Psychologist Sookyung Chang Loses License for Financially Exploiting Patient

April 6, 2018

On October 30, 2017, the California Board of Psychology revoked Los Angeles psychologist Sookyung Chang's license. 

The Board's Accusation states that in 2006, a husband and wife who were seeking to separate sought services from Chang to help them divide their assets. In the process, the couple shared with Chang information about their properties and investments. 

After the conclusion of the psychologist-patient relationship, Change remained in contact with the husband. In 2007, she borrowed $300,000 from the man to purchase a property and except for a payment of $25,000, never repaid him.

In 2011, when the man was in danger of losing his home, Chang offered to purchase the property from him. They agreed that Chang could live on the property as a tenant. Chang and a co-investory purchase the home. 

In 2014, Change stopped paying rent. In November of that year, the man successfully filed an action to have Chang evicted for non-payment of rent. She was evicted and, while out of the country, had movers come to move her furniture and belongings off the property. However, she did not pay them enough to move everything so they left behind numerous boxes of patient records, unsecured. She made no efforts to retrive the files after she'd vacated the premises. Additionally, as described in the Board's later order, she removed fixtures from the property, including french doors and stained-glass windows. The man discovered that there were partially-buried dogs in the back yard and that the pool water was black because it was full of dog feces. 

The Board found that Chang engaged in a financial relationship with the man and that she used financialy information she'd obtained during the husband-wife counseling to exploit him financially. 

In addition to the revocation of her license, the Administrative Law Judge that heard the case awarded the Board $22,235 in investigative and prosecutions costs, to be paid by Chang.  

Source: Decision and Order In the Matter of the Accusation Against Sookyung Chang, Ph.D., California Board of Psychology, November 20, 2017 and Accusation In the Matter of the Accusation Against Sookyung Chang, Ph.D., California Board of Psychology, December 13, 2016.