---
title: "Is Your Psychologist or Therapist Actually Licensed? What This Practice Makes Checkable"
description: "A license number printed on a page is a claim, not a credential, until it can be checked against the state board that issued it. Three real, documented cases of therapist and psychologist license fraud from 2024 to 2026, and exactly what this practice makes checkable rather than asked to believe."
url: https://alafiora.com/is-your-therapist-actually-licensed
source: pages/articles/is-your-therapist-actually-licensed.md
source-hash: sha256:0954611fd4e8141fa46bfd30c6052032288da8e77108f1375f66794e0b33b703
practice: Alafiora LLC
author: Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, licensed psychologist in clinical psychology
license: https://alafiora.com/website-terms-of-use
copyright: © Alafiora LLC 2026
note: >-
Educational content, not treatment. Reading it establishes no clinical
relationship. Every personal account on this page is fiction, written by
Dr. Lapite-Garrett from her own clinical knowledge and expertise; she uses AI
as a drafting tool and approves every word. No client information of any kind
was used to make them.
---
**Alafiora™ · Articles · New Mexico and Indiana · Private Pay**
# Is Your Psychologist or Therapist Actually Licensed?
### A license number printed on a website is a claim. It becomes a credential only once someone can check it against the board that issued it, and that difference is the entire subject of this page.
[Begin with a First Session](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=OPJJzQ94) · [Begin with a Consultation](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=68bi61zK)
**Authored and clinically reviewed by [Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett](https://alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther), licensed psychologist and founder of Alafiora™.** Licensed Psychologist in Clinical Psychology, New Mexico, PSY-2026-0031, issued April 2026. Licensed Psychologist in Clinical Psychology, Indiana, 20044074A, issued March 2026. Credentialed Health Service Psychologist, National Register, #69571, issued 21 April 2026. In supervised clinical practice since 2020, licensed independently since 2026. Doctor of Psychology, Alliant University, San Diego, an APA-accredited program in clinical psychology, 2024. APA-accredited clinical internship, New Mexico State University Counseling Center. Postdoctoral fellowship, 2024 to 2025, spanning clinical, multicultural, and AI-informed practice, with a postdoctoral caseload of more than ninety clients. Practice scope: [love obsession and love addiction](https://alafiora.com/understanding-love-obsession-love-addiction-attachment), [compulsive sexual behavior](https://alafiora.com/compulsive-sexual-behavior-hypersexuality) and [sex addiction](https://alafiora.com/compulsive-sexual-behavior-hypersexuality), and [sexual trauma](https://alafiora.com/understanding-sexual-trauma-its-many-forms), treated as one connected system.
**Published 2 September 2026. Last updated 2 September 2026.**
**Filed Under:** Trust & Transparency
A parent may have started researching a psychologist or therapist for a teenager the same way anyone researches a decision that matters, and may have found, partway through, an unease that was hard to name: how would anyone actually know a credential printed on a page was real. That unease has a specific, documented answer, and this page exists to give it rather than to talk around it.
Every case named on this page is real, documented, and cited in full below. None of them is a composite, an illustration, or drawn from any current or former client of this practice, and no client information of any kind was used anywhere on this page. Dr. Lapite-Garrett first speaks her reasoning aloud, using voice transcription, and works with AI from that transcript as a drafting and editing tool for marketing copy specifically; she reviews and authorizes every sentence before it is used, and AI has no role in any clinical decision, diagnosis, or the actual content of any client's care.
---
## Quick Answer | How to Verify a Psychologist or Therapist Is Actually Licensed
A real license number can be looked up directly on the issuing state board's own public search, not taken on faith because it appears on a page. A real doctoral degree comes from an accredited institution willing to be named. A real license means someone actually sat for the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology and a state jurisprudence and ethics exam, both standardized and both required, and neither one something a practice can claim about itself without having done it. And a real license sits underneath a licensing board that can investigate a complaint, discipline a clinician, or revoke the license entirely. That last piece is the one most people never think to ask about, and it is the one that actually protects a client if something goes wrong. Dr. Lapite-Garrett's license numbers are printed throughout this site and can be checked directly, by number, on [New Mexico's Verify a License page](https://www.rld.nm.gov/about-us/public-information-hub/verify-a-license/) and on [Indiana's license lookup](https://mylicense.in.gov/EVerification/Search.aspx). Nothing here is asking to be taken on faith.
