Complaint Review: joe cavanaugh - Nevada City California

Well my first name happens to be  Leo, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to release any more of my information to the individual Sycophant posing as Michelle, Jennifer, Dani  and Carol. Why should I?  When all we know about them is a fake first name and no way to ever contact or verify their claims with or without subpoenas or action of the courts. Talk about the ability to blackmail someone?? Talk about unfair practice!! This is the worst site of all when it comes to holding professionals hostage. If anything should send shockwaves through the politburo it’s the unaccountability of websites such as Rip-off report. I’ll be surprised if they even approve my post but here goes…..

An internet troll and imposter can assume all of these first names by simply using different emails…. completely anonymously…forever! Great deal isn’t it? Great for the ones wanting to run down the reputation of a good person…really bad for the victim in this case…Mr. Cavanaugh. My background in writing analysis shows me that although the styles are somewhat different, (In a clever way) the same person is posting all of this nonsense from Carol, Michelle, Jeniffer and Dani. Including the so called Marriage and Family Therapist named “Carol”. In truth she’s the most hilarious…(not in a good way) and she’s not really that good at her deception to be honest. (Of course she’s part of the same multiple personality).

The extremely deranged individual posting all this drivel fits the profile of a functionally intelligent but extremely disturbed, bi-polar, schizophrenic….probably in their late 50’s early 60’s with a past history of extreme mental illness, possibly institutionalized at some point and most definitely a long history of spousal abuse, drug abuse and criminal behavior. 

I’m sure Mr. Cavanaugh is being completely honest when he says he’s having to deal with a rogue mental patient who clearly has a gene variant for criminal behavior and is taking out some vengeance online for whatever reason. Not for us to decide. 

Rip-off report is the perfect forum for cloaking anything you want to say about anyone in order to ruin their reputation and/or standing in the community. Everyone knows that. That’s why this site attracts so many dirtbags and goofy trolls.

We know who the real victim is here don’t we?…It’s Mr. Cavanaugh…of course!!   He has no recourse whatsoever to this anonymous poster who can carry on with absolution. He has no legal recourse at his disposal to hold them accountable for these ridiculous claims. Yet his entire information and life including contact information, address, photo, phone number… are all being exposed here by an out of State hosting site named Rip-off report and the only reason they can legally do this is because they’re located in Arizona!!! This is a travesty folks!!

And by the way, This so called “Carol” who claims to be a retired Therapist in Nevada City. That’s completely laughable. No California Practicing, Degreed Licensed Therapist would ever engage on a gossip site like this and spew out such nonsense and drama. In the first place, if they were in current practice they would be immediately disbarred. Second of all, a true licensed professional is well aware of the legal liability even after retiring and that can be pretty serious criminal consequences in California. But oh so hard to find and prosecute when posting anonymously isn’t it?

But alas…., there’s no last name for Carol, or Michelle, or Jennifer, or Dani.  How f’ing convenient is that? If I had Carol’s last name and address I could stalk and troll her for months on end couldn’t I? I could check on her background in the community and make some stuff up couldn’t I?  I could display all her personal information couldn’t I?  I could also bring charges of slander against her…If only I could get a little snippet more info on this so called “Carol” …couldn’t I? 

So…  How convenient for “Carol” that the accused can’t learn anything about her while she has complete absolution in destroying a local Family Man and his hard earned reputation. 100 percent anonymous while the real victim, Mr. Cavanaugh,  gets to have his whole life ruined by one out of State, money grubbing website and the trolls using it to it’s full free capability!!  It’s absolutely outrageous the Federal Government still allows this sort of crap to continue.

Although I’m sure it’s not the case in this situation….for all we know, Nevada City has 10 too many local therapists and the perpetrator here wants to knock out some of the local competition. Pretty clever isn’t it? No way to ever know who this imposter would be?? Never, ever, ever!! A criminal online stalker with 100 percent protection by an out of state gossip site!!

It’s really a sad day and a travesty that such an unscrupulous outfit such as Rip-off report can have a completely anonymous forum for psychopaths to lure, stalk and troll good law abiding, completely innocent victims that are well known local business people living in a completely different state, yet all of their personal name and info is on display for anyone doing a search for a business person in California. Someday Rip-off Report will be facing some sort of class action….we can be certain of this eventuality. 

