Irvine Touch Therapist Put on Probation : Discipline: State licensing board finds that counselor Stephen Guy Venanzi engaged in sexual misconduct and prohibits him from treating women.

State licensing officials have put a local counselor who used a form of touch therapy on probation for seven years, saying that he engaged in sexual misconduct with two female patients.

The Board of Behavioral Science Examiners, following the recommendations of an administrative law judge, revoked Stephen Guy Venanzi’s license but stayed the revocation, setting several conditions on Venanzi’s practice. One is that Venanzi not treat women unless they are in joint counseling.

Venanzi, a marriage, family and child counselor, was originally accused of sexually abusing or inappropriately touching six women, but the board dismissed three of the complaints and in a fourth case decided that discipline was not appropriate.

In that case, Administrative Law Judge Frank Britt found that Venanzi committed “serious sexual misconduct” but that he should not be disciplined because the licensing board’s action was unreasonably delayed.

Eight years had elapsed between the time of the woman’s complaint and the board’s formal accusation last September, which put Venanzi at an unfair disadvantage in defending himself, according to the judge’s written decision, approved by the licensing board this month.

The decision, based on a public hearing late last year, takes effect Feb. 17.

Venanzi said that although he is disappointed there were findings of sexual misconduct, he is pleased with the decision overall.

“It feels like something of a victory to be able to continue to practice, and the probation that I’m on will be followed to the letter,” he said.

Venanzi said that he did not sexually exploit any of his patients and that he believes his trouble with the board resulted from his use of touch therapy.

According to the decision, Venanzi must, among other things, pass psychological examinations and undergo therapy. He may treat individual males, couples and families only--not individual females. Venanzi is also prohibited from engaging in “bioenergetic analysis,” a form of therapy in which therapists touch patients with the intent of deepening their body awareness.

Such therapy is not intended to be erotic. Britt found that Venanzi’s misconduct did not involve sexual intercourse or other “overt sexual improprieties.” The two patients with whom he was found to have engaged in misconduct testified that they do not believe Venanzi was seeking sexual gratification.

According to Britt, Venanzi had encouraged one patient, treated between 1985 and 1987, to become sexually attracted to him and inappropriately kissed her on the mouth during one session while she was upset. Later, the judge wrote, Venanzi falsified records of his sessions with the patient and tried to get her to help him cover up the misconduct.

In another case, Britt found that Venanzi sexually stimulated a patient over a period of two years by putting his finger in her mouth, kissing and hugging her. The patient began to drink alcohol before sessions and became despondent when Venanzi told her he would not touch her as he had in the past, according to the judge. The woman was hospitalized after trying to kill herself last April, Britt said.

Britt found that in that case, Venanzi, who was undergoing postgraduate training in bioenergetic analysis, engaged in treatment he was not qualified to perform and defied the advice of colleagues to refer the patient to another therapist. He also tried to dissuade the patient from telling the licensing board what happened in therapy sessions, Britt found.