This post segues immediately upon the end of the last one, and I hope you’ll go there before reading this one.

Topic: http://familylawchannel.com/, briefly

Again, a father has apparently shot (murdered) his toddler, and himself, and California Protective Parents Association wants O’Brien (the judge out), Center for Judicial Excellence wants the Nabil Samaan brother of the suicide “victim” of bad family courts disbarred for an outrageous comment he made (and since retracted) (doubt it’s going to happen -but if it does, there are more like him, who might in the future be less outspoken, but based on what I’ve seen in a prominent (probably) SF attorney, “Prometheus,” I doubt it).

In looking for a minor detail (their ages!) of the mother and father, I ran across another article in the Capitol Weekly, noting that the “kneejerk reaction is to blame a family court official” in the “Capitol Weekly.”  They’re right about this, although quite often it IS a family court official — doing business as usual in the family court system — that this time, made the last in a string of bad decisions resulting in a newspaper headline.

I kept looking, and this post contains further information, though I do not pretend it’s “investigative reporting” on the Fay/Samaan situation — but a little family background, as it were, while the same family is loudly complaining about the courts and of course the mother, in the press.

The Capitol in “Capitol Weekly” referring to state capital, Sacramento, of course — where this case was.  The article doesn’t tell me too much, but the comments had a lead:

 

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Re: Capitol Weekly: In family courts, one tactic is to slam the judicial employees

This is so sick and scary. I have 2 step children that I would otherwise adopt but I am so disgusted with and scared of the CA Family Court system that I dont even consider it. How many families have they ruined so far, how many innocent and loving people’s lives ruined?  more…

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Re: Capitol Weekly: In family courts, one tactic is to slam the judicial employees

Ha!  Sheain’t the only bad apple in the greater Sacramento region. Dr. Makram Samaan,grandfather of Madeline Layla Samaan-Fay, who was murdered by her father, Dr. Samaan’sson, is a psychologist employed by the Sacramento Family Court as a mediator.  He along with his son, Nabil, the attorney,…  more…You should check out the good doctor on the Sacramento Superior Court website, it appears that he has been sued by numerous clients for professional malpractice…another bad apple?

That article, some smart commenter said, look up where the grandpa has been doing business (with the courts).  I was going to, thanks for the tip.

(not necessarily all related, I just looked up the last name AFTER writing most of this post and because of what it unearthed).

Barzin Barry Sabahat, Business and Family law attorney in Campbell, CA?

there are also Sabahat Corporations (Revoked) and Samaan (revoked) in NEvada also — see below)

The street address of this partnership appears to be (another) corporation service? and the registered agent, yes, is Mr. Sabahat, Esq.’s address:

(iroozipages.com) I DNK if this is any relationship to the Samaan family that just lost a granddaughter and a son through a murder/suicide around custody issues.

This post has very little about Marcia Fay because I found less about her (apart from negative comments from neighbors or friends of the father’s side).  She is a public official.  I am so sorry for her loss!  Perhaps later she will say  more!

1983 — CAL STATE OUSTS Dr. Makram Samaan; this is the appeal:

I’ll highlight.  This is a speed post.

Samann v. Trustees of Cal. State University & Colleges (1983) 150 Cal.App.3d 646 [197 Cal.Rptr. 856]  {{note:  last name mis-spelled here,….}}

Samann v. Trustees of Cal. State University & Colleges (1983) 150 Cal.App.3d 646 , 197 Cal.Rptr. 856[Civ. No. 22411. Court of Appeals of California, Third Appellate District. December 15, 1983.]

MAKRAM K. SAMAAN, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. TRUSTEES OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGES et al., Defendants and Respondents.

(Opinion by Sparks, J., with Regan, Acting, P. J., and Carr, J., concurring.)

COUNSEL

Turner & Sullivan, Richard K. Turner and Mary A. O’Gara for Plaintiff and Appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, N. Eugene Hill, Assistant Attorney General, and Talmadge R. Jones, Deputy Attorney General, for Defendants and Respondents.