Their ridiculous disclaimer for reporting these anonymous people is a mountain of legal ease and nobody in their right mind would even try using it. ie:

“PROCESS FOR ISSUING A SUBPOENA FOR AUTHOR INFORMATION

Because the operator of the Ripoff Report website is located in Arizona and all of our business records are kept in Arizona, we require that any request for the identity of an author must comply with Arizona law, and that means complying with the standards of Mobilisa. This means if you want to obtain the identity of an author, you must do each of the following things:”

blah blah blah, just try and report it if you have the stomach to go through the process!! Who would ever want to go through this?

In conclusion all I have to say to this dirt bag posting as Michelle, Carol, Dani and Jennifer….Let it go dude!! You’ll feel better….get a life ok?

Although…I have to say… I get this creepy feeling from my experience in this field that “Carol the therapist” will have something further to say after reading this. LOL  (I look forward to Carol giving us her complete contact information like any real former Therapist should do for the sake of truth and honesty as she puts it in her long drawn out diatribe)

And to Mr. Cavanaugh. I’m sure sorry you have to deal with a former patient like this!!!  I feel your pain. 

Peace of Love,

Leo

I am also a licensed marriage and family therapist, and I practiced in the same town as Mr. Cavanaugh. I was led to this site by a client, and I have carefully read the allegations made herein against Mr. Cavanaugh. I want to begin by stating I do not have first hand information of any of these allegations. I do not know if they are true or false, but felt compelled to respond to the comment made by William in support of Mr. Cavanaugh. William, who identified himself as a licensed therapist in the same town as Mr. Cavanaugh, stated Mr. Cavanaugh has a “completely stellar reputation in [the] community for professional excellence and integrity, and is one of the most esteemed therapists in [the] county.”  I wholeheartedly disagree with William’s assessment of Mr. Cavanaugh.

When I was practicing in NevadaCounty years ago, I had a run in with Mr. Cavanaugh regarding a mutual client. This particular client was dealing with some very serious issues at the time. Her family referred her to me, and I began seeing her soon after an extremely traumatic event. Unbeknownst to me, this client had a significant other who recommended she also begin seeing Mr. Cavanaugh. As I learned later, her significant other had been seeing Mr. Cavanaugh for some time, and had invited her to accompany him to joint sessions with Mr. Cavanaugh. After I had a few sessions with this client, she contacted and informed me she had also been seeing Mr. Cavanaugh. She stated he had advised her that the advice I was giving her was totally incorrect, and she should terminate our relationship. There is more to this story, which I cannot go into detail here except to state that I formed the opinion at that time that Mr. Cavanaugh’s actions were unethical. I later wrote a letter to Mr. Cavanaugh stating my concerns regarding his behavior, and I was considering filing a report against him.  He sent me a letter in response apologizing and stating it was simply a big misunderstanding.

As I was debating whether to pursue a complaint against Mr. Cavanaugh, the mutual client contacted me again. She requested that I drop the matter. She proceeded to inform me that she and her significant other had had a joint session with Mr. Cavanaugh not long after I sent him my letter. She stated Mr. Cavanaugh read my letter during this session as well as his draft letter in response. She told me it was extremely embarrassing to her. She was clearly overwhelmed and extremely anxious over the situation. So I agreed to drop the matter out of my concern for her well-being, which obviously outweighed my issues with Mr. Cavanaugh. That was years ago, and it was the right decision. I am now relaying that incident here in response to William’s assessment of Mr. Cavanaugh and his reputation in the local community. I disagree with his claim Mr. Cavanaugh has a “stellar reputation” in the community for “professional excellence and integrity.” That was not my experience with Mr. Cavanaugh when I was practicing in the same community. I would not refer patients to Mr. Cavanaugh, and there are many other therapists practicing in that community who also share my opinion of Mr. Cavanaugh. I have never heard a fellow therapist describe Mr. Cavanaugh in such glowing terms as William has here, and in my experience, it has been the opposite.

As I have stated, I have no knowledge of the accusations levied against Mr. Cavanaugh on this site. I have no opinion as to whether those allegations are true or not. I have read Stacy’s complaint against Mr. Cavanaugh as well as his rebuttal. If these allegations are false, Mr. Cavanaugh has every right to dispute them and do whatever he can to protect his reputation. That being said, if they are true, I also can’t condemn Stacy for using this site as a sounding board to warn others. And that is where I must disagree with a statement Mr. Cavanaugh made in his rebuttal to her claims. He stated Stacy is “fictional” because she failed to report her allegations to the authorities.  Although I understand where Mr. Cavanaugh is going, I must add that it is not uncommon for victims of sexual misconduct to be fearful of reporting said conduct to the authorities. There are many reasons for this, which include fear of retaliation - that their own reputation will be destroyed in the process, embarrassment and/or the mistaken belief it is a useless exercise to file such a report because the authorities will likely ignore it without taking any action. I felt the need to add these thoughts here because I don’t want future victims of similar conduct who may be reading this thread to be dissuaded from reporting such conduct or making them public so as to warn others. Clearly, this site can be used to bully others through make false accusations, but if that happens, the victims, who are falsely accused, have ample legal resources to address the problem. But because there is a risk that people may abuse or misuse this site does not mean it is “a rogue gossip site” as Mr. Cavanaugh has labeled this site.  If used properly, this site can go a long way in protecting unsuspecting members of the public from those people who have no problem taking advantage of others. In that regard alone, it is my opinion the benefits of this site well outweigh the negatives.

