A Utah Therapist Built a Reputation for Helping Gay Latter-day Saints. These Men Say He Sexually Abused Them.

Andrew, who is identified by a pseudonym to protect his privacy, said he was sexually abused by a therapist he was seeing to address his struggles with being both gay and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Objects in this image have been darkened and blurred to protect Andrew’s identity.) Credit:Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune

by Jessica Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune Aug. 3, 2023 (propublica.org)

Several patients complained to the church or the state licensing board about inappropriate touching during therapy sessions. It was years before the therapist gave up his license.

Co-published with The Salt Lake Tribune

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake TribuneSign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

This story discusses sexual assault.

Andrew was feeling crushed by the cultural expectation to get married.

Twenty-two years old, he had just returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was attending a singles’ ward in Provo, Utah — a local congregation of unmarried college students.

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But Andrew is gay. And marriage between a man and a woman is a central tenet of the Latter-day Saint faith, which teaches that the highest level of heaven is reserved only for married, heterosexual couples. Same-sex marriage is not an option in the church.

So in the fall of 2015, he did as many Latter-day Saints do when they are having a crisis: He went to his bishop.

The lay leader suggested trying therapy, Andrew remembered. In fact, the bishop said he had just gotten a referral that same day for a local therapist named Scott Owen who worked well with gay men who were members of their faith. Owen co-owned a Provo therapy business called Canyon Counseling and, at that time, was also a regional leader in a Provo-area stake, a cluster of congregations that is similar to a Catholic diocese.

The coincidental timing — that his bishop learned of Owen on the same day Andrew disclosed his internal struggles — felt miraculous.

“It was like, God has a plan,” Andrew said. “This is going to work out. Everything seems dark and depressing. But this therapist is going to fix everything.”

But that’s not what happened. For five months beginning in October 2015, Andrew said, the clinical mental health counselor groped him, encouraged him to undress and kissed him during sessions. Andrew said Owen told him that the touching was a therapeutic way to learn how to accept love and intimacy.

Andrew, now 30, is being identified by a pseudonym to protect his privacy.

Sexual touching in a therapy session is considered unethical by all major mental health professional organizations, and it is defined in Utah rules as “unprofessional conduct” that could lead to a mental health worker losing their license or other discipline. It’s also illegal in Utah.

By March 2016, Andrew had reported Owen to both his bishop and to state licensing officials. A new investigation from The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica shows how Utah licensers allowed Owen to continue practicing and church leaders repeatedly heard concerns but took several years to take official action. For nearly two years after Andrew’s report, Owen provided therapy to clients, some of whom were men referred for “same-sex attraction” counseling. During that time, at least three more patients allege they were sexually abused by Owen, including two who reported him to the state licensing body in 2018. Those reports ultimately led Owen to agree to surrender his license.

Owen’s case is indicative of a flawed and misleading system: Officials within Utah’s Division of Professional Licensing encourage the public to look to the agency’s disciplinary records to vet a professional, yet those records rarely offer a full picture of misconduct. Despite Owen’s pattern of alleged inappropriate behavior, his publicly available disciplinary records reference touching but never disclose that the accusations against him were sexual in nature. This is one of a number of shortcomings identified by The Tribune and ProPublica while reporting on how Utah officials fail to supervise medical professionals and to adequately address patient reports of sexual assault.

Scott Owen Credit:Obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune

Owen, a large-framed bald man with dark blue eyes who speaks with a drawl, built a reputation over his 20-year career as a therapist with Christian values who could help Latter-day Saint men with same-gender attraction. He gave public lectures so often about pornography and masturbation, Owen told a crowd of LGBTQ+ church members in 2016, that he had earned the nickname “The Porn King.”

Although Owen, now 64, responded to an initial email from a reporter, he did not answer detailed questions sent to him via certified mail.

Officials with DOPL say that, given the evidence they had from Andrew’s complaint, they believe they responded appropriately. But, communications between Andrew and an investigator suggest that the agency’s actions rested largely on Owen’s denial that anything improper had happened and a failed polygraph test officials asked Andrew to take — a tool that experts say is known to be specifically unreliable with victims of sexual abuse, and that some states ban for that reason.

Church spokesperson Sam Penrod said the faith made an annotation on Owen’s personal church record in spring of 2019 — three years after Andrew’s initial report to his bishop. An annotation is a confidential marking intended to alert a bishop to someone whose conduct has threatened the well-being of other people or the church. It can affect what roles members are asked to fill within their congregation.

Penrod said in an email: “The Church takes all matters of sexual misconduct very seriously. This case was no exception.”

Both the church and the licensing division declined to comment on whether they reported the therapist to the police. Provo police officials said they had no record of ever receiving any report of sexual abuse against Owen.

Owen co-founded Canyon Counseling in Provo, Utah, in 1998. Credit:Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune

Touching in Therapy

Owen pushed physical boundaries from the very start, Andrew said. After their first session, Owen ended their meeting with a quick hug. At his second appointment, Andrew said, Owen held him in a longer embrace.

“I’m doing this because I know you’re uncomfortable with love,” Andrew remembered Owen telling him as they hugged. “I want you to get used to it.” Such touching, he recalled Owen saying, would be “a key step in my therapy.”

Andrew did feel uncomfortable. But he remembered Owen seemed genuine and truthful in their therapy sessions — even “Christ-like” in his caring.