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## How I Know This | Three Real Cases, Not a Hypothetical
This is not a risk this page is inventing to sound thorough. In January 2026, a federal court in the Northern District of Indiana, one of the two states this practice is licensed in, sentenced a Crown Point woman to 84 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to health care fraud and aggravated identity theft. She had falsely claimed a Doctor of Psychology degree and a clinical psychologist's license, credentials she never held, then used forged documents and stolen professional identities to get hired as a clinical therapist at more than one Indiana mental health provider, defrauding Medicaid and a Medicare Advantage plan in the process (U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Indiana, 2026).
Separately, a Colorado woman who worked as a court-appointed parental evaluator across more than twenty child custody cases pleaded guilty in 2025 to felony charges after an investigation found no record she had ever earned the doctorate she claimed from a university in England. She had used that fabricated degree to obtain an actual Colorado license as a psychologist, and her recommendations shaped custody outcomes judges relied on before the fraud was discovered (FOX21 News, 2025).
And in 2024, KFF Health News and CBS News reported that a woman licensed as a social worker in Florida and Tennessee had let her wife conduct online therapy sessions in her place, for a national telehealth company, for as long as two years. Hundreds of people may have been affected. It was discovered only after her wife died and a patient realized they had never actually been speaking with the licensed clinician of record (KFF Health News, 2024).
Three different states, three different mechanisms, three different years. That range is the point: licensure fraud is not confined to one place or one method, which is exactly why the claims on this site are built to be checked rather than believed. The requirements described below, the doctoral degree, the supervised hours, the EPPP, the jurisprudence and ethics exam, are not this practice's own standards. They are set by state psychology licensing boards, and New Mexico's and Indiana's are specifically what Dr. Lapite-Garrett's own licenses were issued against, confirmable directly through each board's own site.
---
## What This Article Covers
- [What licensure actually requires](#what-licensure-requires)
- [What's made checkable on this site specifically](#what-is-checkable)
- [What this practice is not affiliated with](#not-affiliated-with)
- [Fees, marketing, and ongoing transparency](#fees-marketing-transparency)
- [How Alafiora™ is structured](#how-alafiora-is-structured)
- [Questions people ask about this](#questions)
- [Citations](#citations)
---
# What Licensure Actually Requires
## The Real Standard Behind a License Number
None of this can simply be claimed. It takes years, and each requirement exists because someone, at some point, needed protection from a person who was not actually qualified to hold what they had been handed.
A doctoral degree and thousands of hours of supervised clinical work, through an accredited internship and a full postdoctoral year, exist because assessment and diagnosis in complex, overlapping presentations, exactly the kind this practice treats, is not something a clinician should be learning on someone else's crisis. The Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology and a jurisprudence and ethics exam exist because knowing the law and the ethical obligations that govern this work is not optional; it is the floor a license sits on. Ongoing continuing education exists because the field keeps moving and a client deserves a clinician who has kept up with it. And underneath all of it sits a licensing board with real authority: the power to investigate a complaint, discipline a clinician, suspend a license, or take it away entirely. That accountability, not a reassuring sentence on a website, is what actually protects a client if something goes wrong.
### Why This Matters to Her Personally
Dr. Lapite-Garrett built this practice around material people rarely say out loud anywhere else. She has watched what it costs someone to finally name a compulsion, an assault, or a fixation they are ashamed of, and she does not think a person should have to hand that to someone whose credentials they simply have to hope are real. That is not a policy position for her. It is the reason this page exists, and the reason every claim on it is built to be checked rather than assumed.