OPINION

SPARKS, J.

Appellant Makram K. Samaan appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court of Sacramento County which upheld his dismissal as a [150 Cal.App.3d 650] tenured professor at California State University at Sacramento. Appellant contends: (1) the trial court erred in determining that his proper remedy was a petition to set aside an arbitrator’s award under Code of Civil Procedure section 1285 et seq., rather than a petition for a writ of administrative mandate under Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5; (2) he was denied procedural and substantive due process; (3) the arbitration did not cure the due process violations; and (4) his dismissal from employment was an abuse of discretion. We reject these contentions and shall affirm the judgment.

{{HOWEVER now the shoe is on the other foot; this is routine for participants ordered into mediation from the courts!}}

Facts

Appellant studied psychology and educational psychology at the University of Minnesota and earned a doctorate degree from that institution. He has been employed as a professor at California State University at Sacramento (CSUS) since 1970, and is a tenured employee. He also engages in the private practice of psychology and counseling. He holds licenses as a psychologist and as a marriage and family counselor. Appellant’s wife, Mary Samaan, is licensed as a marriage and family counselor.

Appellant’s difficulties arose out of activities with regard to billing for services under the Medi-Cal program.

(paragraphing from here forwards is mine….)

An investigation into appellant’s practice developed evidence of three questionable activities.

First, appellant had submitted billing to Medi-Cal for 119 services which his wife rather than he had performed. Appellant’s wife does not hold a license which qualifies her to render services compensable under the Medi-Cal program and she is not licensed as a Medi-Cal provider. Appellant signed billing forms for these services in which he attested that he had personally performed the services, although he had not done so.

Medi-Cal Fraud — 119 cases!   Lying.  Farming out to unlicensed provider, probably knew this was illegal so signed the forms himself.

Second, an auditor came to the conclusion that appellant had submitted bills to Medi-Cal for work performed at Serene Homes in excess of the number of hours he had been there.

Again, this is fraud and lying — inflating bills.  An “honorable tradition,” followed also by Maximus, Inc., and others, it seems.

Third, on two different occasions appellant had performed services for Medi-Cal mothers and had submitted billing forms for the mothers and their children, although he had never seen the children.

On these occasions appellant had submitted separate billing forms for each of the children involved. He had attested that he personally performed psychotherapeutic services for them, and listed his diagnosis of their problems, although he had not seen the children.

Again, I would categorizing this as LYING.  This eminently qualifies him for work in family court services in several jurisdictions, which will maximize billings until and unless caught. I wonder what percent % (if any) the state gets from Federal Medi-Cal reimbursements.  I don’t know, but we know when it comes to the child support angle, which is related.  It’s 34% to the state.  If the services never happened, just the billing, that’s a clean sweep on both parts (not counting, of course, the kids who might’ve actually needed those services).

In May 1979 the Attorney General’s office filed a 17-count criminal information against appellant and his wife. Ultimately, pursuant to a plea bargain, appellant entered a plea of guilty to one count of grand theft in violation of Penal Code section 487, subdivision 1, in return for dismissal [150 Cal.App.3d 651] of the charges against his wife and dismissal of all other charges against himself. Appellant was placed on probation for three years with conditions including the reimbursement of the Medi-Cal program of $5,431.50, payment of a fine of $1,000 plus penalty assessment, and that he perform 120 hours of community service. fn. 1

Am I wrong or does that look like a slap in the wrist.  Did anybody audit whether the 120 hours were actually performed by him, farmed out to his wife, or just never occurred?  (Note — only 3 weeks of service).

When CSUS President Lloyd Johns learned of the conviction of appellant he invoked Executive Order 245, the interim disciplinary procedure for academic personnel for California State Universities and Colleges. Pursuant to Executive Order 245, Austin Gerber, Dean of the School of Business and Public Administration, was appointed as administrative officer with the duty of conducting a factfinding investigation and making a recommendation of further action to the president. Appellant responded to the investigation in writing through his attorney. After receiving Gerber’s report, President Johns determined to proceed with a disciplinary action.