Growing up in the Latter-day Saint faith, Andrew was taught to trust men in positions of authority. There was also the expectation to talk with his bishop about deeply personal sexual details during one-on-one interviews. These annual closed-door discussions generally start when members become teenagers and typically explore whether they are following the faith’s rules; they have been criticized by some parents and therapists as being “inappropriate” and “intrusive.”

These interviews, Andrew said, left him with a skewed view of what was appropriate in a mentoring relationship.

“I felt like a lot of the times I didn’t understand what normal boundaries to have around sexuality,” he said, in part because of how he was instructed to relate to religious leaders. “You have to air it all to these particular people in your life — and then you hide it desperately from everyone else.”

In the late 1960s, church leaders took a hard stance against even identifying as gay, including “homosexuality” in a list of behaviors that could result in excommunication. Bishops and church leaders in subsequent years were taught that being gay was a reversible condition, and church leaders would send gay men to conversion therapy or advise they could be fixed by marrying a woman.

By the time Andrew began seeing Owen in 2015, the church had publicly acknowledged that its members do not have a choice in being attracted to the same sex; today, church policy says a gay member can remain in good standing if they remain celibate and never marry someone of their same gender.

“At the time, I knew it might not be possible for me to get married, and that would still be OK in the church framework,” Andrew recalled. But, he added, “so much of the LDS dream is based on marriage that that was crushing and really depressing to me.”

So Andrew kept going to therapy, even as he said Owen began touching him more, at times rubbing his back or his bottom during hugs. Owen encouraged him to undress during some therapy sessions, Andrew said, which evolved into what he describes as “makeout sessions.” Looking back now, it’s clear to Andrew that this was inappropriate — but in the moment, he felt desperate and confused.

Andrew reasoned with himself that he was not physically attracted to Owen when they touched, which would be similar if he married a woman. Maybe it was a way for him to learn how to express romantic feelings he didn’t have or to fake it until those feelings came.

“I couldn’t accept that I was being taken advantage of,” Andrew said. “That’s a hard thing to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve been sexually abused this whole time.’”

“This was supposed to be my miracle,” he added.

Decorations in Andrew’s room Credit:Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune

A Reprimand

Andrew decided to stop therapy in February 2016, as he wrestled with whether what had happened had been abusive. He confided in a friend during late-night study sessions on Brigham Young University’s campus a few days later. In an interview corroborating Andrew’s account, she recalled urging him to tell someone.

Within a week of stopping therapy, Andrew again found himself confiding in his bishop.

Andrew recalled feeling like his church leader, who works as a livestock and pasture insurance agent, seemed confused about how to help a gay member of the church — and whether this type of touching in therapy was supposed to be helpful. He referred Andrew to another therapist who, Andrew said, told him Owen’s alleged conduct was a “gross violation” of patient boundaries.

Andrew went back to his bishop with this information, but the lay leader never reported that information to church authorities. The church’s general handbook for members makes it clear that if a bishop or stake president “learns of abuse of a spouse or another adult,” they are supposed to call a confidential hotline for guidance from lawyers and clinical professionals.

The bishop, whom The Tribune and ProPublica are not identifying to protect Andrew’s identity, said that he struggled to process what Andrew told him, and that he felt it was sufficient that he had encouraged Andrew to report Owen to state licensing officials at DOPL. The division is responsible for licensing Utah professionals, from medical doctors to armed security guards to massage therapists. It is also charged with investigating misconduct and can revoke a license or put someone on administrative probation.

By then, Andrew had stopped seeing Owen. Andrew’s bishop questions now whether he should have said something to a higher church leader, but he said he felt the faith’s guidance for when bishops should report alleged abuse to church authorities pertained more to “something happening that needs to be stopped, like when there’s abuse in the home.” The bishop added that he didn’t feel he knew how he should help members who were struggling with their sexual identity and their faith.

“A bishop is supposed to be a spiritual guide. Not a psychologist, not a family therapist. So I felt equipped to listen and love them, absolutely,” he said. “But as far as to help them process what it means and how to be a part of this religion and be gay — I never figured that out.”

Andrew followed his bishop’s guidance and went to licensers in early March 2016. In a statement Andrew wrote for investigators — which he shared with The Tribune and ProPublica — Andrew described the escalating touching and accused Owen of touching parts of his genital area at their last appointment.

“I left feeling disgusted in what had happened,” Andrew wrote about their last appointment, “and vowed to never return.”

To conduct their investigation, licensing officials offered the therapist a polygraph test. He refused, according to DOPL. They also asked Andrew if he would wear a recording device, he said, and go to Owen’s office to ask him about the touching. Andrew said he didn’t feel like he could go through with that.

That’s when the investigator asked Andrew if he would take a lie detector test.

Andrew said the investigator reasoned to him that if he could pass one, it could bolster what essentially was a case of one person’s word against the other.

The polygraph did not go well, Andrew said — the results suggested he was being deceptive.

“I had so much trauma,” Andrew said. “And so, certainly, when they asked me questions about the particular things that happened in therapy, it’s going to elicit a very strong emotional response.”

Researchers say this is a common response for trauma victims, and many recommend that sexual abuse victims not undergo polygraph exams. Half of states have laws explicitly prohibiting law enforcement from conducting a polygraph test with someone reporting a sexual assault, with some barring any government employee from requiring an alleged sexual assault victim to take one. There is no law in Utah that puts limits on the use of polygraph tests on victims.

