Michael Sheehan, Fake Master's Degree in Clinical Hypnotherapy, Kent UK

We've been focusing a lot on folks who have falsely claimed to have earned legitimate doctorates. However, we would also like to cast light on those who falsely claim to hold Master's Degrees.

Today we have Michael Sheehan of HypnoSpirit located in South East, Kent UK  (hypnospirit.co.uk and hypnospirit.org), of claims to hold a Master's of Science in Clinical Hypnotherapy. Of course, he doesn't state from where he earned it, nor does it matter since there are NO legitimate, accredited master's degree program in clinical hypnotherapy anywhere in the world.

Attorney for Travis Fox speaks out

We heard today from an alleged attorney for Travis Fox, the celebrity we ousted for falsely purporting to hold a doctorate yet, alleges to hold a doctorate in just about all of his marketing endeavors. This is what he wrote:

Gentlemen:

 

Please be advised that this office represents Dr. Travis Fox in connection with the untruthful and slanderous e-mails and your blog that you have created about Dr. Fox and his credentials.

 

In addition to the foregoing, you have put up a picture of Dr. Fox which you are not permitted to do without his written permission.  This picture must be immediately taken down and never used again.  If you do not cease and desist from using Dr. Fox's picture, then all appropriate legal action will be taken against you for a permanent injunction as well as an action for monetary damages.

 

Your blog is totally untrue and is libelous.  You must cease and desist from using this blog and/or e-mail and must stop spreading untruths and lies regarding Dr. Fox.

 

We do not know where you allegedly obtained your information about Dr. Fox, but rest assured that he has his credentials and your libelous and slanderous statements about Dr. Fox will be met with the full force of the law should you continue.

 

In conclusion, we want your blog corrected or removed completely and you can no longer use Dr. Fox's picture in any way.  This is a violation of Dr.Fox's rights and is an invasion of his privacy.

 

You can respond to this e-mail as listed. 

 

 

Very truly yours,

 

 

Our response:

 

Dear Lawyer: 

 

We have done our research and Travis Fox does not hold an accredited doctorate. Therefore, our allegations are truthful and cannot be considered as slander. We ask you, Mr. Juris Doctor, how would you -or any judge on the bench who had completed a legitimate doctoral program, feel about somebody who fraudulently misrepresents themselves as a doctor? One certainly would presume that Travis Fox would receive no sympathy from these individuals.

Further, the image that we used is in the public domain in that it was readily accessible on Google. As members of the press, we have the right to use his image for public information and we are not gaining profit from it.

 

We'll make a deal with Travis Fox. If he can prove to us that he has earned a legitimate, accredited doctorate, then we will be more than happy to remove any reference to him from this blog. This would be much more cost-effective than hiring lawyers to fight a legal battle that he is likely to lose. Heck, we'll even apologize. Until then, we're not going anywhere.

Paul McKenna, DJ turned Hypnotist "Earned" Fake Doctorate

Taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-398025/Paul-McKenna-wins-court-battle-fraud-claims--price.html

Paul McKenna wins court battle over fraud claims - at a price

Paul McKenna has won his libel battle over a claim that he had bought a bogus degree. But his success could come at a price - with even the judge publicly wondering whether it was a pyrrhic victory.
The TV hypnotist faces picking up a big slice of a £1.5million legal bill while receiving damages that could be as low as £20,000. He was also counting the cost of being exposed as a victim of a scam which saw him work for an unaccredited doctorate.

Mr Justice Eady said McKenna, 42, must bear some responsibility for a 'curious case ... (in which) both sides seem to have been determined to fight themselves to a standstill'. He added: 'What all this has achieved is open to question.'

McKenna - a former radio DJ who now runs a self-help empire with an annual turnover of £2.5million - had sued the Daily Mirror after columnist Victor Lewis-Smith accused him of boasting about having a PhD despite knowing it was fake.

The doctorate in hypnotherapy, which the TV star had gained from La Salle university in Louisiana in 1997, had been the subject of regular mocking by the Mirror, and Lewis-Smith in particular, McKenna said.

