Michael John Flanagan
Introduction
Michael John Flanagan is an Australian psychologist who worked in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, and whose registration was cancelled after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that between June 2023 and August 2024 he terminated a patient’s treatment in order to pursue an inappropriate sexual relationship with her, then breached patient confidentiality during the relationship. The Health Care Complaints Commission prosecuted the complaint. The Tribunal found him guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct and cancelled his registration with a non-review period of two years.
Background Information
Flanagan practised as a psychologist in Coffs Harbour. The conduct found proven spanned roughly fourteen months, from June 2023 to August 2024, and involved a former patient with whom he began a relationship after ending her treatment. Psychology’s ethical framework treats the termination of treatment to pursue a relationship as a serious boundary violation precisely because the practitioner controls when and how therapy ends; the Tribunal found that is what occurred here.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Tribunal findings. The findings below are the formal adjudications of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a case prosecuted by the Health Care Complaints Commission. They were found proven in the Tribunal’s decision of 24 September 2026. The sources report no criminal proceedings arising from the conduct.
It was alleged that between June 2023 and August 2024, while working at Coffs Harbour, Flanagan engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a former patient, having terminated her treatment in order to pursue that relationship. It was further alleged that during the relationship he breached his duty of confidentiality by discussing other patients with her, and by providing her with access to confidential patient records while informally employing her to assist in the preparation of correspondence. In its decision of 24 September 2026 the Tribunal found those elements of the complaint proven, found him guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct, and cancelled his registration as a psychologist with a non-review period of two years.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The Health Care Complaints Commission published its media release announcing the cancellation on 25 September 2026. The sanction — cancellation with a two-year non-review period — means Flanagan cannot seek review of the cancellation until September 2028, and any future application would still need to satisfy the Tribunal that he is fit to practise. The Commission’s release did not report any public response from Flanagan.
Current Status
Flanagan’s psychologist registration is cancelled, with the non-review period running two years from the decision. He cannot practise as a psychologist in Australia while unregistered. The confidentiality findings — other patients’ details discussed with, and their records accessed by, the woman he was dating — also expose the practitioner to the trust damage that follows published tribunal findings of this kind.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The case is a textbook boundary-violation erasure: a clinician ended a therapeutic relationship to start a sexual one, then compounded it by pulling other patients’ confidential material into the relationship. The Tribunal’s cancellation ends Flanagan’s psychology practice, and the published findings follow him through the mandatory registration checks that govern any future health-work employment in Australia.
Sources
- NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, “Mr Michael John Flanagan – Psychologist – Registration cancelled for unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct,” 25 September 2026. source