Education Code section 89535 provides that immoral conduct, unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, and conviction of a felony or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude are grounds for dismissal, demotion or suspension.

Does this go for attorneys also? I’d like to know.  Glad it does for tenured professors, though.  of course it’s not going to be possible to entirely clean house and maintain business as usual in some circles….

Education Code section 89538 provides in relevant part: “Notice of dismissal, demotion, or suspension for cause of an employee shall be in writing, signed by the chancellor or his designee and be served on the employee, setting forth a statement of causes, the events or transactions upon which the causes are based, the nature of the penalty and the effective date, and a statement of the employee’s right to answer within 20 days and request a hearing before the State Personnel Board.” Education Code section 89539 provides that in the event the employee shall request a hearing before the State Personnel Board the hearing shall be conducted in the same manner as state civil service proceedings and the party taking the disciplinary action shall have the burden of proof.

(END QUOTE):

There is text that the faculty committee excused all of the above behavior, but an arbitrator later found no cause to do so, and he was dismissed, which is here being appealed.  You have the link and can follow up…  I personally sometimes have billed in advance, but never bill in advance having said I already performed the work.  And I can’t quite conceive of having claimed to perform work, when it was a relative that did instead, and one not qualified to do so.  Good grief — is that what a doctorate in psychology and a background in educational psychology leads one to do?

Still practicing:

Here’s an Arizona site that, after telling the story (carefully putting “father shot daughter” into third person (im)passive, i.e., “the child is dead and so is her father,”

and “father and daughter suffered gunshot wounds”) simply plugs his own services.  Disgusting!  Of course it was the custody battle that killed the little girl, and the father.

Sorrow and Frustration from Moni’s Father and Brother.

When asked about the death of his son and granddaughter, Dr. Makram Samaan — a psychologist and mediator who helps couples through divorce issues and whose thesis was on suicide — lamented that his son Moni had suffered greatly and feared losing his daughter. Furthermore, Makram stated that Moni telephoned him the same day that he drove off one last time in his SUV with Madeline. Makram believed his son and granddaughter died of carbon monoxide poisoning from the vehicle’s exhaust pipe at Grizzly Flat. But a later report from Lt. Brian Golmitz from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department stated that the father and daughter had suffered gunshot wounds — Moni’s death was caused by a self-inflicted gun-shot wound. Madeline had been shot twice.

aka Moni shot Madeline twice, (in what part of the body), killing her, and then himself  inside? a car with the exhaust pipe running into it (or whatever the details).  By all means, remove any indicators of intentional murder (active verbs involving lethal weapons, whether gas or bullets) from the narrative and then advertise your services, which I’m not going to dignify with naming here, although because I quoted, I’m linking.

More post-mortem quotes from the father of the father that killed himself and his kid:

Mercury News, 8/16/11, Stephen Magnanini & Peter Hecht, Sacbee.com

Dr. Samaan said his son Moni graduated from American River College and UC Davis and had a long career with Hewlett-Packard.

He loved windsurfing, fishing and kayaking and sailed solo from Hawaii to California, said Samaan, himself an avid sailor. “He saved me from drowning in the Red Sea.”

About four years ago, “he said he met a beautiful woman on the Internet, she’s good, she’s an attorney,” Samaan said. “They got married in March 2006.”

The couple separated before Madeleine was born December 2008. He said Moni learned of his child’s birth from his brother and sister-in-law.

Samaan said perhaps his son died for him to start a movement to take marriage disputes out of the courts. “The mother and father are mother and father forever,” he said. “We need to save America by saving the family.”

