Arizona mental health counselor Ruth Kawasaki suspended over conduct in divorce-custody case

October 3, 2008

On October 3, 2008, the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners suspended licensed professional counselor Ruth Kawasaki’s license (“suspended by operation of law when [she] failed to renew her license during an open investigation”). According to information published by the Board, Ms. Kawasaki treated a minor client for a year and a half without maintaining a written treatment plan. She failed to release the boy’s complete record to the child’s father. (The father and mother were at that time involved in ongoing divorce disputes.) The mother advised Ms. Kawasaki that the father had taken inappropriate pictures of the boy while he slept. Without consulting the boy or the father, Ms. Kawasaki wrote a letter to the court recommending that the father’s visitation with the son be supervised.¹