Bangor doctor accepts reprimand Psychiatrist Takeo Kawamura advised married patient to have affairs

BANGOR – Psychiatrist Dr. Takeo Kawamura has been issued a formal reprimand by Maine’s Board of Licensure in Medicine for violating patient confidentiality, using inappropriate language and employing unaccepted therapeutic measures.

Kawamura, who has practiced in the Bangor area since 1962, has admitted that the board possessed sufficient evidence to reasonably conclude the allegations are valid and has agreed to certain provisions against his license.

According to the consent agreement he signed at the end of January, Kawamura counseled a longtime patient that the patient needed to leave his wife, that the patient should have sexual affairs with other women so that his wife would leave him, and then discussed the patient’s therapy with the patient’s wife without obtaining permission. The wife was also a patient of Kawamura’s at the time, though the two were undergoing individual counseling. The licensing board received complaints from both patients in February 2005.

Kawamura told the board he felt justified in using the unconventional approach and in discussing the husband’s therapy with the wife, because he was concerned that the husband was at risk for suicide.

In accepting the board’s reprimand, Kawamura, who lives in Veazie, admitted his conduct could amount to professional misconduct and incompetence. His consent agreement requires him to take a board-approved course in medical ethics each calendar year and to obtain ongoing therapeutic counseling himself. He must also discontinue treating family members unless they are in joint therapy.

Kawamura is a 1958 graduate of Chiba University in Japan and has been licensed in Maine since 1962. He has served as the chief of psychiatry at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and as the head of outpatient services at Acadia Hospital in Bangor. He is currently in private practice at 263 State St.

Calls to Kawamura’s office on Thursday were not returned.