Therapist Fined For Leadership Coaching Without a License

A Bentonville-based marriage therapist and aspiring leadership coach recently agreed to pay a fine, undergo counseling himself, and take a round of ethics courses after both he and the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling found merit in complaints filed against him last year.

William D. (Bill) Oldham, executive director of Northwest Counseling Inc., signed a consent decree in April that, among other things, puts him on probation for six months, levies a $2,000 fine and includes monitoring and record keeping.

The decree came on the heels of two complaints from two separate clients that were so similar in their accusations that the state board combined them, made one master complaint, and then sat down with Oldham and his attorney, Jon Comstock, to hash out a punishment.

Neither Oldham nor Comstock could be reached for comment.

One of the numerous allegations was that Oldham, a licensed marriage therapist, was also revving up a companion business, Leadercraft, for leadership counseling and coaching.

According to one of the complaints, by a Rogers businessman, Oldham would toggle clients between marriage therapy and leadership coaching, depending on what he thought their needs were. The problem was, Oldham didn’t have the required license to be a leadership coach. 

According to the consent decree, Oldham has to pass an academic class in counseling ethics, and also has to undergo counseling himself to learn the “appropriate ‘boundary’ issues that should be maintained between a licensed counselor and a therapeutic client.”

Consider this: In one of the complaints, a client said his wife called him on speaker phone from Oldham’s office and said she was leaving him and not coming home. The next day, the client asked Oldham where his wife was.

“… she’s safe and fine,” Oldham is alleged to have said. “I helped her find a place to stay.”
Yeah, “boundary issues” sounds about right.