Arizona revokes license of counselor David Orlowski over letter

September 26, 2012

On April 2, 2012, the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners revoked the license of licensed professional counselor David W. Orlowski. According to the Board’s report, Orlowski, in his capacity as a pastor, provided occasional pastoral counseling to a father and mother of a minor child between 1998 and 2002. The father was convicted of a felony in 2000 or 2001 and was placed on probation, which he later violated. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to forgery and credit card theft and was incarcerated for three years, during which he filed a petition to establish paternity, custody and visitation with the daughter. In 2009, he asked Orlowski to write a letter in support of his petition. Orlowski included in the letter his “LPC” designation though he had not counseled either individual in his capacity as a licensed professional counselor but as a pastoral counselor. In his letter he opined that the Father posed no risk to the Daughter despite the fact that the letter was based primarily on information about Mother and Daughter provide to him by Father. Orlowski had not seen nor spoken to Mother since 2002 and had never seen nor spoken with the Daughter nor had he gathered any collateral information about the daughter pertaining to her best interests. Orlowski surrendered his license on the charges, which was deemed a revocation.

Source: Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Adverse Action Tracking Form, 2012.