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Misuse of Involuntary Commitment process for personal vendetta by Melanie Susan Reynolds dated 5/11/2022

Ethics Complaint

Misuse of Involuntary Commitment process for personal vendetta by Melanie Susan Reynolds dated 5/11/2022

I apologize for the late raising of this ethics complaint. The NC court system is very slow to deal with filed motions to the courts.

See the below reasons stated by Ms. Reynolds, under oath, for the commitment.

“ SECTION II— DESCRIPTION OF FINDINGS

Clear description of findings (findings for each criterion checked in Section I must be described): Patient has diagnoses of: major depressive disorder, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. He has had multiple suicide attempts and hospitalizations. He has been exhibiting escalating bizzare behaviors. He told his therapist via email, “it is worrying to drive anywhere” and “yes, I guess I have become a little psychotic now and suicidal thoughts have increased.” The therapist states that the “patient has also included information he’s gatherered about my family and that has made me feel threatened, including: my personal address, including a picture of my home, information about mine and my husband’s car.” He has made the statement, “what I am going to do with this information .. nothing, unless I am given a reason to use.”

Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder

I was diagnosed with these disorders at the time of sessions with Ms. Reynolds up to late 2018, but since leaving the practice, I have made great strides in dealing with all of the conditions, and at the time of the IVC being issued, I was not depressed at all but coping very well. I am on a different medication and it has helped immensely. There is no way Ms. Reynolds knows the situation in 2022, so this is a false accusation and statement. The diagnoses referenced were four years out of date.

It is true that I have had suicide attempts, two in 2022 whilst under the care of Ms. Reynolds, but since then there have been no suicidal ideation or attempts, so once again this is based on out of date information as Ms. Reynolds has no knowledge of this fact.

As to the phrase “exhibiting escalating bizzare behaviors” Ms. Reynolds has nothing to back this statement up unless she is referring to me complaining about me being pointed out by Ms. Reynolds to her husband who shouted at me from their vehicle. I do not know what information Ms. Reynolds has passed to her husband or if that information has been disseminated to any other persons, but I was identified by Ms. Reynolds and her husband know I have been in therapy and probably other personal information which is a gross invasion of my privacy and medical conditions.

The phrase “it is worrying to drive anywhere” is correct as I was and still am extremely distressed by the release of my details and concerned that the incident could be repeated.

The section states “yes, I guess I have become a little psychotic now and suicidal thoughts have increased.” The word ‘guess’ is key to the sentence in the email as it conveys what Ms. Reynolds is saying the condition that I am exhibiting. Even so, increased suicidal thoughts do not mean that an attempt is forthcoming and a simple email from Ms. Reynolds would have confirmed this rather than deliberately overstating the issue at hand for personal gain. The sentence is rhetorical and conveys no issues with my mental state.

The section that states “what I am going to do with this information .. nothing, unless I am given a reason to use.” is not complete and words have been left out. The sentence in the email sent to Ms. Reynolds stated the following (see attached email). “Well, the answer is nothing, absolutely nothing, unless I am given a reason to use it. So, no further incidents involving you or Eric.” This was a warning that if there is any further escalation of my information being released or used against me, or if any further incidents take place, then I will report the incident to Ms. Reynolds employer, the LCSW ethics board and the NC governing authority for social workers. After the commitment order, I did raise ethics complaints with the above-mentioned organizations for unauthorized release of personal information to a third party. There was no reason for Ms. Reynolds to state that she felt threatened. The email clearly states the following.

“I want to assure you that I mean you and Eric no harm.”

“I am not threatening you and would never do any harm to you.”

The information gathered included a Google Street view of Ms. Reynolds current residence which clearly showed the white SUV that Ms. Reynolds stated in an email that her husband doesn’t own, but was the vehicle being driven by her husband when he shouted at me. I have a sound snippet from my car camera where you can hear Ms. Reynolds’ husband shout at me. She also stated that her husband was at work that day and she was home. I have never visited the residence of Ms. Reynolds. I obtained information on the vehicles that they own in case there are further incidents involving Ms. Reynolds and her husband.

In an attempt at intimidation, Ms. Reynolds, and/or her husband parked outside of my house, around 7th June 2022, watching my family working outside. This is something that an ex-therapist should never do.

Ms Reynolds knows that my wife is disabled and has mobility issues, but still decided to punish me by taking me away from her where I am unable to support her.

In conclusion, the essence of the IVC is based on deliberately false assumptions by Ms. Reynolds. It is wrong and unprofessional for a social worker to think that clients can’t recover and better themselves after four years. Ms. Reynolds simply did not have any current information to list issues and raise an IVC. These were fabricated reasons without any basis of fact and amounts to abuse. Ms. Reynolds needs to be held accountable for this deliberate misuse of the commitment process in order to try and punish me for finding out she shared personal information and lied to me. I have no trust in therapists at all after the incident and now find it impossible to open up to anyone for fear that they will use the information to cause harm to me. It is obvious from the wording of the IVC that Ms. Reynolds was more concerned with a personal vendetta instead of my safety, which was never an issue. Ms. Reynolds and I had a few conversations where we discussed hospitalization and I recounted how useless, traumatic and unhelpful the stays were.

