Virginia revokes psychologist James R. Stewart's license for crossing professional boundaries with patients

July 10, 2007

On July 10, 2007, the Virginia Board of Psychology revoked James R. Stewart's license to practice psychology for multiple violations of the Board of Psychology Regulations.  Specifically, Stewart slept in the same bed with a patient whose family he had counseled for five years, “acted amorously” toward her and borrowed her car; he moved into the home of another patient whom he had treated for ten years, did not pay rent, used that patient's credit card and borrowed money; Stewart admitted to using cocaine in addition to alcohol; he admitted to a patient that he had a problem with crack cocaine; he enlisted the help of a patient in transporting boxes of patient files in such a way that the patient had access to the files; Stewart's records for the two patients he crossed boundaries with were found to be “extremely brief, failing to outline goals and objectives or a treatment plan” and to “have major time gaps…and contain minimal information regarding treatment goals and methods.”¹