How do i best do a background check on a suspicious person?

May 11, 2012 6:12 AM

How do I best go about checking someone's(suspicious) professional background and qualifications?There are no details on google. More inside

I volunteered on an NLP course last summer, i had earlier taken the course myself and it had been extremely professional and well run and had received good press and reviews.Unfortunately the two instructors running it fell out and one of them hitched up with a new female colleague who came with glowing references including working with and training with some of the best names in the field, setting up the Canyon Ranch with Dr.Andrew Weil, taking her degree in economics at the university of Toyko in Japanese, being an expert in aikido, working for two national research institutions in the States( both unnamed) working for the Canadian Prime minister and the White House and consulting to an extremely impressive array of corporate clients where she "coached their top investment analysts". She is American.

So I was a little surprised to find the course being taught from the front room of a grubby shared bedsit, they had also brought in a colleague who had had absolutely no training at all - but had been "hothoused"by the other two.

As things went on, it appeared that this woman did not know a lot of the things that she should have if she had had the training she claimed, inconsistencies kept coming up. she was barely coherent some of the time, two separate people asked me independently if I thought that she had early Alzheimer's disease because she simply didn't make sense.

All that would have been ok, but she turned out to be extraordinarily manipulative, using her clients for her own ends, to stay at their houses, use their telephones and internet, run errands for her, oversee her building work and just seriously take advantage of increasingly more vulnerable people. Those in the group that she perceived to have money were targetted for more intensive therapy- at high cost, because she was "so worried "about them and claiming incredibly dire health consequences for them if they didn't take the therapy she suggested.

Any questioning of her methods and of her qualifications resulted in her singling the questioner out for ridicule some very nasty undermining and telling all others in the group that the questioners were delusional,had issues and were "projecting" those issues onto her. It was exceptionally nasty.

Now, here's the kicker, obviously people did start asking questions, there is nothing on her on the internet-the only thing that i could find was that she had attended an NLP course briefly, not instructed, not led but attended- when questioned about the inability to check any of the details that she claimed, she said.....she had been so important to the US government that after 9/11, she had been in danger and all her records and information had been expunged!! Asked " Why?" she turned and winked and said"No,the question you should be asking is How?!"

I didn't know that at the time or I would never have joined the course in any capacity. She edged out her original partner, it had been his business and basically now works with people she has" trained "herself.
She is still taking advantage of vulnerable people and running her courses, I would be very intrigued to be able to do a more thorough check on her background and credentials.I actually wanted to make a complaint about her and found of course that NLP courses are completely unregulated and there is no formal body to report any problems to.

I would like people to be aware of the fact that the people involved in running this course are untrained charlatans -but I suppose in a way that's their lookout, I just hated what I saw when i volunteered.Mostly though, i want to find out just how full of shit this woman is and I have to admit I'm intrigued that i can't find anything on google.

posted by hitchcockblonde to Human Relations (4 answers total)

Why don't you call Canyon Ranch and say you are calling to do a reference check for the person in question?
posted by parmanparman at 6:14 AM on May 11, 2012

Response by poster: I thought of doing exactly that, i just don't particularly want to be personally involved, if you know what I mean, it's one thing to be hunting round the internet and another to actually be calling people up, which sounds a bit cowardly, I don't particularly want to give my name, but you're right, that would be the best place to start, she is certainly not mentioned in any of their literature, they might be glad to know that someone is using their name in vain!
posted by hitchcockblonde at 6:20 AM on May 11, 2012

So just... call Canyon Ranch and give them a different name? If you're really paranoid, block your number or call from a disposable cell phone? I don't see why that's a problem. It's not as though they're going to call her up and say "HitchcockBlonde said you worked here!!!!".

Basically, it sounds like you're pissed that you (maybe?) got duped. If you just want this info to feel better, call them yourself and feel better.
posted by AmandaA at 6:29 AM on May 11, 2012

What do you hope to accomplish?

I think you know, this person is not who she says she is. There's no governing body that oversees people holding seminars. Frankly, if someone was charging me to take classes in a grotty bedsit, I'd grab my hat and go. but that's me.

We're I you, I'd create a web page that tells people what to look for in this type of training, and provide a list of things to be wary of. Don't name names.

You can't babysit the world. At some point people have to be responsible for their own lives. Yes, there are people masquarading as therapists and who take advantage of their clients, but it's up to them to sort that out for themselves.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:34 AM on May 11, 2012