Melanie Hall, the spokesperson for DOPL, acknowledged that an investigator did “offer the option” of a polygraph test to both Owen and Andrew. She said that it is “extremely rare” for a polygraph to be used as part of an investigation, but that the agency doesn’t track how often.

Andrew’s failed polygraph sent his own mental health spiraling. He wrote in an email in October 2016 that he no longer wanted to participate in the investigation unless someone else came forward.

A month later, Owen was given a public reprimand from licensers for the one inappropriate action he admitted to: that he gave Andrew hugs. Owen admitted in licensing documents that he “inappropriately touched a client in a non-sexual manner.”

Hall said the “overwhelming majority” of DOPL’s disciplinary actions are negotiated settlements — where a licensed professional admits to lesser conduct than what is alleged by those who say they’ve been harmed.

Owen later told the Clinical Mental Health Counselor Licensing Board, in a hearing in Salt Lake City at which he received an official reprimand, that his client had been struggling with a family issue, and that it was “not uncommon” for him to hug his patients.

But he denied Andrew’s allegations to the board, calling it “quite a story he concocted.”

“I readily agreed and admitted to giving him hugs at the end of the session and that sort of stuff,” Owen said during the meeting, adding that someone at DOPL told him that he should “know better” than to hug someone who was seeking therapy for same-sex attraction.

Owen said that he had changed his practices.

“I don’t do that anymore,” he said. “I have just been a little bit stunned and burned by this. I’ll shake hands, and I don’t even like to shake hands until my office door’s open and completely out in the reception area with my receptionist there.”

Owen left the meeting that day with a reprimand but no other limitations on his license — and no need to tell his other patients.

[Read more about mental health professionals who have been disciplined by Utah licensors.]

“I Felt Betrayed”

At precisely the time DOPL was investigating Owen, and then publicly reprimanded him, another man living in Provo and attending the same religious university as Andrew was questioning whether the way the therapist touched him during sessions had crossed the line.

Jonathan Scott had been seeing Owen for three years — and he would continue to see him for nine months more after the reprimand. His allegations bear a striking resemblance to Andrew’s, but he was not aware of the licensing reprimand — and it would be years before he realized that his experience was not unique.

Jonathan Scott began therapy sessions with Scott Owen in 2013 as an effort to heal from childhood sexual abuse. Scott said that the therapist touched him inappropriately but that he did not initially recognize Owen’s alleged actions as abuse. Credit:Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune

Jonathan Scott, a reserved 32-year-old with curly ash brown hair, first started seeing Owen in 2013 as a lanky BYU student struggling to deal with childhood trauma from being sexually abused by his Boy Scout leader in Illinois. His parents found Owen online and met with him first; Jonathan Scott’s father recalls Owen saying that he could help their son have safe relationships with adult men.

Jonathan Scott said his new therapist reminded him of the man who sexually abused him when he was a kid. They had similar nervous tics, and the way each man had looked at him felt the same. They were both middle aged and had the large frame and roundness of a teddy bear.

“That was kind of the point,” Jonathan Scott remembers. Unlike his abuser, Owen was supposed to be “a safe, good man who is supposed to help me reestablish trust with men.”

But Jonathan Scott said Owen frequently touched him under his clothing while hugging him during sessions.

Like Andrew, he said this touching gradually escalated. Eventually, he said, his sessions felt like nothing more than 40 minutes of cuddling. Also like Andrew, he told himself that to heal he needed to learn to accept touch. And because he was raised in the church, he added, he wasn’t going to question a religious leader.

“You justify things. You let things slide. But did it feel comfortable? No, it didn’t feel comfortable. It didn’t feel safe,” he said. “But I was told I needed to work through that.”

Jonathan Scott ended therapy in 2017 when he moved. He never contacted DOPL, or the police, himself. It was only two years later that his partner — upset with the thought that Owen had never faced consequences — was searching online and found the reprimand. She corroborated details of his account in an interview with The Tribune.

It felt like a betrayal, Jonathan Scott said, to learn that Owen had denied touching Andrew around the same time he says the therapist had been groping him.

“When I found out that there were others, I felt not alone,” he said. “I felt justified in my anger of what I thought had happened to me. I felt even less trust in authority.”

Hall said that DOPL may, in some cases, require a disciplined licensee to inform their patients of unprofessional conduct, though that didn’t happen in Owen’s case. Utah has no law requiring this type of disclosure, and there are only three states that do require medical professionals disciplined for sexual misconduct to disclose that to their patients.

“DOPL and/or the licensing board may decide to implement this requirement,” Hall said, “if there is strong concern about an individual treating others without first informing them and receiving consent from the patient.”

But a search of more than 3,200 filings obtained from DOPL’s website, some from as early as 2010, shows the state has rarely required disclosure of unprofessional conduct to individual patients.

A Surrendered License

Owen continued to practice for nearly two years after the reprimand. It would take two more people coming forward before the licensing process was able to take meaningful action.

One of those was Sam, a 43-year-old man who now lives in Arizona. As a Latter-day Saint who was attracted to other men, Sam struggled to feel accepted, his brother Jason recalled. One fall day in 2017, Sam called Jason sobbing to tell him about a therapist he had been going to: how Owen had made him feel loved; how the therapist told him that he could help him learn to accept intimacy; how the sessions had become sexual.

Sam later detailed his experiences in a written timeline, an account that a friend later also shared in a letter to the church: It started in January 2017 with a hug and by August had escalated to mutual masturbation.