For six years he ignored the barbed comments which, he said, had made him 'a laughing stock'.
But, in October 2003, he decided enough was enough after Lewis-Smith wrote: 'I discovered that anyone could be fully doctored by Lasalle within months (no previous qualifications needed), just so long as they could answer the following question correctly, "Do you have 2,615 dollars, sir?".'
During the hearing, the High Court heard that La Salle was not officially accredited to award doctorate degrees.

Instead, it had been accredited by an organisation called the Council for Post-Secondary Christian Education - a bogus body set up by the La Salle's founder, Thomas Kirk, who later pleaded guilty to fraud.
None of this however was known to McKenna until after he got his PhD, the court was told. The hypnotist was simply one of La Salle's many 'innocent victims'.

What's more, rather than simply 'getting a degree in exchange for a cheque', McKenna had spent more than 500 hours on a 50,000 word thesis, later published in his best-selling book Change Your Life in Seven Days.

In his ruling, the judge openly questioned the value of the degree. However, he was adamant that McKenna had not tried to 'hoodwink' the court or the public when he referred to his PhD in his promotional material. He described the entertainer's performance in the witness box as 'determined, indignant, and manifestly proud of his work (whatever anybody else may think of it)'.  He concluded: 'Mr McKenna was not, in my judgment, dishonest and, for that matter, whatever one may think of the academic quality of the work, or of the degree granted by La Salle, it would not be accurate to describe it as "bogus".

'It was certainly not granted merely for money. The claimant is therefore entitled to succeed on liability.'

Lowly academic credentials

But any sense of triumph McKenna felt will be tempered by the ordeal of having had his lowly academic credentials pored over in public. Even the entertainer himself appeared doubtful as to whether the court action had enhanced his reputation.

He told Channel 4 News: 'Well, certainly, by bringing this to court - something I did not want to do - has actually put it on the radar. 'But I felt that I had no choice as I had to restore my reputation and protect the livelihood of those people that work for me. He (Lewis-Smith) did not show any signs of stopping saying these things.'

McKenna was born in Enfield, North London, the son of a builder and a home economics teacher. After leaving school with few qualifications, he began working as a DJ before joining Capital Radio in London in the mid-1980s.

His interest in hypnotism, however, soon took precedence. His television programmes, The Paranormal World of Paul McKenna and The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna, regularly attracted 12million viewers, and he acquired a raft of celebrity clients such as Sophie Dahl, David Beckham and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

He now lives in West London with a fortune in excess of £ 10million and hosts weight-loss and corporate leadership seminars which sell for up to £7,000 a ticket.

Although now single, his former girlfriends include GMTV's Penny Smith, golfer Colin Montgomerie's ex-wife Eimear and former fiancÈe, Claire Staples, who now works as his manager.
The case cost McKenna an estimated £5million in lost earnings because poor ticket sales led to the cancellation of tour dates.

The Daily Mirror was ordered to pay costs estimated in excess of £1.5million. But Mr Justice Eady indicated that McKenna may have to pick up some of his own expenses if they are deemed to be unreasonable for the newspaper to cover.

Damages will be decided in October and are expected to be between £20,000 and £50,000.
The Mirror said: 'We are disappointed with today's judgment but given that the case has yet to conclude, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this stage.'

Hena Husain - Sterling Heights, Michigan - PhD FAKE

Hena Husain of Balance4Life in Sterling Heights, MI claims to have earned a doctorate in Behavioral Science from Alpha University. Readers of this blog know that there is no such university (See http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/12/alpha-university-degree-mill.html). She cons others into thinking she has a doctorate and then trains them to become hypnotists for organizations such as the International Association of Counselors and Therapists and the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association (both owned by Bob Otto, who is another fake PhD scammer, See http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/12/robert-otto-owner-of-imdha-and-iact.html).