I have no doubt that Ms. Reynolds will continue to lie as she has from the start and perhaps the only way to get the truth and accountability will be in a court with Ms. Reynolds and her husband under oath.

Complaint about disclosure of personal and confidential information by Melanie S. Reynolds

Also known as Melanie S. Shaver and Melanie S. Reynolds Shaver. Melanie is employed by Mindpath at their Cary NC office. She is also a member of the NASW.

I was a client of Melanie between early 2016 until late 2018 when we parted ways. I saw Melanie for a couple of sessions in October 2021.

On Saturday April 23rd 2022 at around 12:15 PM I was turning left from Holly Springs Road Apex, NC 27539 onto 1010 Road and driving in the right lane to enter the shop’s parking lot. My car window was open. As I drove in the lane, I heard someone shout out ‘MELANIE’. I looked to my left and saw a man driving a white midsize SUV looking at me through his open window. The SUV then drove off when the lights changed and turned right down Holly Springs Road. I was shocked and I only know one Melanie, and that is Melanie Reynolds, my ex-therapist. Melanie and I had no contact since October 2021. I parked my car and sat for a while, shocked by what had happened. It disturbed and upset me immensely. After a while, I completed the planned shopping and drove home nervously, looking all the time for the SUV. When I got home, I looked at the footage from my two front facing cameras but they didn’t show the SUV as it was parallel to me when the man shouted at me. I emailed Melanie asking if she was on 1010 Road at the time, and she replied with “We don’t live near and don’t really travel on Ten Ten Rd so I wouldn’t think it is us.

Can you provide some more detail about what you are asking for or wanting to know about?”

I replied with more details as to what had happened and Melanie replied with “My husband does not own a white SUV and he was at work on Saturday. I don’t believe this could have been him, and I was at home while our daughter napped at that time, so it wasn’t me. I did not and would not point out or tell my husband about you or any other client.

I’m not sure what to say about all of this because it doesn’t make much sense to me. I can assure you that it was neither my partner nor I.”

Melanie’s husband drove a white SUV, I have seen Melanie driving it in the past. I firmly believe that the response is a lie. Melanie also wrote “I’m so sorry that this happened and I hope you know that I would not do something like this.” Melanie acknowledges here that it did happen to me, but denies it was her.

I know exactly what I heard and saw. I firmly believe that Melanie and her husband were in the white SUV and Melanie pointed me out to her husband. Her husband must know some personal details about me in order to shout at me. Melanie’s husband now knows at the very least what I look like, what vehicle I drive and where I frequent. It is inconceivable that Melanie points out past and present clients to her husband who then shouts at them. I looked at Melanie’s Facebook page and the picture of her husband posted there was strikingly similar to the driver of the SUV.

I emailed Melanie saying that I really needed closure and wrote “Once I get closure, I am willing to forgive and forget and move on with my life and recovery, and will not take any action.”

Melanie did not reply or take me up on my offer to forgive and forget if I had closure. I found Melanie’s address from public records online and looked at the address in Google Maps Street View and outside of her house there is a parked white SUV with the tailgate open and someone walking up the front yard to the house. This reinforced my opinion that Melanie was lying to me and was in the white SUV with her husband when he shouted at me.

I sent the portion of the car video to a sound engineer to clean up the sound recorded by eliminating road noise etc. When I got the cleaned version, I played it at max volume, and I could hear a man’s voice shouting out ‘MELANIE’. So I have the proof of ownership of a white SUV and a sound recording of the shout.

I have attached the image of Melanie’s house showing the white SUV with the back open and someone walking from the vehicle to the house. I have also attached a small movie file with the sound enhanced. If you turn the volume up, you can hear a man shout out her name.

This incident has left me shaken and considerably worsened my diagnosed chronic PTSD and anxiety. I have lost all sense of safety. I have installed a security camera on the outside of my house because of this. I live with bouts of anxiety and hyper-vigilance. Leaving the house and driving anywhere is now difficult for me, I am always on alert for a repeat occurrence of the incident or something else happening. I am very concerned about what Melanie has shared about me with her husband and possibly others. Melanie could also be sharing other clients and ex-clients personal information with others. My PTSD and anxiety has been triggered by the doorbell ringing, cars driving slowly past my house, cars parking outside my house, alerts from the security system that there is a person or vehicle coming up the driveway. As you can imagine, my trust in therapists has been destroyed by the breach of confidentiality that is so vital in a therapy setting. My trust has been violated in the worst possible way. Because of the very much worsened PTSD and anxiety, I have had to seek therapy from someone who I hope to be able to trust.

In conclusion, what Melanie and her husband did was unacceptable, damaging, reckless, immature and a serious breach of confidentiality.