California Medical Board Puts Psychiatrist Kermit D. Johnson on Probation; Used Sexualized Hypnosis Script on Victim of Childhood Sexual Abuse

July 10, 2019

On May 31, 2019, the California Medical Board placed your colleague, psychiatrist Kermit Johnson on five years’ probation with terms and conditions. Dr. Johnson is/was employed at Schuman-Liles Clinic in Fremont.

This is the conclusion of actions which the Board undertook against Johnson in 2018, when it placed him on interim suspension, prohibiting him from practicing or attempting to practice hypnotherapy or hypnosis in any capacity and from treating any patients with a history of sexual abuse.

The Board’s Accusation against Johnson states that the underlying basis for disciplinary action was his treatment of a 28-year-old female for depression, anxiety, and insomnia between August 2014 and July 2015, during which time the patient saw Dr. Johnson five times. The patient disclosed childhood sexual abuse during the first visit. Johnson’s notes for the patient’s visits were found to be complete copy-and-paste duplicates of the notes he took at her first appointment. His treatment consisted only of drugs. Lastly, the Board’s documents states that he pressured her to accept hypnotherapy, in which he utilized a “a sexualized hypnotic script which utilized suggestive and sexual language,” which cause the patient significant anxiety and stress.

Source: Decision in the Matter of the Accusation Against Kermit Dale Johnson, M.D., Physician’s and Surgeon’s Certificate No. G45056, Case No. 800-2015-016497, Medical Board of California, May 31, 2019.