And by exploiting Medi-Cal mothers by claiming to have seen their kids when you haven’t, see above…

Obviously, I am blogging the Dr’s name here, and this comment (from the same one?) shows in response to a Dr. Amen article called “Why Didn’t Dr. Hasan seek help?” Again, not everyone commenting under a certain name on-line necessarily owns the name:

Dr.Makram Samaan

Posted November 6, 2009 at 1:19 pm | Permalink

DR Amen
NO, You are mistaken your Identity.
If your ancestors neverr been frpom Arabia, and only planted and grew-up an d Multiplied and breaded in LEBANON since BC hyears, then: Dr Daniel Amen is a PHYNICIAN.. and We the Ancient Egyptian, especially ThotmosesIII, hav e fought and made peace and traded for long time. Thanks to your Cedar of Lebanon helped us in many construction projects
Dr Amen, You are NOT an ARAB, You only speak ARABIC because it was imposed in place of your original local langiuage; Phynician…because a mentally derained Khalif imposed on your ancestors, as on my ancestors a Capital Punishment if we spoke our original s[ponanious Language, whether its your Phynician or our Coptic language.
Speaking Arabic does not make us Arabs. No Negative reflection on Arabs, they have their history and culture, BUT it is asserrtion of our History, the Civilization we create and our culture too. Deniel of our national origins is a Humanity Felonhy

Dr Makram Samaan
Professor Emeritus, CSU
Positive Psycologist / Coach

(especially with this spelling!) interesting, “professor emeritus” given, why…)

Coaching for Optimal Living Consultant:

Company Description

Dr. Samaan is a psychologist with expertise in communication skills, body language, body demeanor, voice inflection, vocal tone, and eye contact. He is also a consultant in negotiations and motivation, and coach with professionals, for healthier, happier and prosperous living. Dr. Samaan, has been a researcher, consultant, and professor at Universities and Professional Centers here and abroad. He was born and grew up in Egypt (Ancient Egypt, as he prefers). He was born in a Christian Family, but became an expert in all Eastern and Western Religions, as each has its own tenant to compliment the others, to produce the human kindness and evolutionary progress. Communications: Speech and body demeanors, Comprehensive indicator signals as authentic presentation of personal strengths, belief and value systems: Excellent for jury selection, sales and customer service. Coaching: discovering, developing and application of Authentic Strengths and virtues in Personal living, Work, Family and Relationships, to action highest satisfaction in work (FLOW), Happy Family, Parenting, Healthy Longevity, and Effective Community and Prosperous Life. Visual Perception and Diamentional Listening. Psychological Treatment, for Liberation from obstacles towards Goal Achievement of a happier life style and PI cases. Mediation/Negotiations; The best approach for a Non Zero Sum gain (every one is a winner): in business, Marriage and Family conflicts, Psychological Evaluations.

(from)

Still listed at PPC.SAS.UPENN.EDU/PPEMAIL.HTM

Makram Samaan, Ph.D.(PPN1/ATM)

Professor Emeritus, CSU, Positive Psychologist

drmsamaan@sbcglobal.com

Integrating PP in Medicine, schools

For some reason, the grandfather made a LizLibrary (california) list of Children need .  . . THIS?

Please note that the inclusion of any individual on the below list does not necessarily indicate the existence of any licensing or other violation, but only that we obtained or have been made aware of information of interest relevant to the subject matter of child custody evaluations or other issues bearing upon mental health practitioners and the functioning of the family court system.California Licensing Information

William Hamilton Ayres (N) * Breffni Barrett, Ph.D. * Sidney Brown, Ph.D.* Janelle L. Burrill, Ph.D., J.D., LCSW(more) * Stephen Doyne, Ph.D. (more) (more) (more) (more) * Michael Dufficy * Warren Farrell, Ph.D. (N) *Judith B. Henderson, Ph.D.* Michael Jones, Ph.D. * Joseph Kenan, M.D. * Larry Leatham, Ph.D. * Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D. * Jayne A. Major, Ph.D. * Andrew McGarity, Ph.D.* Richard Ofshe, Ph.D. (N) * Randy Rand, Ed.D. * Makram Samaan, Ph.D. (more) * Donald K. Smith, Ph.D (more) * Philip M. Stahl, Ph.D. * John Spencer Stone, Ph.D. * Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D. * Richard J. Swank, Ph.D. *

(I should send in my “Philip M. Stahl” info, most of which can simply be filed under AFCC/PAS….)