Husain is a proud member of these supposedly "ethical" organizations:

Clinical Care Network Professional Group 
Medical Office Managers Association 
National Guild of Hypnotists 
American Board of Hypnotherapy, IACT and IMDHA 
The Greater West Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce 
Local Business Network (LBN) 
The Pakistani Women's Association of Michigan

Wayson Lee, PhD Fraud, Strikes Back...Or Tries To

A while ago, we wrote about Wayson Lee from Washington, DC, who FALSELY claimed to have earned a PhD, a Doctor of Clinical Hypnosis. See http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/11/wayson-lee-washington-dc-fake-doctorate.html

He sent us a series of emails last night ranting about how he "never got a gig based on 'degree.'" And that doctors "suck" at their profession. Well, Mr. Wayson Lee, it is quite clear that, if your "abilities shine through" like you claim, then you would have no need to misrepresent your academic qualifications. You are NOT a doctor of anything. It is quite clear that you are lying about having a PhD in order to increase your own credibility.

We don't have the time to write about Wayson Lee's rants about Iceland, so we'll just publish his rant for you.

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.

Fake PhD Realizes Error and Retracts Fake PhD

We have received confirmation that a UK-based hypnotist whose name was posted on this blog had retracted their false use of doctoral credentials. This individual informed us of the following:

"I was of the understanding that Alpha [University] was licenced by the US education authority. I do not wish to be a part of a fake document, and considered using this was legitimate.

All PhD references to me on my web sites and other areas have now been removed. I possess many qualifications including medical qualifications which are genuine."

We give this person accolades for stepping up, admitting their mistake, and for making the necessary adjustments in their marketing. 

We have kept our word and removed any reference to this individual on our blog.

Hypnotist Convicted For Sexually Assaulting Client and Having Child Porn

In a shocking story which recently appeared in this news, Philip Sherwin, a hypnotist located in Leicester, UK, fondled a teenage client while she was hypnotized. While investigating the matter, hypnotists found over 44,000 images of child pornography on his computer. The judge who convicted Sherwin "slammed the apparent lack of regulation for hypnotherapists after hearing he had just a one-week course and a two-day seminar on the subject before setting up in practice."

Read the entire story here:
http://www.capitalbay.com/headline/294976-hypno-sicko-pervert-put-teenager-in-hypnotic-trance-then-filmed-himself-sexually-abusing-her.html

Richard Nongard, PhD, Scottsdale, AZ - FAKE PhD

Richard Nongard of Scottsdale, AZ owns Subliminal Science, the "Hypnosis Superstore," Peachtree Professional Education, Inc., the NLP Certification Board, and the International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy (of which he claims to be a member in good standing -duh, it's his business).   This guy refers to himself as Richard Nongard, PhD but provides absolutely NO EVIDENCE that he has earned one. In fact, after "mistakenly" using the terms PhD on several products, he removed it altogether (except from his "Super Store." See below.).

In 2009, a reader on the Hypnothoughts Blog called Nongard out on this (see below). His response attempted to skirt the issue and he wrote that he only uses degrees when marketing to psychotherapy professionals. In other words, it appears that he is conning licensed medical professionals into believe that he holds the academic qualification of "Doctor," which he does not.

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

Patti Scott, Patricia Scott, Palm Harbor, FL - FAKE Doctorate

We thank Scott Sandland and his HypnoThoughts Live for this referral as well. Patti Scott, aka Patricia Scott, of Unlimited Possibilities Hypnosis, Inc. in Palm Harbor, FL claims to have earned a PhD in Behavioral Science (Major-Hypnosis) "with" Alpha University. Read here about the diploma mill known as Alpha University: http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/12/alpha-university-degree-mill.html

Patti joins the ranks of Terence Watts, Roy Hunter, and Patti Conklin...all who have fraudulently claimed to have earned doctorates from there. Welcome to the FAKE DEGREE CLUB, Patricia Scott.

Degree Mill = No Degree = No Doctorate

Oh how elusive Patti is. We found another source that says she earned a B.S. in Clinical Hypnotherapy and is a PhD Candidate with American Pacific University.

And here we have yet another degree mill. See http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/11/known-diploma-mills-resource-guide.html

Once again:

Degree Mill = No Degree = No Doctorate

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.

Marla Brucker - San Diego, CA - FAKE Doctorate!

Meet Marla Brucker of the San Diego Hypnosis Center. We would like to thank Scott Sandland's HypnoThoughts Live for tipping us off on this lady who claims to have a Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy. She is extremely elusive about where she supposedly earned this degree. We wonder why! That's because there is no such degree.

