Salon had an interesting side story the other day about a psychotherapist who was found to be a former stripper, and who was practicing without a license:

Lucy Wightman, 46, was known as a smart, warm psychologist whom patients adored for her laid-back style and her deep reserves of empathy. She had offices in two affluent Boston suburbs and her practice was thriving until last fall, when an anonymous tipster informed the local Fox affiliate that Wightman was not a licensed psychologist -- her doctorate came from a mail-order university in the Caribbean -- and in the '70s and '80s she was known as "Princess Cheyenne," one of Boston’s most renowned nude dancers.

In the course of the story, this question was posed:

If you were seeing an extremely talented and helpful therapist, and then found out that he or she had lied about credentials, would you continue to see the therapist? And what if you found out that your shrink was once a stripper -- would you care?

To me, the stripper part is a no brainer. It's nobody's business and irrelevant to the treatment at hand. If asked, a therapist should not lie, but may opt to not answer the question. I suspect that there are many professionals of all types who are well qualified and who have "checkered" pasts. It doesn't matter so long as they maintain the standards of their profession now.

The lying about credentials is a whole other thing. The process of psychotherapy is fully and completely based on trust. The therapist engages in the intimacy of trust by believing what the client says, despite knowing that most people lie like Karl Rove in therapy. Clients expect (and pay for) a professionally trained therapist that is being thoroughly truthful. This expectation is the crux of that therapuetic relationship ... psychotherapy may be the first time that an individual seeking help may have experienced someone who is being throughly honest. It's that very honesty that models what all of us should expect in our everyday lives from our relationships. The very process of psychotherapy is a learning process to experience such honesty, to practice the skills of honesty, and to overcome the feelings of discomfort that come with that intimacy which can be quite frightening.

The fact that many of this psychotherapist clients think it's no big deal that she lied about her credentials speaks to either their dysfunction or to the therapists lack of skill. The fact that the writer in Salon asks the question displays the common naivete' in our society about the nature of quality intimate relationships.

This woman should never be able to practice again, even if she attempts to obtain proper licensure, as she has proven incapable of the professionalism that is at the heart of the process of psychotherapy.