If this image doesn’t show, be sure to read the information.  It is a complaint asking to prevent the (2010) renewal of Dr. Samaan’s license, and at first glance, it’s going to talk about business incorporation and financial misdeeds, moreso than psychological misdeeds:

This complaint was not, it appears, brought by an irate mother or father, but from the Board of Psychology.

10. “Respondent is the Manager/President of Innovative Enterprises International, LLC an investment business.   ON October 22, 2004, (IEI) filed with the Nevada Secretary of state listing 3 managers, including REspondent.  Respondent is a self-claimed Positive Psychologist/Consultant/Transformational Success Coach.

11.  Respondent practices psychology but also engages in financail services oncentraining on reverse pension plans.  According to him, it works like a derivative, small amounts of money paid become large amounts and it is sold.  Respondent maintains he will put the initial fees in his patients’ names, $40, and then it becomes $75,000 in a year unless the time is extended.  {{mental note:  Respondent deals with very gullible, or vulnerable, patients!}}  When individuals, including patients, discuss financial dificulties, Respondent will tell them of the reverse pension plans or other investments.

(sounds like he is “farming” the patient contacts  for other business…)  There it is:

GIVE ME A BREAK:

See why I told us to pay attention to Recorded Deeds (which includes trusts, real estate, etc.) in the family law arena?

Frequent registered agent process, and one of the changes (in 2008) is for some reason 222 pages long document:

Also, when I complained (yesterday) about how California lacks a means to sort incorporations by “registered agent” — look what happens in Nevada when I click on who registered INNOVATIVE ENTERPRISES INTERNATIONAL:

1 – 50 of 71 companies

and page 2:

6 out of 71 are still standing.  At a minimum, this certainly reflects on the judgment of this court-connected positive psychologist and his licensed marriage therapist wife.

The incorporation mill is itself, apparently still standing, though, along with QUITE a few others at the same street address:

American Business Development

Well, sort of, according to nevada Secretary of State:

Based on my California search of Samaan — which showed a single LLP shared with Barzin Barry Sabahak (shown above in brown tone chart) — I decided to just look up the same last name — Sabahak — in Nevada. With different first names, it pulls up there corporations, all of which are “revoked” status and some which show a California address:

One address of which was ERAN ENGINEERING in Tustin (not far from Los Angeles)

ANYHOW, back to LizNotes:

Good Grief — the “patrick lane” address for the Samaan Living Trust (see above) shows up under “Web of Deception” with Dionne Warwick as president (of . . . .

DAVID AND DAMON PUBLISHING, INC.

Type: Domestic Corporation

Status: Default

Status Date: 12/1/2007

Filing Date: 11/10/1983

I gather this is talking about looking up IRS tax liens:  Among the many addresses is the same one:

Officers, Directors:

And corporation wiki also lists this (from what my layperson self can tell) as another incorporation mill, i.e., “Corporations at this address” (will take a while to count)

By the way, this may be an appropriate time to mention that, along with sometimes falsifying billings for Medi-Cal and Child Support, some of us have also found fraudulent registration of (family court litigants) names — without their knowledge — on real estate transactions.  Or, for example, continued use of an SS# once it’s in the system, a form of identity theft; and this may be in or out of one’s own jurisdiction (case in point).

By the way, here’s another example of why I want the psychologists OUT of the family law business (psychodiagnostics.com — found at this address also)

BACK TO the LIZ LIBRARY’s posting of a hearing on Dr. Makram Samaan’s APA license renewal.

12.  Respondent provided counseling to C.M., the adult son of (I’ll omit the periods from here on) SF.  In therapy Respondent learned that CM’s father in law PF had received a settlement from the Veteran’s Administration….used this knowledge to provide therapy to CM’s mother (SF) and father (PF).  (I hate almost to transcribe parts for this).