Call or text [988](tel:988), the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, if reading about any of this has taken you somewhere hard. It answers calls and texts around the clock, and being in crisis is not a requirement for using it. Call [911](tel:911) if you or someone with you is in immediate physical danger. A fuller list of lines and services is on Alafiora™'s [crisis resources](https://alafiora.com/crisis-resources) page.
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# What's Made Checkable on This Site Specifically
## Verification Over Assertion
License numbers appear throughout this site, in both New Mexico and Indiana, and each state's own board search takes that number directly: [New Mexico's Verify a License page](https://www.rld.nm.gov/about-us/public-information-hub/verify-a-license/) and [Indiana's license lookup](https://mylicense.in.gov/EVerification/Search.aspx). Neither lookup has to be taken on this site's word for what it will show. The doctoral institution Dr. Lapite-Garrett attended is named directly rather than left vague, and her dissertation is [publicly available](https://alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther), with a copy offered directly to any client who wants to see it. The [Credentialed Health Service Psychologist](https://www.nationalregister.org/) designation comes from an independent nonprofit's own public directory, separate from either state board. Professional directory listings are gathered in one place, on [Verified Listings](https://alafiora.com/verified-listings), rather than left scattered for a reader to piece together. And continuing education records, the courses, trainings, and live programs actually completed in a given year, are not kept private; any client who asks can see them.
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# What This Practice Is Not Affiliated With
## Naming the Boundaries Clearly, Not Just the Credentials
Knowing what a provider is not is often as useful as knowing what they are. Dr. Lapite-Garrett does not hold board certification, most commonly granted through the American Board of Professional Psychology; it is a separate, voluntary credential beyond state licensure, and [her own page says so directly](https://alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther) rather than leaving the gap for a reader to assume was covered. Where a real gap like this exists, it is disclosed rather than left for someone to discover later, when it matters more.
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# Fees, Marketing, and Ongoing Transparency
## Why the Website Keeps Getting More Specific, Not Less
Fees are [published](https://alafiora.com/rates-and-fees), never withheld until someone is already on the phone and feels awkward asking. Marketing on this site follows New Mexico's and Indiana's own advertising and ethics rules, which means no sensationalized claims, no manufactured urgency, and no outcome dressed up as a promise. Where a question during a consultation reveals something the website should already have made clear, that is treated as a real gap worth fixing, not a one-off answer only the person who happened to ask ever receives. What this practice does, and does not, do is stated openly here rather than left for someone to find out the harder way, later.
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# How Alafiora™ Is Structured
## A Solo, Private-Pay Practice in Three Connected Areas
[Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett](https://alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther) is the licensed psychologist who founded Alafiora™ and the only clinician in it. She holds licenses in [New Mexico](https://alafiora.com/new-mexico) and [Indiana](https://alafiora.com/indiana), both regular and active, and a license in each state is what allows a session with a resident of that state to happen at all. The practice treats three areas as one connected system: [love obsession and love addiction](https://alafiora.com/understanding-love-obsession-love-addiction-attachment), [compulsive sexual behavior](https://alafiora.com/compulsive-sexual-behavior-hypersexuality) and [sex addiction](https://alafiora.com/compulsive-sexual-behavior-hypersexuality), and [sexual trauma](https://alafiora.com/understanding-sexual-trauma-its-many-forms). Every client works with her directly throughout care, with no rotating associates and no case handoffs.
The practice is private pay, sometimes called direct pay, cash pay, or out-of-pocket. No diagnosis reaches any insurer or third party unless a client authorizes or requests it, and no insurer is billed by default; a superbill for potential out-of-network reimbursement is available on request. Full session formats and current rates are on the practice's [fee page](https://alafiora.com/rates-and-fees).
