Unlicensed Counselor Arrested for Sexual Assault

Silence

Dalton: Helping the Hurting has a mission to restore individuals to better mental health and to a full relationship with Jesus Christ. The organization is a nonprofit. In fiscal year 2016, according to an IRS filing, Helping the Hurting received $48,000 in contributions and spent $57,000, mostly on salaries and rent, the Times Free Press reports. Dale Beavers, a former chairman of the nonprofit's board, told the Times Free Press on Wednesday that Helping the Hurting provided counseling to those who might otherwise not be able to afford it. He said clients sometimes paid simply what they felt comfortable with.

While you may not be able to help the abused spouse break free, or help the addict break free; you can help us light a candle to take to them. Too many run from the darkness, but I believe God has called us to run to the darkness carrying the Light of the World for them to see.

This is an interesting choice of words for someone who sexually assaulted women. One woman told Dalton police that Daniel Durward Staats fondled her breast, exposed himself and received oral sex from her during a July visit to his practice, Helping the Hurting. A month later, a second woman told police that Staats said he was in an open marriage and that the woman could give photos of herself to his secret Facebook page. After the counseling session, he sent her a friend request and private messages under a fake name, according to an incident report. "Hey beautiful," he wrote, according to the incident report.

Daniel Durward Staats, a Christian counselor from Dalton, Georgia, was arrested after allegedly soliciting sex from one of his clients. Staats is charged with sexual assault by a psychotherapist. The problem is that Staats is not even licensed professional counselor.

Staats is not a licensed professional counselor, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, but he was still able to practice because he held a master of divinity degree. In Georgia, counselors do not need approval from the state government if their work features “a specialty in accordance with Biblical doctrine.”

Both women met with Staats because they were legally required to see a counselor. The woman who visited him in July was on probation, Frazier said. The woman who visited him in August, according to an incident report, was ordered by a judge. The second woman needed anger management, Frazier said.

Instead of helping women who are in some kind of trouble, Staats obviously took advantage of them, making them victims of sexual assault. Recognizing this type of story has become too familiar, especially in Catholic circles — and that is the biggest problem.

Photo Credits: Urban Intellectuals

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