SF (the mother in her 50s) had a workers’ compensation claim from an injury by a heavy shelf.

PF, the father in law of the original contact (patient CM) was a Viet Nam vet, dealing with PTSD, and legally blind…..

“During his counseling sessions (with these two) while ostensibly providing psychotherapy, respondent would talk about himself during most of the session, take phone calls from his broker, and buy and sell homes.  Respondent disclosed a lot of personal information about himself, (e.g. about his life in Egypt, travels, how he saved people, his job at the university, how his students loved him, how he stood up to the administration (see above!), that he knew important people, that he owned two yachts.)”

“Paragraph 16.   SF had a workers’ compensation case, which REspondent took over, had her sign a lien, and referred her to several doctors, including his son who is an attorney.” . . . signing promissory notes, advising them to put their money in offshore bank accounts as US bank accounts are unstable (true, they are, but still . . .. )

(Would that be the famous “Nabil Samaan” whose quote it’s hoped will get him disbarred, but which won’t?)

Do you have a sick feeling in your gut about this yet?    Next, he gets PF off his meds without consulting his medical history, and then involved in the reverse pension plan pay-out schemes.  In other words the man can smell money and knows how to get his hands on it, regardless of which vulnerabilities are in the people who are the gateway to this money.

There are SEVEN causes of complaint, and the executive officer of the Board of Psychology, signing this (per LizLibrary, which image shows the signature) on March 24, 2010, asks that Dr Samaan’s license be revoked.

During the timeframe of the investigation, one of his sons got married and divorced, and into a custody battle.  To tell the truth, I wouldn’t believe anything this grandfather says about his son, either one, the courts, or in fact, anything.  Let’s wait and see what the mother’s side has to say.  Meanwhile, he was taking family law cases in Sacramento still?    Complaints about the improper billing process date back to the 1980s, for pete’s sake!

In the “more” section (on the same Dr. / psychologist / grandfather), Liz Library — and just to note, Liz Kates if a family  law attorney in Florida, that does this site) is going to talk about the Marcia Fay / Moni Samaan case and this murder/suicide.  Thank you Liz Kates, for your work in posting so much of this information (but a strong thank you also to the other Liz Richards, in Virginia, who exposed the financial dealings between certain court-associated nonprofits, and tied them into the HHS fathers’ rights grants system.  Moreover, we are now also beginning to see the involvement (significant) of property transfer, and the importance of checking the county recorder of deeds for names of court professionals and/or litigants.  Who knows yours may be on there…without your knowledge..

Video: California Attorney says murder is okay

(apparently this post is from Bonnie Russell, in San Diego — dated to August 16)

• Add a comment

Bonnie Russell

, San Diego Public Policy Examiner

August 16, 201

Continue reading on Examiner.com The murder of Madeline Samaan-Fay by her father – San Diego Public Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-diego/the-murder-of-madeline-samaan-fay-by-her-father#ixzz1XDlvF1rP

Two hours ago Frank Doughtery of Divorcespecialists who represents Marcia Fay in her child custody battle turned murder-suicide, returned our call.  Doughtery informed us media initially got reports of Madeline Samaa-Fay’s murder completely wrong…in part because it was the weekend which prohibited court records from being checked.

However, it was clear media was deliberately misled by California attorney Nabil Samaan.

Brother of the killer.

Doughtery reported on August 6, 2011 the now dead Mourad “Moni” Samaan was served by mail with a Contempt order after earlier taking Madeline to Oregon on her mother’s time.  Sacramento County Family Court Judge James Mize had denied Marcia Fay’s request for supervised visitation. The confusion was due in part because Doughtery filed additional requests when the child was not returned on Friday.  However by that time both Madeline and the father who killed her were both dead.