He declined an interview request relayed through his brother. Sam and his brother are identified by pseudonyms for this article, and information about Sam’s experience was gleaned from interviews and records provided by his brother and Troy Flake, a friend Sam confided in at the time.

In February 2018, DOPL received another report alleging Owen engaged in sexual misconduct. Details of the complaint were redacted in response to a public records request. And in April, Sam himself spoke to a DOPL investigator.

“Just got off the phone with the investigator,” Sam wrote in a text message to his brother. “It was pretty rough to explain to him all of what happened, but I’m glad I got through it and started this process.”

He wrote that the investigator had “accumulated accounts from several of Scott’s clients.”

Within weeks of Sam speaking to the investigator, Owen surrendered his license as part of an agreement with Utah’s licensing division. According to the DOPL order, investigators believed that Owen inappropriately touched “a number” of clients in a five-year period beginning in 2013. There was no reference to the sexual nature of those contacts. And when Owen surrendered his license, he was able to give it up while neither agreeing with nor denying licensers’ findings.

Reports to Church Leaders

Utah’s licensing division wasn’t the only entity that had knowledge of Owen’s activities for years before he was censured. There was also the church.

Andrew had gone to his bishop back in 2016, but church officials say their legal department did not learn of any alleged inappropriate conduct involving Owen until two years later, after DOPL had already begun to investigate.

As with Andrew, Sam first relayed his concerns to a trusted church leader. In the timeline Sam created, which he had shared with Flake, he wrote that Owen at times had told him that he “didn’t need to run off and talk to my bishop about” their counseling sessions.

If he wanted help processing what was happening, Sam wrote in that document, Owen suggested he talk with Alan Hansen, a psychologist who was also Owen’s business partner at Canyon Counseling. Hansen’s role as Sam’s stake president at that time meant he was also in charge of overseeing thousands of church members who make up local congregations in their area.

A patient of Owen’s twice raised concerns with Alan Hansen, co-owner of Canyon Counseling, about inappropriate touching during therapy. Credit:Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune

In August 2017, Sam went to Hansen’s church office on BYU’s campus, where he disclosed that Owen had been “physical” with him during sessions.

He wrote in his timeline that Hansen encouraged him to keep attending therapy and gave him a priesthood blessing — a prayer of healing and encouragement given by adult men in their church. The blessing made Sam feel better, he wrote, and he continued seeing Owen for therapy for two months. But then, he added, he became too uncomfortable with the sexual touching he said happened inside the Canyon Counseling office.

In December, according to the timeline, he told Hansen again about Owen’s touching. This time, though, he was more explicit — telling the church leader that Owen had kissed him and had engaged in heavy petting and other types of sexual touching.

“Alan acknowledged that some of Scott’s actions clearly crossed some boundaries and that was likely due to Scott’s own weaknesses,” Sam wrote. “He also stated that Scott had done something like this before — and that there were others. I don’t remember his exact language, but that was the effect of what he said.”

Hansen did not respond to a list of questions sent to him, and he referred a reporter to the church’s legal department. A church spokesperson did not address questions about Hansen.

Sam continued to tell other church leaders about Owen’s behavior — and Hansen’s dismissal of it. He also went to his previous bishop in Provo. Sam wrote in text messages to his brother that this church leader confronted Hansen about “essentially doing nothing about my situation with my previous therapist.”

“He thinks it’s possible that it’s a releasable offense for the stake president,” Sam wrote to his brother about the chance that church authorities would strip Hansen of his official role in their faith. But that didn’t happen.

Penrod, the church spokesperson, did not respond to a question asking whether Hansen ever received disciplinary action for not reporting his business partner to church authorities.

He added that “local leaders who are themselves professional therapists should not refer members to affiliated therapists or practices in which they have a financial interest.”

But concerns over Owen’s behavior didn’t end when he surrendered his license. Flake, Sam’s friend, was worried that Owen could still be teaching in a church setting and was frustrated that he believed Hansen had known what was going on and took no action. More than a year later, in December 2019, he sent an email to church lawyers urging them to investigate.

A church attorney responded to his email later that same day, according to correspondence shared with The Tribune and ProPublica, telling Flake the firm would provide the information “to Owen’s current leaders and let you know if we need additional information.” The attorney made no mention of Hansen. Flake says he never heard from the church lawyers again.

The Tribune asked church officials in an email whether Hansen had ever been disciplined in connection to his business partner’s actions, but the church did not respond to that question. Hansen’s psychologist license is in good standing with the state, and no disciplinary action has been taken against him.

“There’s Been Zero Justice”

Years after they say they were sexually assaulted, several of Owen’s former patients are connected now through one more person who says the ex-therapist sexually abused him nearly 40 years ago: Owen’s own cousin, a Boise, Idaho, man named James Cooper.

Cooper wrote to his family in June 2020, telling them that Owen molested him in a shared bed during a trip to Colorado in the 1980s. The email describes how Cooper had learned that past winter that Owen had surrendered his license.

Read MoreUtah’s Secretive Medical Malpractice Panels Make It Even Harder to Sue Providers

He also sent a separate email to Owen, who denied the allegation and replied: “I don’t see this the same, but I am so sorry for your pain and hurt.”

Cooper wrote in the email to his family that up until then “my strategy has been to forget and avoid Scott [Owen] as much as possible, and admittedly that means I was content to keep my head in the sand in this regard.”

But after he read about Owen surrendering his license, Cooper wrote, it forced him to think about those who allege his cousin later hurt them. The 48-year-old man scoured the internet, searching for any potential victims and posting anonymously on Google reviews asking others to reach out to him.

Owen’s cousin, James Cooper, alleged Owen molested him in the 1980s. More recently, Cooper sought out and connected former patients of Owen’s who allege they were abused in therapy. Credit:Sarah A. Miller for ProPublica

That’s how he connected with Andrew, Jonathan Scott and Sam’s friend Flake; together, the men grappled with what to do next. All of them described long-term effects of Owen’s alleged conduct and also a sense that there had been no meaningful consequences for him.

Both Andrew and Jonathan Scott have left the church, in part because of the alleged abuse. Sam has been devastated after realizing he had been taken advantage of, according to Flake, which has destroyed his ability to trust his own perception. And Jonathan Scott has thought about reporting Owen to the police, but he continues to struggle to trust authority figures.

“There’s been zero justice, as far as I can see,” Jonathan Scott said.

Owen today is listed as the registered agent for Canyon Counseling in public business records. It’s not clear what his role in the business is, but in 2019, Flake called the police to report seeing Owen’s truck in the Canyon Counseling parking lot, though he did not have a license to practice therapy.

An officer contacted Owen, who said he owns the business — but is not a therapist any more.


The Mental Health Profession Violations


Scott Owen is one of at least 197 mental health professionals who have been disciplined by Utah licensers since 2012, according to a data analysis by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica of available disciplinary documents on the state Division of Professional Licensing’s website as of April 20, 2023. This database is not exhaustive, as older filings may no longer appear on the website.

Of those, 73 — or 37% — had been disciplined for sexual misconduct. Searches of DOPL’s disciplinary records suggest that mental health professionals are more often disciplined for sexual-related misconduct than doctors or nurses. The Tribune and ProPublica also identified 28 other misconduct cases where a therapist had an inappropriate “dual relationship” with a client — such as a client sleeping over at a therapist’s home or cleaning horse stalls together — that did not appear on paper to be explicitly sexual in nature.

Owen is one of five Utah mental health professionals identified by The Tribune and ProPublica who have been disciplined more than once for sexual conduct. Several of them continue to work in the therapy business in some capacity. Two others among the five were put on probation and allowed to continue working as therapists, according to disciplinary filings, while a third opened a life coaching business marketing himself as a “one of the few Ph.D.-level coaches” in southern Utah.

Utah licensers consider any sexual contact with a current patient to be misconduct, and sexual relationships with a former patient are not allowed within two years after they stop seeing a therapist.

When asked if the licensing division knew whether therapists were at higher risk for sexual misconduct, spokesperson Melanie Hall said DOPL is aware that certain license types “have a tendency towards certain types of violations.” She didn’t specifically address mental health professionals, but she gave certified public accountants as an example of professionals who have increased access to bank accounts and are more likely to commit financial fraud than other professionals who do not have that access.

The agency, she said, “takes these factors into account when investigating complaints, and takes appropriate disciplinary action when necessary.”

The news organizations also asked Hall about whether DOPL reports cases to law enforcement. Under Utah law, it is illegal for a health professional to engage in sexual contact with their patient under the guise of providing treatment.

The licensing division, Hall said, is not legally required to forward information to law enforcement — just as the police are also not mandated to share information about a licensed professional they are investigating. The only exception to this, she said, is a requirement that drug thefts be reported to police.

Hall said that licensers do collaborate and report crimes to police agencies “often,” though she did not explain under what circumstances they would do so. She said that licensers may encourage a patient to reach out to the police or decide that the case does not require a criminal investigation. She would not say whether anyone at DOPL ever reported Owen to the police.

Help ProPublica and The Salt Lake Tribune Investigate Sexual Assault in Utah

We’re reporting on sexual assault by health care professionals, an issue we highlighted in our story about a Provo OB-GYN who was sued by nearly 100 women who said he sexually assaulted them during treatments.

https://www.propublica.org/article/utah-therapist-built-reputation-for-helping-gay-latter-day-saints-they-say-he-sexually-abused-themExpand

Editor’s Note: Three sources for this story — Andrew, Sam and Jason — are identified only by pseudonyms because they requested anonymity. Two are alleged victims of sexual assault, and the third is the brother of one of those men. We have granted this request because of the risk to their standing in their communities if they were publicly identified. The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica typically use sources’ full names in stories. But sometimes that isn’t possible, and we consider other approaches. That often takes the form of initials or middle names. In this case, we felt that we couldn’t fully protect our sources by those means. Their full names are known to a reporter and editors, and their accounts have been corroborated by documents and interviews with others.

This story was supported in part by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Jeff Kao and Haru Coryne, ProPublica, and Will Craft, special to The Salt Lake Tribune, contributed data reporting. Mollie Simon, ProPublica, contributed research.

On writing a novel

“Writing a novel is one of those modern rites of passage, I think, that lead us from an innocent world of contentment, drunkenness, and good humor, to a state of chronic edginess and the perpetual scanning of bank statements. By the eighteenth book, one has a sense of having bricked oneself into a niche, a roosting place for other people’s pigeons. I wouldn’t recommend it.”

–J.G. BALLARD

James Graham Ballard (November 15, 1930 – April 19, 2009) was an English novelist and short story writer, satirist and essayist known for psychologically provocative works of fiction that explore the relations among human psychology, technology, sex, and the mass media. Wikipedia

“If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.”

–CHINUA ACHEBE

Chinua Achebe (November 16, 1930 – March 21, 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Wikipedia

Speaker Mike Johnson says the Bible is his worldview. Here’s what that would really look like.

Commentary by Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld 

November 8, 2023 (lgbtqnation.com)

When Mike Johnson claims that his worldview “about any issue under the sun” is based on the Bible, just which Bible does he mean? There is more than one, after all: the Jewish Bible or Old Testament and the Christian Bible or New Testament.

If he adheres to the Jewish Bible, does this mean that he follows all 613 Torah commandments and that he keeps kosher (Kashrut) by not eating shellfish, not mixing meat with dairy like in a cheeseburger, only eating mammals with cloven hooves that chew their cud, and not eating animals like camels, rock badgers, hares, and pigs, as expressed in Lev. 11:3Deut. 14:6?

And what about in Exodus 21:15, 17, On Children:

·       And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

·       And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

Since all of Mike and Kelly Johnson’s four birth children and their one adopted son are still living, this would assume that none has ever “smiteth” or “curseth” their father or mother.

Christian Testaments, 1 Samuel 15:3, On Children:

·       Now go and smite Am’alek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

But, whether or not the Johnsons follow the Jewish Bible, it is definitely clear that they do obey the Christian one. So, we must wonder, just how many slaves do they keep and own?

Christian Testaments: On Slavery

Ephesians 6:5-6

·       Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

Colossians 3:22

·       Slaves, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.

1 Timothy 6:1-2

·       Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful to them on the ground that they are members of the church; rather they must serve them all the more, since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved.

Titus 2:9-10

·       Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Savior.

Luke 12:47

·       That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.

1 Peter 2:18-29

·       Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.

Christian Testaments: On The Jewish People

The Johnsons must also despise Jewish people if he believes what the Christian Testaments say:

Thessalonians 2:15-16

·       [T]he Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out, the Jews who are heedless of God’s will and enemies of their fellow man… All this time they have been making up the full measure of their guilt, and now retribution has overtaken the good of all.

Matthew 27:24-25

·       Pilate could see that nothing was being gained, and a riot was starting [among the Jews]; so he took water and washed his hands in full view of the people saying, “My hands are clean of this man’s blood; see to that yourselves,” and with one voice the people cried, “His blood be on us, and on our children.”

John 8:44

·       And Jesus said: “If God were your father, you would love me… [but] your father is the devil and you choose to carry out your father’s desires”

Revelation 2:9

·       The Jews…are Satan’s synagogue.

Revelation 3:9

·       I will make those of Satan’s synagogue, who claim to be Jews but are lying frauds, come and fall down at your feet.

Galatians 5:1-6

·       Christ set us free, to be free men. Stand firm, then, and refuse to be tied to the yoke of slavery again. Mark my words: I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will do you no good at all.

Titus 1:14-16

·       And Paul said, “Do not give heed to Jewish fables and commandments of merely human origin that turn men from the truth;…nothing is pure to the tainted minds of disbelievers…. They [the Jews] profess to acknowledge God, but deny him by their actions. Their detestable obstinacy disqualifies them for any good work.”

Christian Testaments: On Women

1 Timothy 2:9

·       I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes.

1 Timothy 2:11-12

·       Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent.

1 Corinthians 11:3

·       But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

1 Corinthians 11:5

·       And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head – it is just as though her head were shaved.

1 Corinthians 14:33-35, 37

·       As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. . . what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord.

Ephesians 5:22

·       Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Colossians 3:18

·       Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

Christian Testaments: On Divorce

Matthew 19:3–8; cf. Mark 10:2–9; Luke 16:18

·       The Pharisees questioned Jesus when he taught on the permanence of marriage:

·       Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”

Mark 10:11–12

·       “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery

1 Corinthians 7:10–11

·       Paul’s teaching agrees with this: “To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) — and that the husband should not divorce his wife.”

Romans 7:1–3

·       Do you not know, brethren — for I am speaking to those who know the law — that the law is binding on a person only during his life? Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Christian Testaments: On Same-Sex Sexuality and Gender Diversity

Romans 1:26

·       In consequence, God has given them up to shameful passions. Their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural.

Romans 1:27

·       And likewise also the men, giving up natural relations with women, burn with lust for one another; males behave indecently with males, and are paid in their own persons the fitting wage of such perversion.

Timothy 1:10

·       For whoremonger, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

1 Corinthians 6-9

·       Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.

Well, then, for those who do not desire to have the United States transformed into a completed evangelical Christian nationalist theocracy, we need to wish for the good health of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, at least until the next national election on November 5, 2024.

Link to entire article: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/11/speaker-mike-johnson-says-the-bible-is-his-worldview-heres-what-that-would-really-look-like/?utm_source=LGBTQ+Nation+Subscribers&utm_campaign=8723fb5ed6-

Stuart Stevens: The Conspiracy to End America

The Common • Nov 3, 2023 Will 2024 be America’s last free and fair election? That ominous warning comes from Stuart Stevens, a former chief Republican strategist whose clients included President George W. Bush; Senators Chuck Grassley, Dick Lugar and Dan Coats; and Governors Haley Barbour, John Kyl, Bill Weld and many others. He says the GOP is dragging our country toward autocracy, and the party is no longer a “normal” political party in the American tradition. Rather, he says it is an autocratic movement masquerading as a political party. As the Republican party changed, Stevens exited his role in one of the country’s most influential political strategy firms and joined the Lincoln Project, where he is currently an advisor. Stevens wrote about his fear for the country in his provocative new book, The Conspiracy to End America. In it, he reviews the elements that are necessary for democracies to slide into autocracy, and he examines each of these forces on the modern American right and how they are working together. Are these the last days of the old republic? Or can there be a renewed commitment to democratic governance? Don’t miss this talk as Stevens flashes a blinking red distress alert as well as a rallying cry to beat back this threat. Photo courtesy the speaker. October 26, 2023 SPEAKERS Stuart Stevens Senior Advisor, The Lincoln Project; Author, The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy; Twitter @stuartpstevens In Conversation with Brian Watt News Anchor, KQED; Twitter@RadioBWatt

(Contributed by Hanz Bolen, H.W., M.)

Tarot Card for November 13: The Two of Disks

The Two of Disks

The Lord of Change is a card that indicates the necessity of constant change in life if we are not to stagnate. It often marks a turning point – a new job, a shift of fortune, a move of home.

Disks are an earthy suit, covering matters of material life, and the manifest Universe. If you look at the planet we live on, though in itself it seems solid and predictable (less so in recent years, mind you) it is in a constant state of change and movement. It turns in space, and if it did not, we’d all be very unhappy with the consequences. The cycle of seasons swings past us each and every year. The tides ebb and rise. Constant change is natural, normal and positive.

We do, though, often fear change in our lives. We will struggle against anything that appears to alter the pre-planned pattern we have applied to our future. But that’s exactly what this card does – instigates change. Sometimes we think that the change is bad – and on the face of it, it may appear to be – yet whenever the 2 of Disks appears, it’s warning us that change has become imperative. Something is stagnating, demanding to be broken down and made over.

It’s worth remembering that if you resist the change advocated by the Lord of Change, you might find that life imposes it upon you anyway – and then you’ll feel the effects either of the Death card, or the Tower. When this card appears, it demands a thorough re-assessment of your overall position and willingness to go with the chances that come your way.

The card is especially strengthened by cards like Fortune, and positive Disks and Wands. You can usually track down which area of life it applies to by looking at the cards that surround it – Cups would suggest you need to look at your emotional life. Disks would imply that it’s either your working or financial area that needs attention. Swords would probably indicate conflict around whatever changes you need to make, and may point to a need for clear communication. Wands would be more connected with your own application of Will, and the way you are trying to build your life. Major Arcana cards would suggest an inner, more spiritual area needs to be looked at.

The Two of Disks

Working with The Two of Disks

Back to Earth – Disks

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Dissociation and dissociative disorders

Explains what dissociation and dissociative disorders are, including possible causes and how you can access treatment and support. Includes tips for helping yourself, and guidance for friends and family.

View this information as a PDF (new window) 

What is dissociation?

Many people may experience dissociation (dissociate) during their life.

If you dissociate, you may feel disconnected from yourself and the world around you. For example, you may feel detached from your body or feel as though the world around you is unreal. Remember, everyone’s experience of dissociation is different.

Dissociation is one way the mind copes with too much stress, such as during a traumatic event.

There are also common, everyday experiences of dissociation that you may have. Examples of this are when you become so absorbed in a book or film that you lose awareness of your surroundings. Or when you drive a familiar route and arrive at your destination without any memory of how you got there.

Experiences of dissociation can last for a short time (hours or days) or for much longer (weeks or months). 

Dissociation may be something that you experience for a short time while something traumatic is happening. But you also may have learned to dissociate as a way of coping with stressful experiences. This may be something that you’ve done since you were young.

I felt like my body didn’t belong to me, it was like I was an outsider watching my own story unfold.

When might I dissociate?

Dissociation

Watch Paul, Anamoli, Hayley and Paul talk about what life is like with different types of dissociation.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/UvhtDZ7G6jI?feature=oembed&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mind.org.uk

How might I experience dissociation?

Dissociation can be experienced in lots of different ways.

Psychiatrists have tried to group these experiences and give them names. This can help doctors make a diagnosis of a specific dissociative disorder. But you can have any of these dissociative experiences even if you haven’t been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder.

Having difficulty remembering personal information

You might:

  • Have gaps in your memory where you can’t remember certain events
  • Not be able to remember information about yourself or your life history
  • Forget how to do something you’ve been able to do well in the past
  • Find that you have items that you don’t remember ever owning

A psychiatrist might call these experiences dissociative amnesia.

Travelling to a different location or taking on a new identity

You might travel somewhere and forget how you got there. You may forget important details about yourself and take on a new identity during this time.

A psychiatrist might call these experiences dissociative fugue.

Feeling like the world around you is unreal

You might:

  • See objects changing in shape, size or colour
  • Feel detached or separate from the world around you
  • See the world as ‘lifeless’ or ‘foggy’
  • Feel like you’re seeing the world through a pane of glass
  • Feel like you’re living in a dream
  • Feel as if other people are robots (even though you know they aren’t)

A psychiatrist might call these experiences derealisation.

Feeling like you’re looking at yourself from the outside

You might:

  • Feel as though you are watching yourself in a film or looking at yourself from the outside
  • Feel as if you are just observing your emotions
  • Feel disconnected from parts of your body or your emotions
  • Feel as if you are floating away
  • Feel unsure of the boundaries between yourself and other people

A doctor or psychiatrist might call these experiences depersonalisation.

Feeling your identity shift and change

You might:

  • Switch between different parts of your personality
  • Speak in a different voice or voices
  • Use a different name or names
  • Feel as if you are losing control to ‘someone else’
  • Experience different parts of your identity at different times
  • Act like different people, including children

A psychiatrist might call these experiences identity alteration.

Difficulty defining what kind of person you are

You might:

  • Find it very difficult to define what kind of person you are
  • Feel like your opinions, tastes, thoughts and beliefs change a lot

A psychiatrist might call these experiences identity confusion.

What are triggers and flashbacks?

trigger is a reminder of something traumatic from the past, which can cause you to experience dissociation or other reactions. It could be something you hear, see, taste, smell or touch. It could also be a specific situation or way of moving your body. Many different things can be triggers.

In a flashback, you may suddenly experience traumatic sensations or feelings from the past. This might happen when you experience a trigger. The flashback might make you feel like you’re reliving a traumatic event in the present. The experience may cause you to switch to another part of your identity.

You may experience different identity states with different memories. These may resurface during flashbacks.

A flashback is a sudden, involuntary re-experiencing of a past traumatic event as if it’s happening in the present.

(mind.org)

Scorpio New Moon, November 13, 2023

Wendy Cicchetti

Scorpio New Moon

The New Moon in Scorpio puts us in touch with the deeper, darker sides of life — places where we may initially feel less certain of what we are dealing with. Remember: just because we might not see a certain scenario coming doesn’t mean we don’t have the wherewithal to manage it. Scorpio is one of the most resourceful of all the signs, and it represents persistence finding solutions. Whether our challenges are great or small, we will find we have an inner stamina to get results.

As the New Moon is conjunct Mars we are dealing with the strength of cool energy as a nourishing element. In other words, Mars has two kinds of power: a scorching hot side and a freezing cold side. Each work to either halt the growth of something or take it over the edge, which we can appreciate in the analogy of meat either being seared or freezer burned. How we experience degrees of heat and cold will depend on our circumstances, of course. But if focusing on healing, for example, we might find that an ice pack is the answer to managing a physical injury, rather than a heat treatment.

Mars in Scorpio does not usually hang around long when enacting anything important — but may have waited quite a while already to work up to this point. For instance, if a situation has not felt fair, it may have seeded some resentment, though we also may have worked hard not to harbor ill feeling. We know acting out some tit-for-tat vengeance isn’t the best way forward, and we can find satisfaction in asking for what we feel is reasonable — and then witnessing others agree on this fairer deal. It may well be that a past wrong is righted soon, and we can put a relationship on a better footing for the future. This is likely to set us up well for whatever needs nurturing in our day-to-day lives..

As the New Moon and Mars are opposed by Uranus, there is bound to be a surprise on the way, too. Maybe we need to respond to a development faster than expected, or we find something new has emerged and needs prompt attention. Since Uranus remains retrograde in Taurus, this will possibly relate to a past issue. Quite often with Taurus, there’s a foundation that needs to be reset and better managed. Given this is a fixed sign, we may have to work against our own resistance to change. Yet, once we plough through and instill a new foundation, we find it to be effective and a better system going forward.

Uranus could also be offering a wake-up call in an area that has recently lacked our full attention. Such reminders or jolts from the blue can be unwelcome at first, but they come with a zingy, motivational energy that helps us to jump in and address them. Given the Taurus/Scorpio axis, maybe we end up purging possessions to make space for something more valuable. Suddenly, the junk room is decluttered to make way for workout equipment, providing us with the facility to make fitness improvements — or the space is transformed into a hobby room and we complete arts and craft projects.

The Scorpio Moon also forms a trine with Neptune in Pisces — another retrograde outer planet — hinting at a continuation of a past theme. There’s a good chance of clearing up long-standing confusion over an issue that has proven quite puzzling, despite all previous attempts to resolve it. We might finally get to the bottom of a plumbing leak or gas-related matter — or find spiritual clarity for an emotional issue, bringing a sense of calm and reassurance, smoothing our way for the future.

This article is from the Mountain Astrologer by Diana McMahon Collis

Book: “It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle”

It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle

Mark Wolynn

A groundbreaking approach to transforming traumatic legacies passed down in families over generations, by an acclaimed expert in the field
 
Depression. Anxiety. Chronic Pain. Phobias. Obsessive thoughts. The evidence is the roots of these difficulties may not reside in our immediate life experience or in chemical imbalances in our brains—but in the lives of our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. The latest scientific research, now making headlines, supports what many have long intuited—that traumatic experience can be passed down through generations. It Didn’t Start with You builds on the work of leading experts in post-traumatic stress, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score . Even if the person who suffered the original trauma has died, or the story has been forgotten or silenced, memory and feelings can live on. These emotional legacies are often hidden, encoded in everything from gene expression to everyday language, and they play a far greater role in our emotional and physical health than has ever before been understood.
 
As a pioneer in the field of inherited family trauma, Mark Wolynn has worked with individuals and groups on a therapeutic level for over twenty years. It Didn’t Start with You offers a pragmatic and prescriptive guide to his method, the Core Language Approach. Diagnostic self-inventories provide a way to uncover the fears and anxieties conveyed through everyday words, behaviors, and physical symptoms. Techniques for developing a genogram or extended family tree create a map of experiences going back through the generations. And visualization, active imagination, and direct dialogue create pathways to reconnection, integration, and reclaiming life and health. It Didn’t Start With You is a transformative approach to resolving longstanding difficulties that in many cases, traditional therapy, drugs, or other interventions have not had the capacity to touch.

(Goodreads.com)