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# Questions People Ask About This
### Can I Actually Verify Your License Myself, Right Now?
Yes. [New Mexico's Verify a License page](https://www.rld.nm.gov/about-us/public-information-hub/verify-a-license/) and [Indiana's license lookup](https://mylicense.in.gov/EVerification/Search.aspx) both take a license number directly and return that state's own record.
### Will You Show Me Your Actual Dissertation or Continuing Education Records If I Ask?
Yes. The dissertation is publicly available and can be provided directly, and continuing education records are available to any client who requests them.
### Does Alafiora™ Use AI to Make Clinical Decisions About My Care?
No. AI is used only as a drafting and editing tool for marketing copy, on a transcript Dr. Lapite-Garrett speaks and approves herself. It has no role in diagnosis, treatment planning, or any clinical decision.
### What If I Find Something on the Website That Isn't Clear Enough?
That is genuinely useful to know. A question like that is treated as a sign the site needs updating, not as an inconvenience, and corrections get made.
### Is There a Difference Between a Psychologist and a Therapist?
Sometimes, though the terms are often used interchangeably in everyday conversation. Dr. Lapite-Garrett is licensed specifically as a psychologist, a doctoral-level credential with its own exam and supervised-hours requirements, and she also works as a therapist in the everyday sense of the word, since providing psychotherapy is the work a licensed psychologist actually does day to day.
### Does a Directory Listing or a Social Media Account Prove a License Is Real?
Not on its own. A [directory listing](https://alafiora.com/verified-listings) confirms that a provider holds the license they claim and that the listing is accurate, but it is not the same check as searching the state board's own record directly, which is why both lookup links above exist on this page rather than only a directory link.
---
# Citations
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Indiana. (2026, January 8). *Indiana woman sentenced to 84 months in prison* [Press release]. U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndin/pr/indiana-woman-sentenced-84-months-prison
FOX21 News. (2025, April 11). *Woman who faked psychology credentials pleads guilty.* Nexstar Media. https://www.fox21news.com/news/woman-who-faked-psychology-credentials-pleads-guilty/
KFF Health News. (2024, July 2). *Fake therapist fooled hundreds online until she died, state records say.* https://kffhealthnews.org/mental-health/fake-therapist-online-death-hundreds-patients-license/
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**Cite this article.** Lapite-Garrett, E. (2026). *Is your psychologist or therapist actually licensed? What this practice makes checkable.* Alafiora LLC. https://alafiora.com/is-your-therapist-actually-licensed
**Report a correction.** Anything inaccurate on this page can be reported through the [compliance contact form](https://alafiora.com/compliance-contact-form), and corrections are made to the page itself with the change noted.
**Clinically reviewed** by [Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett](https://alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther), licensed psychologist in clinical psychology, and read again each year as part of Alafiora™'s annual copy review.
**Related reading on this site.** The second installment in this series covers [whether a psychologist or therapist actually shows up](https://alafiora.com/does-your-therapist-actually-show-up) once care has started. [Who Finds Out That Someone Is in Therapy?](https://alafiora.com/built-for-discretion) covers confidentiality and discretion at a private-pay practice, and [Can I See My Therapist's Notes?](https://alafiora.com/clinical-transparency) covers what the law already gives a client the right to see. The training, the credentials, and the reasoning behind how this practice is built are set out in full on [Meet the Psychologist](https://alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther).
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**Begin a Confidential Conversation**
None of this has to be taken on faith before a first conversation happens. A consultation is a brief conversation, by video or phone, where a prospective client can ask about credentials, licensure, or anything else covered here directly. Anyone already certain is equally welcome to begin directly with a first session.
[Begin with a First Session](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=OPJJzQ94) · [Begin with a Consultation](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=68bi61zK)
For anyone who needs more time before making contact, the page on [what Alafiora™ is and how it works](https://alafiora.com/the-practice) is a useful next stop, and it works well as a bookmark for later. The footer's QR code holds the same contact information for a quick scan whenever the timing is right.
© Alafiora LLC 2026
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