Q: My therapist's license was revoked or surrendered. Now what?
A: First, check it yourself rather than relying on what you were told. California law requires every healing arts board to publish license status on the internet, and the required disclosure "shall include information on suspensions and revocations of licenses… and other related enforcement action, including accusations filed."¹ The Board of Behavioral Sciences and the Board of Psychology are both named in that statute.¹
The lookup is search.dca.ca.gov, the Department of Consumer Affairs license search. The Board of Behavioral Sciences also publishes a monthly enforcement list and states that consumers may view "pending and prior enforcement actions" through license verification.² The Board of Psychology publishes disciplinary actions on its own site.³
What the words mean
The boards define them, and the difference matters:²
- Revocation — "The license or registration is revoked as a result of enforcement action rendered by the Board. No practice is permitted."
- Voluntary surrender — "The licensee or registrant turns in the license or registration while charges are still pending. The right to practice is ended." The board treats it as a disciplinary action and it becomes part of the license history.
- Suspension — practice is barred for a stated period, usually alongside probation.
- Probation — practice continues under conditions. Where a probation term will affect your therapy or the confidentiality of your records, the licensee is required to tell you and to get your signature before continuing treatment.⁴
An accusation is the charging document. Its existence is public once filed, and it is an allegation, not a finding.
Surrendering does not end the board's jurisdiction. The suspension, expiration, forfeiture or surrender of a license "shall not, during any period in which it may be renewed, restored, reissued, or reinstated, deprive the board of its authority to institute or continue a disciplinary proceeding."⁵
What this means for the therapy you already had
It does not retroactively unmake it. A license action is about the licensee's fitness going forward. Whether anything that happened in your sessions was itself a problem is a separate question, and if you think it was, the complaint route exists regardless of what has already happened to the license. How to report a therapist →
Your records are the unresolved part, and we are going to be straight about it. The seven-year retention duty is written as an obligation of "a marriage and family therapist" or "a licensed psychologist."⁶ Nothing in the text says whether the duty survives revocation or surrender, and nothing says where the records go. Meanwhile the records-access statute imposes its duty on a "health care provider," a term defined by reference to being licensed under the relevant chapter⁷ — so a person who no longer holds the license arguably falls outside the definition that makes the duty enforceable.
That is a genuine gap in California law, not a gap in this page. Practically: ask for your records in writing, immediately, before files move. Quote Health and Safety Code section 123110, ask for copies within 15 days, and keep proof of what you sent. The full records procedure → · If the therapist has died →
And for the therapy you still need
If they were in your network, a contract terminated for a "medical disciplinary cause or reason" is the one situation California's continuity-of-care statute expressly does not cover.⁸ You will be starting with someone new rather than finishing a course of treatment with this one.
Your plan still owes you an appointment on a clock. A non-urgent appointment with a non-physician mental health provider must be offered within 10 business days of your request, and if the plan has no in-network appointment inside the standard, it must arrange out-of-network care at in-network cost. The 10-business-day rule →
Ask for the pre-licensed and supervision question too. If you were seeing an associate under supervision, the supervisor and the employing practice may still be operating, and your file may be theirs. What an associate therapist is →
Do this: look the license up at search.dca.ca.gov and screenshot the result with the date visible. Then send a written records request the same day. If the reason for the action involved you, write down what happened and when while it is fresh, and file the board complaint — it is the only mechanism that produces a finding.
Sources
- Business & Professions Code §27(a), and §27(c)(13) (Board of Behavioral Sciences) and §27(c)(16) (Board of Psychology). Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 787, §2.5 (SB 775), effective 1 January 2026 — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Board of Behavioral Sciences, Enforcement Actions and its glossary of enforcement terms — bbs.ca.gov. License lookup: search.dca.ca.gov.
- Board of Psychology, disciplinary actions — psychology.ca.gov.
- Board of Behavioral Sciences, Uniform Standards Related to Substance Abuse and Disciplinary Guidelines, revised 1 July 2026, optional term 24 (Notification to Clients) and term 28 (License Surrender) — bbs.ca.gov.
- Business & Professions Code §118(b) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Business & Professions Code §4980.49(a), §4993(a), §4999.75(a), §4989.51(a), §2919 — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Health & Safety Code §123105(a) defines "health care provider" by reference to being "licensed pursuant to" the relevant chapter; §123110 imposes the access duty on "a health care provider" — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Health & Safety Code §1373.96(h) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
All sections read on the operative text on 18 August 2026. This page describes the statute; it is not legal advice.