When your post-doctoral supervisor won't return state license forms

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edieb

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A colleague is 2 years out of her PhD program and was supervised by a psychologist for her post-doc horus in the state of Maine for one year before being licensed as a psychologist. Her program, internship and post doc fellowship are all APA accredited. I do believe her internship recently closed down due to funding cuts.

She now wishes to move her license to Vermont so she e-mailed her supervisor a scanned copy of the verification of post-doc hours form 3 months ago and he promptly said he would sign it that week and mail it in and then gave her some compliments in the e-mail. She then confirmed this with him and he said he would do so "in short order" again. Well, it has been 3 months. Her supervisor has not responded to any more of her e-mails (5 of them) or phone calls (3 of them).

After waiting 3 months, she called the medical school where her supervisor used to work when he supervised her and requested a copy of the form for Maine in her file. When she was asked why she needed it, she said she feared Dr. X, her ex-supervisor may be deceased because he was very old and had suffered a number of illnesses while he was her supervisor. Well, a week later, she called the medical school again to get a copy of the form and the secretary had not looked for it yet. HOWEVER, the secretary called her ex-supervisor and had confirmed that he was not "dead"

I advised her to call his state licensing board and file a complaint against him while calling Maine and retrieving a copy of the original form he signed so she could send that in to VT. She is nervous that he will write something bad on the new form; however, I don' t think this would be an issue because:

1) Her license has been in good standing (no ethical complaints) in Maine
2) He stated that he was her post-doctoral supervisor in for the state of Maine and said she was an outstanding candidate for licensure, completed the correct hours, etc.
3) He is probably behaving unethically for not signing the form/there is an implied agreeement when you supervise somebody post-doctorally that you will sign future forms related to the supervision within a reasonable time frame in the future

Any advice?
 
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That is a sticky situation. However she manages to get the information completed, make sure that she opens an independent credentials file with ASPPB or the National Register so she can send a copy now for future license issues. Was this a formal post-doc? If so, is there a licensed training director willing to verify that she completed the hours?
 
That is a sticky situation. However she manages to get the information completed, make sure that she opens an independent credentials file with ASPPB or the National Register so she can send a copy now for future license issues. Was this a formal post-doc? If so, is there a licensed training director willing to verify that she completed the hours?


Yes, it was a formal post doc in behavioral medicine. She now works at a medical center and was offered a job at another medical center but lost the offer because of this. I think she also has copies of his quarterly evaluations of her job performance and gave her great marks, so it really isn't possible for him to do anything to her in regards to writing something bad on the current form. I am advising her to sue him in small claims court for the cost of her having to renew her Maine license (since she was only going to get licensed in VT but had to renew it to keep current at her present job) and to sue him for the cost of a credentials bank since his dereliction of duties is causing her to have to pursue that.
 
This supervisor must have some supervisor of his own. I'd have her call the Dean of faculty or equivalent and calmly explain the situation.
 
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