If you do a search for my name on the internet,  you are likely to come up with a legal document from the Australian government-funded Health Care Complaints Commission - HCCC.
In their 6 page document of endless imagined claims, they falsely allege that in early January 2020, I caused harm to an ex-client of mine. I contacted them numerous times - both email and phone - asking for proof of the allegations. But rather than follow due process, they ignored all my requests, and treated me as if I was guilty... and barrelled on with their apparent goal to destroy my name and my 32 year Counselling business.

When I found out who the ex-client was, I was incredibly surprised, as this particular female client came to see me on and off for 2-3 years - and she was THE most complimentary client in my whole life as a Counsellor!  She told me pretty much every session how much I was helping her ... and it was so full on, that I had to regularly ask her to focus on the great work she was doing to help herself. And we also never had the slightest upset or misunderstandings that I was aware of. Hence, my incredible surprise when I found out it was she who made the complaint.  Also most of the complaints seemed to have nothing to do with her and what mattered to her - she appeared to have been 'coached'.  Obviously, I tried to contact her, (once)  but she wouldn't respond.

Despite my many letters and phone calls, all my requests for the HCCC to provide evidence were duly ignored. Early on, I was given interim orders that banned me from working... (surely this is illegal?) ...and then eventually, they requested I turn up to court. 

As it was during the Covid era... I lived 7 hours away from Sydney,...and I had no funds for a lawyer... and I had completely lost any faith that I would be treated fairly... I did not turn up to the 4 times they called me to court.  To be honest, it was hard for me to treat the whole thing seriously, because there was no way I would ever harm a client. And they had no evidence, because how could they, if their allegations had no basis in truth?? 

Nevertheless, they found me guilty of not turning up to court, and somehow magically produced a rabbit out of their magicians hat with the resultant outcome.
OUTCOME

1. Banned from working for life in my area of expertise - including voluntary.
2. Fined $40,000 – which curiously went up to $60K
3. Fine was unpaid – resulting in loss of drivers licence – then re-instated somehow? - and since July, 2024, suspended for life.
4. Car was de-registered
5. Defamed throughout all the major mainstream media and newspaper outlets.

Obviously, this is a total travesty of justice, and if we actually lived in a Democracy, this could never happen. Which does make one think - do we live in the opposite??

Surely it is not ethical to obey an unjust law or ruling?
A responsible or sovereign person cannot collude
with such injustice, because to do so is to encourage it.

Interestingly, I am in good company. Similar has happened to many medical practitioners in Australia. Including the incredible Naturopath, Barbara O'Neill. She turned up to court with a good lawyer, but ended up with a similar outcome - banned from working for life.

Just recently, I noticed that Michael Gray Griffith of Cafe Locked Out was doing some great work supporting Barbara, so last week (Jan 2024),  I decided to contact him, and we did this interview, where he listened to me with great understanding and compassion. A most healing experience after all the craziness of dealing with the HCCC.

Click here for my interview with Michael at Cafe Locked Out 

​Despite the inestimable negative impact this has all had on my life, the loss of income, and destruction of my good name... I have prevailed, and will continue to do so with the incredible support of my friends and community... who I will be forever grateful for keeping me surviving.

I look forward to justice prevailing.

Well I started building this blog about 5 or 6 years ago... and then maybe I got distracted with a bit of travelling... and then the Covid insanity? But anyhoo, I've decided to finish off this site properly... (which is doing my head in!) ... and start blogging more regularly. Both to just share my musings, and also to get me back into the idea of regularly writing. Which, hopefully  will paradoxically re-invigorate me to finish off my recent book that I am threatening to release upon an unsuspecting public ;-).