Providence prof discovers B.C. counsellor's fraudulent credentials

Sharon Pham was astonished to find the credentials behind the name of a B.C. counsellor were fraudulent.

After COVID-19 first began to spread throughout Canada, Pham, who is an associate professor of counselling and counselling psychology and the chair of the counselling department at Providence Seminary and Providence University College, noticed some concerning traits demonstrated by one Kelowna counsellor who was a supervisor to one of her students.

“Something off”

“The main trigger was when the pandemic started,” Pham says. “This particular supervisor contravened a directive from our institution.”

Pham says at about mid-March, when COVID-19 had been declared a global pandemic, Providence decided as an institution to disallow any further face-to-face contact between its students completing their practicums and their patients.

“We acted quickly and sent out a directive to all our students that we needed to immediately stop seeing clients face-to-face and that they needed to navigate this with their supervisors to make sure these clients were provided care,” Pham explains.

There was only one supervisor who did not support this decision by the university: Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg.

“When that came to light, it made me quite suspicious,” Pham says.

Pham took it upon herself to dig a little deeper into Schuilenberg.

Pham, also a registered psychologist in Alberta with a number of other professional associations, including a small private practice, says she thought Schuilenberg’s reaction was strange, especially for a supervisor.

“I never thought that would be happening, given the unusualness of it, that just triggered for me there (was) something suspicious going on here,” Pham says.

“It just prompted me to examine this supervisor with a little more scrutiny than maybe I would have otherwise.”

An investigation

Schuilenberg is listed online as a counsellor in Kelowna that specializes in therapy for trauma. Her credentials online include Registered Professional Counsellor (RPC), Supervisor Member (MPCC-S), and Complex Trauma Certification Training (CCTP-II).

“This particular supervisor had put out quite a lot of information on social media,” Pham says, recalling where her investigation in to Schuilenberg began.

On the website for the practice Schuilenberg co-owns with her husband, Pham found a number of credentials listed, but none seemed quite right.

“I noticed that she indicated a degree but didn’t say where she got it from,” Pham says.

“That, I thought, was quite unusual because she had given quite a lot of information in her bio already … if you’re going to be sharing a lot of information about yourself, to me, it would just be expected that you would be also sharing information about what institutions you got your graduate degrees from.”

The other red flag for Pham were the years Schuilenberg listed for each of her degrees.

“She did it so quickly,” Pham says.

Typically, a master’s in counselling degree will take a minimum of two years to complete if the student is full-time. A Counselling Doctorate takes about double that time.

Pham notes it takes an incredibly dedicated and hardworking student to complete a master’s in counselling degree only two yeras.

“Most people, it takes four, five, even six years to complete their doctorate.”

According to her website, it took Schuilenberg only two years to complete her master’s studies, and only one more year to receive a second master’s and two years after that to receive her doctorate.

In total, Schuilenberg would have spent approximately six years to receive two master’s degrees and a doctorate – about eight years’ worth of education at the very minimum.

Schuilenberg’s first credential listed, too, was a diploma; not a degree.

“How can you have a diploma and then be accepted into a master’s degree without having an undergraduate degree?” Pham poses.

“Going from having a diploma (in 2005) to having a full-on master’s degree in 2007 was super rushed, especially when there’s no bachelor’s degree in there” Pham says. “Where would she have gone to get such a master’s degree?”

Pham says it is possible that this could have been legitimate, but highly unlikely.

She thinks the most likely explanation is Schuilenberg received these “degrees” from a diploma mill, a less-than-credible institution that sells diplomas, transcripts, and degrees without the proper educational experience.

“Based on what we uncovered, it just became clear that these credentials were far below what we required of our supervisors of our students,” Pham says.

Selecting a supervisor

Pham says she doesn’t know how her student first connected with Schuilenberg.

Master of Counselling Students must each complete four practicums under a supervising counsellor throughout the course of their studies.

The process at Providence, she says, requires that counsellors meet several qualifications in order to be deemed eligible to supervise a counselling student during their practicums.

“They’re (the students) are free to go and find someone that fits those qualifications … and then if they have a good feel for this other person, it’s a good fit for them as a supervisor, then they present a potential supervisor to us at Prov,” Pham explains.

Providence will then vet the student’s supervisor selection before approving a counsellor to the position.

Schuilenberg was put forward by the Providence student. At first, she passed Providence’s vetting process. 

She has since been removed as a supervisor.

“We knew right away we could not allow our student to continue under this person’s supervision,” Pham says.

At that point, the student was informed and the practicum came to an immediate halt.

“We severed all ties with Susannah-Joy and that practice,” Pham says.

Pham says this incident is the first such she has experienced in her time as a Providence faculty member.

An ongoing problem

A recent article by the CBC further called Schuilenberg’s ethics into question after one former client came forward with allegations the counsellor had accepted legal power over the client’s health and finances.

What concerns Pham still is that Schuilenberg’s fraudulent credentials had been most likely displayed publicly on her website since the opening of her practice in 2015 – five years where no one had known or thought to question her ability to work as a registered and reliable counsellor.

Pham says clients often don’t know what to look for when it comes to selecting a counsellor.

“I’m pretty attuned to looking at credentials,” Pham says. So while researching another supervising counsellor for this student, she was shocked to come across another instance of fraudulent counselling credentials.

Pham thinks this may be a more common occurrence than many people realize.

She says it’s a dangerous problem.

“When someone is unethical by misrepresenting their credentials, we can assume that lack of ethics … probably extends to all kinds of behaviours.

“The risk … is with clients, being in a position of trust. They’re in a room with a shut door with a vulnerable person. If they have a lack of ethics, just imagine the kind of harm that could be done to this person who is vulnerable, and it could be without anyone knowing.”

For those seeking a counsellor, Pham says ensuring a potential counsellor has at least a master’s degree in counselling is one of the best ways to determine reputability.

She also recommends simply calling a counsellor and having a conversation over the phone to determine whether a counsellor is right for you before establishing a professional relationship.

An eye to see

“As a Christian, I believe things happen for a reason,” Pham says. “God brings both challenges and opportunities into our lives for purposes.”

Pham says she feels God gave her the opportunity to be a light through her investigation into Schuilenberg’s ethical breaches.

“I did feel like I (had) a responsibility now that I (had) these suspicions. I (felt) conviction that I should do the right thing to just follow up,” Pham says. “This is something that needs correction, this is something that the public needs to know.

“I feel like that’s not only my ethical responsibility, but my Christian responsibility, to act on the knowledge that I do have according to my conscience before God.”

Pham says she feels this who situation came from a place of good.

“I think that as believers in the world, we are called to be salt and light in this world as it says in Matthew. We need to stand up for what’s right and good and true.

“It’s part of the kingdom work of standing up for what’s right and true and good because if we don’t do that, what’s to hold back the darkness from spreading?”