Mr. Cavanaugh, here are my final thoughts. I empathize with you if these allegations are false. The only advice I can offer you to make a positive out of this situation if it is false is to try to make a positive out of it as best you can. I have a relative who was falsely accused of a crime with serious consequences. He loudly protested his innocence to me and other family members. Although none of us were present during the alleged incident, I am ashamed to admit we doubted, and the more he protested, the more strongly we urged him to admit what he did and accept responsibility and the consequences of his actions. I based my decision that he was guilty on what the alleged victim told me. It was on that basis alone I became certain the allegations were true despite the fact I was not present during the incident. It turned out later the alleged victim had serious emotional issues and was not being truthful about what had occurred. I have been a therapist for over two decades, and I not only missed the warning signs, but I was sure she was telling the truth, and doubted my nephew’s claims of innocence.

The lesson I learned was that people can make convincing claims about another person, but if I was not there to witness what occurred firsthand, my rule is to stay far out of the fray. I have learned not to add my two cents or take a stance solely from what third parties are telling me occurred no matter how convincing they may be. I remind myself of what my nephew endured and how my opinion he was guilty and the allegations true only made things worse for him. I was someone he trusted who also happens to be a licensed therapist, yet I did not trust him, and I had decided without any firsthand proof he must be guilty. So if what you are claiming, I have an idea of how you must feel. That you are helpless to prove these allegations are false, that it is totally unfair, and I am sure you must be feeling a lot of resentment. But like I said, you can always make a positive out of an unfair situation. It may sound like trite advice at this point, but I advise you to remember how you feel if you ever encounter someone else in your shoes. Instead of focusing on how unfair it may be or how resentful you feel at the moment, I advise you to use those feelings to avoid making the same mistake I made. In the future, if you encounter someone you know who has been accused of something and is loudly protesting his or her innocence, you can be a positive in that situation by not jumping to conclusions as to his or her guilt or innocence, or like I did jumping into the fray and taking a stance as to said guilt or innocence. The lesson being that you weren’t there to witness the incident so you cannot possibly have any idea what occurred. This advice may not help you now, but it will help someone else in the future if you can simply remember how you felt when someone as you are now claiming was making false accusations against you. You can be a level headed and calming presence that I failed to be in my nephew’s traumatic situation.

I have no idea if what Stacy has said about you on this site is true or not. I wasn’t there. But I also don’t want her to think I am siding with you, and that she is a fraud. Like I said, I was not there, and I cannot possibly know what truly occurred, and no matter what is said to me by anyone who may be involved, I can’t know what is the truth or not. But if what Stacy is alleging is true, I do not fault her for using this site to warn others. Yet I still caution anyone who has read these allegations to do your own investigation before making a decision as to Mr. Cavanaugh’s guilt or innocence.

I have been a licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist in the same town as Mr. Cavanaugh for nearly forty years. For the last twenty-five years, I have known of Mr. Cavanaugh's work, and had several occasions to work conjointly with him in many therapeutic situations.

I know nothing about the situation filed in Ripoff Report, but hereby stake my reputation on my strong belief that Mr. Cavanaugh has not, and would never, engage in sexual contact with a client, or act in any way that betrayed his high level of professional ethics. Joe Cavanaugh has earned a completely stellar reputation in our community for professional excellence and integrity, and is one of the most esteemed therapists in our county. I would not hesitate to refer patients to Mr. Cavanaugh, and know several other therapists who would do the same.

I hope this matter can be settled with no further harm to Mr. Cavanaugh's reputation. He has worked for decades establishing a successful career and an impeccable reputation, and does not deserve tho have his name tarnished in such a damaging fashion.

To set the record straight, I feel compelled to make an initial response to these false accusations.  At the same time, I will not use this website any longer as a platform for further debate.  If anyone has a legitimate complaint, I would encourage them to go through the proper legal channels rather than use a rogue gossip site to address their concerns.