Marla is a proud member of Robert Otto's International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association and the International Hypnosis Federation.

Melissa Tiers, New York, NY - FAKE DOCTORATE AND BACHELORS

Melissa Tiers of The Center for Integrative Hypnosis in New York City is committing degree fraud as she purports to have earned a Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Alternative Healing through Albert University. She also claims to have earned a B.S. degree in Metaphysics from the American Institute of Holistic Theology.

Melissa Tiers is a member and instructor for the so-called ethical (NOT!) National Guild of Hypnotists and the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association.

Albert University and the American Institute of Holistic Theology are new ones for us. So we decided to investigate.

We initially searched our own resource for degree mills at http://fakedoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/11/known-diploma-mills-resource-guide.html and found that, yes indeed, Albert University is a known degree mill. On DegreeMill.com, the administrator wrote:

"A New Phony! Albert University 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.
See http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/2323-new-phony-albert-university.html

We then turned our attention to the undergraduate degree she boasts. While one's undergraduate education goes beyond the scope of this blog, we will sometimes take a look at it if something seems out of place, particularly since the term "metaphysics" is used. We couldn't find much of anything regarding the American Institute of Holistic Theology. We looked on their website at http://www.aiht.edu and found that not only do they not have any kind of accreditation, they boldly announce that they chose "not to seek traditional accreditation" -semantics for "we wouldn't get it if we applied for it."

Therefore we affirm that Melissa Tiers of New York, NY has NO ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS WHATSOEVER.

Jennifer Johnson, Fairfax, VA - FAKE Doctorate!

Jennifer P. Johnson, of Johnson Hypnotherapy and http://www.beahealthynonsmoker.com/ in Fairfax, Virginia, claims to have earned a Doctor of Clinical Hypnotherapy from the American Institute of Hypnosis. Readers of this blog know that the American Institute of Hypnosis is nothing more than a degree mill. Sorry, but any degree received from a degree mill is the same as having NO degree.

Barbara Pomar, Fairbanks, AK and Radio Guest - FAKE PhD

Barbara J. Pomar of Fairbanks, Alaska. One of our bloggers heard her talk the other night on the radio show, Coast to Coast. When they heard that she had a Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy, theirs ears perked up and notified us right away.

We did some research into her alleged PhD school, Atlantic Pacific University. Looks like it's based in Chengdu, China and appears on the Oregon Student Access Commission's list of Unauthorized Schools and Invalid Degrees. We can't find ANY source, ANYWHERE, that considers the Atlantic Pacific University as legitimate. There isn't even a website for Atlantic Pacific University. Therefore, we affirm that Barbara Pomar has duped George Noory, Coast to Coast Radio, and thousands of listeners into believe that she has a doctorate.

Response to Kathleen Hanover of HypnoThoughts

We were recently alerted to a discussion on the Ning-site, HypnoThoughts.com, where this blog became quite the topic of discussion. Kathleen Hanover, a self-purported PR expert, had this to say:

Ms. Hanover should know something about the media, as we are a media firm and she is supposedly a marketing expert. The law on libel is clear, with particular emphasis on the phrase, "A statement that falsely:"

We do our research. A diploma mill is a diploma mill, and a fake doctorate is a fake doctorate. Our statements are not false but are filled with truth (which is more than we can say for these individuals who are, indeed, falsely purporting to have earned a doctorate).

We also take note of your reference to us as "slimeball." Why would this lady want to take sides with individuals who are falsely purporting to have earned academic credentials? We wonder if there is an ulterior motive or if she is simply misinformed. The silent majority of readers will attest that we (and yes, we are more than one) are heros and those that are committing acts of fraud and deception by citing fake credentials are the true "slimeballs."

Further, to answer your question about photographs, they are not stolen. Once they are placed on the internet, they are a matter of public domain and we are free to use it when we are addressing that particular individual or individuals in our capacity as a media organization -much like your photo above as it is freely available on the internet. You posted it knowing that the world will see it.

Known Diploma Mills Resource Guide

Wondering if a school or institution is a diploma mill? Here's a great resource to help you figure it out!

Taken from www.employeescreen.com/.../files/Rev2_Known_Diploma_Mills.pdf