/////

This was Marcia Fay’s custody attorney:  note the primary interest of psychology:

Frank E. Dougherty, J.D., Ph.D., A.B.P.P. (diplomate in forensic psychology) is a certified family law specialist with a 30+ year background as a psychologist, before switching to a law practice in 1995. He presently practices law in the Sacramento Valley region in the areas of family law, juvenile dependency law, guardianships and writs & appeals. Previously, he has worked as a custody evaluator, clinical researcher, a Chief Psychologist in Upstate New York, a practicing neuropsychologist, a professor of Psychology at several universities, a Local Director of Mental Health in El Dorado County, a CEO of a corporation conducting psychological evaluations for California Department of Mental Health, a law clerk to Justice Levinson in the Hawaii Supreme Court, and a lecturer on law and mental health issues to various legal and professional groups. 

How did Ms. Fay choose this attorney?  Because he was in Sacramento?   

Judge Mize (also track the link above, to LizLibrary and/or Bonnie Russell site) had a major interest in psychology, and social welfare, then later (1974) got his law degree, intending to be of most help to society by social welfare policy change.  Women’s Lawyer Service awarded him, California Judges Association awarded him, and I note involvement in Volunteer Legal Services of Northern California.

Here is Mary Samaan’s blog.  I am sorry to be so harsh in these comments, but I feel it’s time to be a little harsh when it comes to tolerating, for example, continued fraud.  ALSO, I do not know for sure that this is the same, i.d., Dr. Makram’s wife, but it would seem so:

Marriage, Family and Child Therapy

Submitted by msamaan on Fri, 07/31/2009 – 14:00

Some time ago, I wrote an open letter to pastors in the Sacramento area.   I want to share that letter with you because I think it best describes my services and my methods.

Dear Pastor,

I am a Marriage, Family and Child Therapist, licensed by the State of California (MFT License 6381), with a Master of Science degree in Counseling.  I have provided counseling to individuals and families since 1974.  I have been a part-time instructor of Psychology at American River College for 30 years.

I strongly believe in the importance of affirming Christian marriage and family values.  As a wife and mother of three adult children and grandmother of two, I have deep empathy and understanding of the many challenges that families face today.

I believe that a Christian family that shares love, intimacy and positive communication, is an important foundation for both church and community.  As a Christian, family-oriented therapist, I am commited to helping families in crisis.  I have extensive experience and skills in group therapy, stress management, pre-marital and couples therapy.

In addition to working with couples and families, I provide pre-marital counseling to couples utilizingInventories for Premarital Counseling (Couple and Family Map, [Prepare/Enrich], by David Olson of the University of Minnesota).

What is “Christian Counseling”?

Submitted by msamaan on Fri, 05/29/2009 – 14:50

In California, a licensed counseling professional is prohibited by California law to claim to be a Christian counselor.   While there is no question that psychologists ascribe to some form of personal belief system including a belief in a greater being or power or God, that belief system is supposed to remain separate from the professional practice.

There have been volumes of books written on the subject of “Christian counseling”.   The distinction can be made, however, that while a psychologist may be a Christian in their own personal belief, the State doesn’t recognize any religion or theology to be part of the licensing requirement.

It can, therefore, be somewhat of a frustration for the seeker of counseling services to find a family or marriage counselor practicing their faith in their professional practice.  Many times, it becomes a matter of calling several phone numbers and awaiting return phone calls before a determination can be made as to whether or not a pschologist offers counseling from a Christian perspective.

 

This among other reasons is why I am no longer a churchgoer.

About Mary

You are forewarned.

And a good Christian woman will never “out” her husband because it would break up the family?

And her husband’s practice falsely billed, saying he performed services when she did them (unlicensed).  Their Nevada Corporation, “Innovative Enterprises International, LLC” held in three officer’s names:  his, hers, and a living trust, with the registered agent being an incorporation mill, which MOST of its (71 Nevada) corporations had business status revoked, terminated, cancelled, etc. (that’s even a high % for this field of family law, which as we’ve been seeing has lots of nonprofits lose their business status, only to replaced by newer ones with different names).   The address of the incorporation mill shows countless incorporations.

