- April 25, 2024
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Maria Barbosa at a School Board meeting Nov. 22 (Photo by Jonathan Simmons)
Maria Barbosa's business cards, shown here on her webpage, use the abbreviation “Lic.,” for “licensed.” Barbosa does not hold a state-sanctioned license. (Screenshot from drmariabarbosa.com)
Among the services Maria Barbosa offers on her webpage are counseling for PTSD and "sexual identity conflicts." Barbosa falsely told a reporter that she did not advertise counseling for "sexual identity conflicts." (Screenshot from drmariabarbosa.com)
Maria Barbosa, sworn in Nov. 22 as a new member of the Flagler County School Board, advertises that she is “licensed as a clinical counselor,” capable of treating depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other conditions.
But according to a Florida Department of Health spokesperson, Barbosa does not hold a state-sanctioned license for such services.
When asked in an interview if she had a state license, Barbosa said, “It’s connected with the Christianity license. ... It’s from ACCCA.” The acronym ACCCA refers to the U.S. Agency for Christian Counseling Credentials and Accreditation. It is not a government agency but an Orlando-based business.
Barbosa told the Palm Coast Observer that she has been offering counseling in Palm Coast and/or Orlando for 10 years, treating people with trauma issues, including veterans with PTSD.
“It’s the same almost as a clinical counselor, but it has theology in it,” she said, describing her services. “In children, I work a lot with trauma. I do work a lot with domestic abuse, relationships between the parent and the child, stress release, depression, anxiety. ... I did work with the veterans for some time, when it comes to a trauma.”
Barbosa, 53, earned her doctorate in Christian Clinical Counseling from an unaccredited college called Florida Christian University, in Orlando. She said she attended for five years, commuting to school and graduating in 2008.
After that, Barbosa acquired counseling credentials from ACCCA, founded and operated by Danilo Polanco, one of the counselors with Alpha Christian Counseling in Orlando.
The business’ webpage, usaccca.com, states that it grants “licenses.” Applicants pay $175, plus $150 annually thereafter to renew.
Barbosa also has operated a similar enterprise. She founded the ACCEL Leadership Institute. It sells a “license certificate and ID Card,” renewable annually for $95. It also sells coaching “training and certification” packages for $480-$575 for titles including marriage coach, juvenile training coach, clergy pastoral leadership and parenting coach.
State law permits Christian counselors to provide pastoral counseling without a state mental health counselor license. The law is designed to protect clergy or pastoral counselors offering spiritual guidance from being charged with illegally providing mental health counseling.
But the law also requires Christian counselors to be working under the auspices of an “established and legally cognizable church, denomination, or sect, and when the person rendering service remains accountable to the established authority thereof.”
Asked with what church, denomination or sect she was affiliated, Barbosa provided none.
“There’s kind of a little bit of a loophole, because if someone holds themselves out to be a Christian counselor, you’re not exactly held to the licensing laws in the same way, and that’s been a traditional problem in Florida, especially with a conservative governor,” said Michael Holler, ethics committee chairman of the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association. “So if she calls herself a Christian counselor, she might be able to fly below the radar there.”
Holler also noted there are pastoral counselors who do good work, but they “know what their limits are.”
Barbosa takes payment for her counseling services and has described herself on business cards as a Christian clinical counselor. But she precedes that description with the abbreviation “Lic.,” for “licensed.”
The same business cards state that Barbosa offers, among other things, family therapy, which, according to Florida law, may not be practiced unless the practitioner “holds a valid, active license to practice marriage and family therapy issued pursuant to this chapter” or is a registered intern.
Barbosa does not and is not. She also describes herself on her webpage at drmariabarbosa.com, as “licensed as a Clinical Counselor.”
“If she has been calling herself licensed,” Holler said, “a Department of Health complaint can be made against her, and she can be sued by any of these people that she allegedly treated.
“If she’s not licensed … you don’t just do this stuff,” Holler said. “I would put that in the same class as the fake dentist or the fake doctor. You can cause somebody to kill themselves.”
Added Patricia Hurff, a licensed mental health counselor and a professor at the University of Florida’s counselor education program: “Once we get a license, we have to answer to the ethical restraints of our profession. I would be really concerned that this person is not being supervised.”
“If she’s not using what are called best practices — researched practices that we know work with clients — it can be very dangerous,” said Hurff, who has been practicing for about 30 years.
