A Sydney psychologist who asked a homicidal teenage patient to ‘come kill the jack hammer guy outside my house’ will be allowed to continue to practice.
Elise Lowick, who is registered to practice psychology as Catherine Elise Denshire, sent the message as part of a string of texts to her 17-year-old patient, who had suffered homicidal ideations since he was in Year 7.
She had diagnosed the Year 12 student with Major Depressive Disorder in the moderate to severe range, Generalised Anxiety Disorder in the mild to moderate range, Narcissistic Personality Traits and Adjustment Disorder.
Sydney psychologist Elise Lowick (pictured), who is registered as Catherine Elise Denshire, sent texts to her homicidal teenage patient saying he should ‘come kill the jack hammer guy outside my house’
Previously, he had been treated by counselors at his school, who were registered psychologists, and prescribed medication.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found a string of text messages sent on February 18, 2016 were ‘misjudged and unprofessional’.
In the texts sent to the teenager, she implied his school counselors did not care about his well being, and made sarcastic remarks about something being ‘all about you’.
Lowick, seemingly jokingly, told her patient it was ‘nice’ he liked one of the school counsellors, before telling him he could ‘play with her head’.
‘Told my family last night at dinner about your latest meat meat trick,’ she wrote in one message.
‘Oh they laughed!’
In one day, the Lane Cove based clinician sent a series of bizarre messages, including one telling her patient her family was laughing at him
Just four messages later, she suggested the homicidal teen kill a man who was working outside her home.
‘If your [sic] planning on murder, can you come kill the jack hammer guy outside my house,’ she wrote.
Later, she said she had been ‘just teasing’ the youngster.
Three days later, Lowick revealed she had been texting the teenager off her daughter’s phone, and shared her problems with her provider with her patient.
‘I just realised that these text are coming from my daughters phone. That’s a little awkward,’ she wrote.
‘You [sic] dr thinks the girl in the photos is cute.
‘I am trying to fix my SIM cards up I’ve had Telstra dramas sorry. From Elise.’
However, during a hearing in front of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, her behaviour was found to be only ‘misjudged and unprofessional’.
‘We do not consider that the respondent’s contraventions, when considered as a whole, are of a sufficiently serious nature to justify suspension or deregistration,’ the Tribunal said.
‘Dr Lowick’s conduct, while unprofessional, does not warrant a finding of professional misconduct. It was the result of misjudgment, rather than incompetence in her diagnostic formulation.
‘It involved no breach of the position of trust as between psychologist and patient, and did not occur over a long period of time.
‘There has been a proper acceptance of responsibility for the conduct, and appropriate steps taken to address the failings and improve Dr Lowick’s practices. These are all factors which militate against a finding of professional misconduct.’
Instead, she will be heavily supervised in her professional activity and undergo an online ethics course titled ‘Professional Boundaries’.
Lowick was not deregistered and will be able to continue practicing at Lane Cove Psychology (street view pictured) with supervision