Florida counselor Aldo Ivan Rodriquez gives up his license on sexual misconduct charges

October 26, 2011

On October 26, 2001, licensed marriage and family therapist Aldo Ivan Rodriguez relinquished his license to the Florida Department of Health (DoH). This followed the DoH charging Rodriguez with sexual misconduct in early September. 

DoH officials said that Rodriguez inappropriately touched two patients while working at the Center for Drug-Free Living between 2008 and 2010.

Rodriguez resigned from the Center in January 2010 and went into private practice but Center officials did not learn of the sexual misconduct until after he’d left.

In a meeting with DoH officials, he admitted to touching the patients. Following a state evaluation in June 2011, he was found to have “violated therapeutic boundaries” and it was recommended that he not see female patients on a one-to-one basis.

According to the DoH's documents, in one case, Rodriguez counseled a 28-year-old married woman for opioid dependency. During sessions, he sat close to her with his legs open and straddling hers, which were closed and held and rubbed her hands and touched her face. The document also states that he asked her about her past sexual experiences during sessions.

The other case involved a 30-year-old married woman who came to the Center for counseling due to alcohol and opioid dependence. The DoH's document states that during sessions. Rodriguez would position the patient's chair in a corner so that she could not back up when he pulled his chair up close and that he touched and rubbed the woman arms and legs, and put his hand under her blouse and touched bare abdomen, telling that not all men wanted something from her and that he was trying to teach her "good touch. She stopped him when he tried to move his hand upward. The document also stated he sometimes ran his fingers through her hair and attempted to talk with her about sex.
 

Source: Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez, “State suspends license of Orlando marriage and family therapist, cites ‘sexual misconduct’,” Orlando Sentinel, September 7, 2011 and Final Order, Department of Health vs. Aldo Ivan Rodriguez, Case Nos. 2010-02195 and 2010-07191, License No. MT 2413, Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling.