Eric Kothari pulled a no-no. Kothari was issued a license in August of 2006 to practice psychology in Virginia. But in late July of that year, he performed an evaluation of a child who had been sexually abused. Kothari signed the evaluation report as “psychologist,” when in fact he had not been licensed and had never performed a sexual abuse evaluation.
Kothari was placed on probation for a minimum of a year and is under supervision.
But the best part of the punishment is that within one year Kothari has to write three publication quality papers, bibliography and all. His three topics are, “Family Dynamics in Divorce Proceedings, Custody and Visitation,”Models of Custody and Visitation Evaluations,” “Best Practices in Sexual Abuse Evaluations.”
No monetary penalty was assessed. Kothari has to meet with his supervisor two times a month during the probation period.
A Google search shows that Kothari is a professor of psychology at American University in Washington D.C. Being a professor at a major University involves ongoing research and paper publication. Kothari is on the list to teach this spring. Kothari also has a profile on Psychology Today. His profile says he has been in the practice for four years, but he only graduated from the American School of Professional Psychology in 2004. The license number on the profile matches the one in the database.
