOES have a legitimate doctorate), and Barry Seedman, who "earned" his degree from American State University, one of the worst diploma mills ever and one of the very few to be shut down by Hawaii authorities. Perhaps the only people that your name should be next to is Barry and Nan Seedman.

Interestingly, Albert University, where he claimed to have earned his Doctor of Clinical Hypnotherapy, is a degree mill owned by the same Barry Seedman who has absolutely no legitimate doctorate. See http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/2323-new-phony-albert-university.html

Of course, just to be sure about Albert University, check out the degree mill resource guide at http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/11/known-diploma-mills-resource-guide.html

Oddly, he goes on to say that he's an actor and a member of the Screen Actors Guild, as some sort of weird justification for promoting his fake doctorate.

"Dr." Michael Harris - Richardson, TX - PhD Fraud

"Dr." Michael Harris of Richardson, Texas. This guy is so vain about his "credentials" that he uses it in his domain name and in his email correspondence (drm@drmichaelharris.com). He really wants you to believe that he is a doctor.

First we must examine Huntington Pacific University, where Harris claims to have earned his "PhD." 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 universities, Michael Harris is NOT a doctor. In fact, he has no academic qualification whatsoever. We can't say if he is a good "hypnotist" or not, but if he was effective, he certainly wouldn't have to LIE about his qualifications.

Lisa Halpin - San Francisco PhD FRAUD

Lisa Halpin of San Francisco, CA is a very highly respected member of the National Guild of Hypnotists. She claims to have earned a PhD from the now-defunct American Hypnosis Institute of California. I guess the NGH doesn't abide by its own Code of Ethics because, if they did, this PhD-Fake wouldn't be practicing anything related to hypnosis. No doubt, she makes them a lot of money so I'm sure they "overlook" her pathological lie. The American Hypnosis Institute was a degree mill where, if you sent them money, they would send you a degree. What gives this charlatan the right to say she earned a degree? If her work was truly effective, she wouldn't have to hide behind a fake credential. 

Christa Van Der Smissen = Van Der FAKE DOCTORATE

Christa K. Van Der Smissen of Exeter, NH, Londonderry, NH, and Andover, MA is yet another FAKE who claims to have a doctorate in clinical hypnotherapy but doesn't say from where. That's because NO SUCH DOCTORAL PROGRAM EXISTS. Yet, she blatantly refers to herself as Dr. Van Der Smissen every chance she gets. Her email address is listed as drchrista@drvandersmissen.com and her website is drvandersmissen.com. She just loves to call herself "doctor," doesn't she?

"Dr." Vijah Shah - Florida FAKE DOCTORATE Hypnotist & NLP "Teacher"

Vijay Shah, of Advanced Breakthrough Inc. in Doral Florida is another king of scam artistry. On his website, he writes, "In 2009, he received his Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy – this one is for my wife, Smita – 'I could not have done it without your support and inspiration!'" Now, I don't know if his wife is aware of this or not, but there is no such degree anywhere in the world. He also, very conveniently, leaves that part out. Some people like to mentioned some sort of "non-accredited" doctoral program, but Shah just likes to leave the potential fool for a client or student guessing. Shah claims to be a member of the Time Line Therapy Association, the American Board of Neurolinguistic Programming, and the American Board of Hypnotherapy. I don't know about the first organization there, but the last two are the same "organization" and are about as shady as the photograph that they posted on their website. Would you really want to give your money to THIS guy? This guy who claims that he can help you TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?

Hey Shah -why not change the name of your company to Advanced Ripoff, Inc.?