Moreover her husband Dr. Makram (if he’s still one) is apparently a liar, a crook, and exploits vulnerable, injured patients financially, by Psychological Board standards, which aren’t exactly the highest in the neighborhood!

I am wondering if the marriage prep tools being used here are courtesy some 93.086 type grants, i.e. marriage/fatherhood:

Does this sound familiar, if you’ve been around my blog much?

PREPARE/ENRICH began in 1980 as a result of several research projects at the University of Minnesota in which Dr. David Olson developed a set of inventories for couples; known as PREPARE/ENRICH. Because of the demand for inventories David and Karen Olson formed PREPARE/ENRICH (Life Innovations, Inc.) to provide these helpful tools for counselors, clergy members, mentors and other marriage educators.

(obviously layout on their page is going to be in the right sequence; mine isn’t).

Notice — she has 25 years of experience, but doesn’t merit a “vita” on the site:

Mr. Olson is past president of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). He is a Fellow in the American Association of Marital and Family Therapy (AAMFT), American Psychological Association (APA) and NCFR.

 

You know I’m going to look it up.  Seems MN has only one search field” entity name” (if there’s another source, let me know, please!) and they show:

Churches / Christians are so eager to get into the counseling and marriage promotion field, where they are already.  Internet organization plus faith-based grants sure must help, here’s a Center for Relationship Education recommending the same Marriage Prep tools it’s too bad if the Samaan’s daughter in law and son didn’t use (having met each other over the internet and decided to marry in their 40s).  Or did they take it?

http://liferelationships.com/about/board.asp

(Dr. Olson is on the board of this “CRE” (Center for Relationship Education) which happens to be located on John Brown University in ARkansas).

Their “Church Initiatives” page says:

The vision of CRE is to help people be conformed to the image of the Lord. In other words, the end in mind is Christ-centered relationships. Romans 8:29 states, “ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”

If our vision is Christ-centered relationships, CRE’s mission then is to educate, enrich, and equip “equippers” to live this out and to influence the relationships of others. This is based on the instruction given in 2 Timothy 2:2, “the things which you have heard from me…entrust to faithful men and women who will be able to teach others also.” We call this rippling effect “multiplication.” It is the essence of the great commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 18-20).

That’s a misquote of 2 Timothy 2:2 which absolutely does not say “men and women,” in fact quite a point is often made in Christian circles that women should NOT be teaching, certainly not in public and if then, not to men.  They’ll quote Paul up and Timothy back to make this point.   I don’t happen to agree, but the point is that the religious ones here aren’t even quoting their own scripture right.

The other point being that evangelism and multi-level marketing (and marriage promotion with federal grants helping) go hand in hand just fine.

This link  http://liferelationships.com/resources/links.asp includes all time “egalitarian” sites such as:

Focus on the Family

National Center for Fathering

Promise Keepers

Family First (which leads to:

amily First Programs and Projects

All Pro Dad

All Pro Dad is Family First’s innovative program helping men to be better fathers. All Pro Dad’s 50 NFL spokesmen, multiple NFL seminars, 850 All Pro Dad’s Days, and Play of the Day daily emails that reach almost 40,000 fathers each day, all inspire and equip fathers to be actively involved in their children’s lives. And every month, over 100,000 fathers log onto AllProDad.com to benefit from insightful fatherhood resources.

Dr. Olson (who wrote the tools Dr. Mary Samaan recommends in her practice in California) cites NCFR __ National Council on Family Relations in his bio.

Just for a little perspective of “speed of nonprofit duplication” — check out this list from NCCSDataweb.org, including the fact that only TWO show any 990s filed!

Are these all religious, and hence don’t have to file, or what?

Notice the University Proclivity…

As I keep saying, the highest- profit-margin field to be in, EVER, is information dissemination.  You’re in it:

http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/410/410762436/410762436_200912_990.pdf

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