Barbosa is a soft-spoken grandmother of nine. She has been celebrated as being likely the first person for whom English is a second language — she is from Portugal — to ever be elected to the School Board.
She has a lengthy record of service to the community, including serving as a director for a group home for boys and volunteering as a crisis counselor (a position that does not require licensing) at the Family Life Center, a local domestic violence shelter.
“She was very supportive of victims,” said Trish Giaccone, the center’s director. “She was really lovely to have as part of the team. We were disappointed to see her leave.”
A colleague at Alpha Christian Counseling Service in Orlando, where Barbosa worked before opening a Palm Coast branch, described her as a “wonderful person.”
“She worked with us as a counselor with children and families, and everybody who worked with her was very happy with her, and they were very impressed,” Danilo Polanco said.
In an interview, Barbosa described some of her practices. She said she has used a technique she called “regression therapy.” It’s “similar to hypnosis, but a little different,” she said. “It takes you back to the time, to the location, and they relive it, and they experience it.”
“Regression therapy” is not the proper term for the technique, Holler said. And the procedure Barbosa described risks re-traumatizing already vulnerable people, he said.
“You have to be highly, highly, highly trained. I wouldn’t do that kind of thing,” he said, noting he has had 50 hours of training in hypnosis.
People who have PTSD, Holler said, are in some cases also at risk of slipping into psychosis, as are people with other mental health conditions that someone not licensed might not recognize, such as borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia.
“If you’re not very careful handling that person, they can fly across that border, and not come back,” he said.
Barbosa said she is aware of such risks and noted that she has taken classes in clinical counseling.
“When you do regression, you have to have two people because of ethics,” she said, explaining that the second person could be a family member of the client. “Because they are on the stable line where they are very sensitive, and it’s like they are half asleep, not half asleep.”
One of the conditions for which Barbosa also said she has counseled is “sexual identity conflicts.”
That’s not a mental health condition listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition), but that’s a term used by Christian counselors offering to change gay people’s sexual orientation. Mental health associations have denounced the practice.
When first asked whether she offered counseling for “sexual identity conflicts,” Barbosa said she has not advertised that kind of counseling. But when told that it is offered on her webpage, Barbosa said she had treated young people with “sexual identity conflicts” who were LGBT.
But she said she did not try to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, stating that she only helped them to overcome the effects of bullying and low self-esteem.
“My job is not to make them different,” Barbosa said. “My job is only to accept what they are, for them to love themselves, and to be more positive what they are. However, if you want to go there, you can use the theology part, but that’s not my intention.
“Theology is what is written in the Bible — if you want to follow that path. Normally, I don’t use it, because to me, it’s more important to make another person love herself and to accept what she is and to embrace society.”
Department of Health records show no consumer complaints filed against Barbosa. Likewise, Flagler and Orange counties’ court records show no lawsuits have been filed against Barbosa related to her counseling.
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When Maria Barbosa ran unsuccessfully for School Board in 2014, a FlaglerLive.com interview with her revealed instances of plagiarism in her answers.
View FlaglerLive’s story here: flaglerlive.com/69220/maria-barbosa-plagiarism/.
If you’re seeking a counselor or other mental health professional, check the professional’s background.
“Just ask for the basic credentials first,” said Michael Holler, Ethics Committee chairman of the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association. “‘Are you licensed? In what state are you licensed?’”
In some cases, he said, a mental health counselor may be licensed in another state but authorized to practice in Florida on a provisional basis.
But a counselor in that situation should be able to provide paperwork verifying his or her eligibility to practice in the state.
Just a listing as a “mental health counselor” or something similar on one of the numerous websites that aggregate unvetted listings of medical professionals is not enough and can be misleading.
Maria Barbosa, for instance, has a listing under the name Maria Pinto as a “mental health counselor” on a website called npidoctors.com; one on doctor.trustoria.com as a “mental health care professional,” “behavioral consultant,” “psychotherapist” and “psychology specialist”; she also comes up in a search for a “mental health counselor” on healthgrades.com.
Florida consumers can verify a medical professional’s license on the Department of Health website, appsmqa.doh.state.fl.us/MQASearchServices/Home.
“It’s always important for people who are seeking mental health counseling to really research about the person who’s providing that … that they’ve gone to a reputable institution and that they are in good standing,” added Patricia Hurff, a licensed mental health counselor and a professor at the University of Florida’s counselor education program.
