Therapist Loses License Over Sexual Misconduct

A state mental health board Monday revoked the license of an Irvine therapist after determining he had female patients sit on his lap and lie on top of him as part of treatment.

Stephen Guy Venanzi, 42, who had been licensed since August 1982 as a marriage, family and child counselor, was also fined $57,495, said Sherry Mehl, executive officer for the state Board of Behavioral Science Examiners, which licenses some therapists.

“Over a 10-year period,” Mehl said, “this man violated the trust of several female patients in his care.”

Last month, the board issued a decision finding Venanzi guilty of sexual misconduct with two patients, violating professional codes, gross negligence and recklessly causing emotional harm to a patient through his alleged behavior with female patients in their 20s and 30s, Deputy Atty. Gen. Susan Fitzgerald said.

Venanzi, who said he now works as a counselor in a public school in Orange County, indicated he plans to appeal the board’s decision in Superior Court. He declined to say which school district has hired him.

“There is reason to appeal,” Venanzi said. “I’m not saying I’m not deserving of [some] censure, but the fine is very harsh.”

Monday’s action came after the board concluded that Venanzi allegedly violated conditions it had set last February, when an administrative law judge concluded that Venanzi had engaged in sexual misconduct with two patients.

At that time, the board revoked Venanzi’s license but stayed the order and prohibited Venanzi from treating women alone.

The board also increased the original fine of $47,000, which had been stayed, to $57,495, Fitzgerald said.

In one case, which dates back to 1985, Venanzi allegedly asked a female patient to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted to do to him sexually, according to a report of patient accusations compiled by the state attorney general’s office.

In a case dating back to 1991, a female patient allegedly lay on top of Venanzi.

Venanzi denied that he sexually exploited any of his patients and said he believes his trouble with the board resulted from his use of a form of “touch therapy.”

He said the two patients with whom he was found to have engaged in misconduct told investigators they do not believe Venanzi was seeking sexual gratification.

Venanzi was not trained or licensed to engage in “bioenergetic analysis,” a form of therapy in which therapists touch patients with the intent of deepening their body awareness. Such touching is not intended to be erotic.

Six women originally complained to the state about alleged sexual misconduct by Venanzi dating back to 1985.

The investigation focused on only three patients, after two declined to testify and a judge found only minimal misconduct involving the therapy of the sixth patient, Fitzgerald said.