However, using proper legal channels is not a possibility.  Why? Because there is no “Jennifer,”   no “Michelle,” nor “Dani” in the first place.  These fictitious names  were fabricated by one bitter and vengeful person who continues to blame me for his own criminal background. Since this person has no grounds for legitimate recourse, he has now resorted to insidious and deceitful actions in an attempt to discredit my reputation.

There is absolutely no credibility to any of these accusations.  This individual has taken benign snippets of data from my background and then twisted and convoluted them into a string of  lies and misrepresentations.  It is a sad commentary that today anyone can falsify an e-mail address and use the internet to to anonymously bully and harass another individual without having to be accountable for their own actions.

Finally, “Jennifer” states that “she” failed to report these supposed transgressions to legal authorities because it would boil down to a “he said—she said” debate, and consequently, “”she” would be unable to prove her case.  In actuality, “she” is not pursuing legal action because there is no “Jennifer” to take any action in the first place.  “She” does not exist.  Otherwise, I would highly encourage her to utilize her legal rights and take appropriate action with the proper authorities.  And that cannot happen, because there is no “Jennifer.”  End of story.  

Dear Jennifer and Dani, I am so sorry to hear about your experience with Joe Cavanaugh. I also had a similar experience as a client of Mr. Cavanaugh. I will not detail what occurred here because I do not believe it is the appropriate forum to recite such facts. However, I will reinforce what both of you have stated in your posts as to warning others about him. It is a good idea to stay away from Mr. Cavanaugh as a counselor.

It is safe for me to report that using his services results in more damage than good. I hope this helps prevent what happened to me (and it appears to Jennifer and Dani too) from happening to someone else.  He also teaches a seminar at Esalen. I’ve always wanted to attend, and he used to encourage me to attend his workshop. I will not frequent Esalen while he is still providing his services there. It is better to be safe than sorry. : (

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Omg!!!! Thank  you, thank you, thank you, Jennifer!!! Mr. Cavanaugh did the same thing to me! He was my psychology instructor at Sierra College. I won’t ever forget him. One day I was texting in class and he took my cell phone. After class I went to get it back. He waited until all my classmates left before talking to me. Just me and this jerk alone. He hands me my cell phone and like he did to you, he put both his hands on mine….. yuck it was so sick I still get ill thinking about it. So violated!! He smiles at me and says I’m too beautiful to be struggling in his class. Wtf! What does that have to do with my grades! He says he can help me succeed and to trust him. He says he can meet with me before and after class. I asked him what did he mean…….and the creep just smiles like I should get his drift. I ripped my hand out of his hands and walked right out of there. I told my dad. His advice. Don’t make waves and deal because this is the real world and Im a beautiful girl and this stuff is going to happen. Get used to it, Dani. He said the same thing no one would believe me and the administration will back him and I will be the one to suffer. He said just let it go. I never let it go. I have scoured the internet looking for something on Mr. Cavanaugh. Until now all I ever found was testimonies preaching how great Mr. Violater is and how he has changed lives for the better. I wanted to scream each time “why me!” Mr. Cavanaugh, why did you treat all these other people with so much respect and think it was fine to violate me??? Then today I found your complaint and …thank you, thank you, ripoff report!!! I had no idea such a site existed. Jennifer I want this jerk exposed too! Shame on you Mr. Cavanaugh! Stay far away from this ill man. He is what my grandpa would call “one bad apple!” Jennifer, stay strong and thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!! 

Stacy, maybe you didn't read my whole report. I understand though. It is longer than I planned. I didn't report it right away. I was second guessing myself and was afraid. It was not until I moved out of Nevada County that I made a report. I was told it is a he-said, she-said complaint. The only evidence I had was phone records. They were limited to calls recieved and could be explained since we regularly communicated outside sessions. I wish I had the guts to report it right away but I took his warning that no one would believe me to heart. I was going through a divorce and was worried financially and felt he could make my life miserable. I did not trust any men at that point. He was the only one I had trusted until he took advantage of my trust. I made this report to warn others. If he gets in trouble its not really the point. The point is to warn as many other unsuspecting women to steer clear of this man. If only one person reads this report and is protected from him it is enough for me. I'm not worried about libel because what I reported is true. I am happy I finally told my story and can protect others and am no longer afraid of what he will do to me in retaliation.

Did you file a report with the appropriate agency about his "so called" behavior?? If not then you can be sued for libel if this individual reads this report.  AND if he became inappropriate as you stated you should have terminated your association with him asap.