An Oakland woman who has racked up more than a million YouTube subscribers as \u201cThe Crappy Childhood Fairy\u201d is suing California\u2019s Board of Psychology, claiming it violated her Constitutional rights by citing her for practicing psychology without a license.<\/p>\n
Anna Runkle said in an interview Monday that she built a huge following by helping people address childhood trauma through the writing and meditation techniques she adopted to recover from her own youth in Berkeley suffering neglect and witnessing drunken violence.<\/p>\n
Her lawsuit, filed June 3 in San Francisco U.S. District Court, came after an administrative law judge in April upheld the citation and $2,500 fine issued by the psychology board in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf what Ms. Runkle does is the \u2018practice of psychology,\u2019 then countless authors, speakers, coaches, podcasters, and self-help entrepreneurs are practicing psychology without a license,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs. Runkle has never claimed to be a therapist, physician, or psychologist. In fact, she expressly informs her clients and the public that she is not a licensed health practitioner and that they should seek appropriate care if they need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Runkle is seeking a court order saying the psychology board violated her First Amendment right to free speech and her Fourteenth Amendment right to due process under the law. She also wants the court to declare California\u2019s psychologist-licensing law over-broad in limiting what self-help coaches, mentors, and other purveyors of advice can say, and to\u00a0prevent state authorities from using the law against her.<\/p>\n
The board declined to comment, saying it did not discuss pending litigation. The board has not responded in court to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s order found Runkle\u2019s website, YouTube videos, and books did not amount to practicing psychology, but her fee-based coaching program did. She was ordered to remove from her offerings content related to post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n
Runkle\u2019s journey toward trouble with state regulatory authorities began after she launched her Crappy Childhood Fairy blog in 2016. A video producer by trade, she started sharing her healing practices, life skills and philosophy in group video sessions, and on her YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s written two books, conducted in-person workshops, and sells online courses on topics including \u201cHealing Childhood PTSD\u201d for $229, \u201cDating and Relationships\u201d for $219, and \u201cInner Power\u201d for $70. An annual membership for $399 includes her seven courses, plus monthly webinars and twice-monthly Q&A calls with Runkle.<\/p>\n
The citation in 2024 came as a surprise, said Runkle, 63.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first letter I got, I didn\u2019t think it was real. I thought it was phishing scam,\u201d Runkle said.<\/p>\n
In her offerings, Runkle includes a disclaimer that she is not a therapist, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really care about doing things legally and ethically,\u201d she said. \u201cI was absolutely shocked that they thought there was something wrong. There are charlatans in the coaching world \u2014 I understand the concern. But why me? I\u2019ve been a good online citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
An administrative law judge in February of this year upheld the citation, the lawsuit said. Runkle was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine, \u201ccease all practice that requires a psychology license,\u201d and remove from her offerings any treatment plans for childhood post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n
During the February hearing where the judge upheld the citation, government representatives \u201cmade a lot of false claims,\u201d Runkle alleged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said I was deceiving people and telling them that I\u2019ve cured PTSD,\u201d she said. \u201cOf course I didn\u2019t say that. I do say, \u2018You can heal from childhood PTSD.\u2019 I will die on that hill. That\u2019s a lot of what I do, is I give people hope, and I tell them my story.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state also assailed her persona, she claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said that I was deceiving the public by claiming to be a fairy, which is mythical creature that waves a magic wand,\u201d Runkle said. \u201cIt was one of the most abusive experiences that I\u2019ve lived through.\u201d<\/p>\n
She believes the board took issue with her paid programming including online coaching, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of denigration of me for charging money for some of my services,\u201d she said. \u201cI work 16 hours a day, seven days a week. This is my calling. It actually is OK for me to earn money for some of my work or all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court has set a case-management conference for Aug. 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Oakland woman who has racked up more than a million YouTube subscribers as \u201cThe Crappy Childhood Fairy\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,861,764,7,8,1312,138,332,1529,1570,1533,181,1016,2093,100,143,145,144,182,385,94685],"class_list":["post-355601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-berkeley","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-courts","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-east-bay","tag-east-bay-crime","tag-health","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lawsuits","tag-mental-health","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-pm-report","tag-regional","tag-social-alert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}