Counselors - Brookfield, IL

"Filed with the IL Dept. of Financial & Professional Regulation ... "I sought out Mr. Hughes for marital counseling & attended approximately 10+ couple sessions over a 3 month period. Towards the end of that period I expressed to him during several meetings that group discussions were so heavily moderated after the first few minutes that little opportunity existed to voice many thoughts I had waited for days to carefully express. I further expressed to him that my urgent desire to be heard more during sessions resulted in part from the fact that my wife refused to discuss many subjects without him present; in other words, his one hour sessions (approximately every 7-10 days) were the only available window for communication with my spouse about sensitive subjects. It wasnt my expectation at all that Mr. Hughes would fix my marriage for me, but I never expected him to unethically enable its further demise by abusing his position as a licensed clinical counselor. Over 3 months of counseling I grew to find his services increasingly suspect & unprofessional for a multitude of reasons: 1) he occasionally glossed over subjects by grossly oversimplifying them (w/o allowing further discussion); 2) he vaguely criticized my behavior during solo sessions yet, when asked, often could not sufficiently elaborate or even suggest healthier alternatives; & 3) he suspended couple sessions indefinitely to counsel us individually despite my much expressed concern that no opportunity existed in his absence to apply the recurring advice he did give. Unfortunately the space limitations of this form wont allow me to fully specify exactly what those actions were to illustrate the three examples above. However two unrelated incidents stand out as so grossly & overtly unethical that they must be further described here. During my last couple session I attempted to briefly read from my notes a few examples of actions exemplifying my love for my wife. This occurred after telling Mr. Hughes how important it was to me & expressing serious concern that the opportunity may never materialize. Minutes after this casual conversation the session began when my wife arrived, & Mr. Hughes shockingly refused to allow me to read from my notes; he explicitly told me at that point that "whatever you are about to say will only make things worse" & threatened to kick me out if I continued arguing the point. This reaction completely destroyed my dwindling confidence in his services particularly because my censored words supported his later discussion of adding substance to words with actions. I highly question his professional integrity because his actions are designed more to prolong client relationships rather than to truly help people. Perhaps the best example of this occurred when he discouraged my wife from seeing another therapist with me. When I asked her for this, Mr. Hughes quickly interrupted with the remark "she doesnt have to do that" such that it suggestively discouraged compliance by inaccurately framing my request as a hostile demand." -James Tito (913) 645-4643"