Utah psychologist surrenders license after method concerns

More than a year after a 75-year-old Cache Valley woman died before she could stand trial on 23 felony sexual abuse charges, the psychologist who treated the four alleged victims surrendered her Utah license after admitting her methods did not meet established scientific and professional standards.

Carolyn Barcus signed a disciplinary agreement with the Utah Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) on July 18. The division approved it July 20, making the surrender final.

Under the agreement, Barcus admitted that experts reviewing her work determined she “did not follow established scientific and professional standards,” creating “considerable risk of cross-contamination and false memories.” The agreement also says Barcus’ relationships with the four clients further increased those risks, and that she failed to obtain informed consent about the techniques she used.

The five-page order does not identify the clients or the person they accused, but its admitted facts closely track the criminal case against Ruth Z. Worthen, a Hyde Park woman arrested in June 2024: four related clients, one alleged abuser, 23 felony charges and a case dismissed after the defendant died.

Court recordings from a preliminary hearing and request for an evidentiary hearing in the Logan District court independently identify Barcus as the therapist who treated Worthen’s accusers. Cache County Sheriff’s Detective Kevin Bennett testified at Worthen’s July 5, 2024, preliminary hearing that all of the accusers had been Barcus’ clients and that therapy records discussed their allegations against Worthen.

The DOPL agreement says Barcus initially treated one client and helped that person “recover” memories of being sexually abused as a child. During therapy, that client also recovered memories that three relatives had been abused by the same person. Those three relatives then became Barcus’ clients. Although they had previously denied abuse occurred, the agreement says Barcus helped all three “recover” memories of abuse.

“Based on the four clients’ accounts, the alleged abuser was arrested and charged with 23 felonies involving serious allegations of sexual abuse,” the DOPL agreement states.

The charges were later dismissed when the defendant died while the case was pending.

The licensing action does not say the four clients’ memories were false, nor does it determine whether Worthen committed the alleged abuse. It says Barcus’ methods created a substantial risk of false memories and cross-contamination.

Likewise, Worthen was never acquitted. Her death ended the criminal prosecution before a jury could determine guilt or innocence.

A case built around memories recovered decades later

The four accusers were members of Worthen’s extended family according to court recordings. Consistent with standard practice regarding people who report sexual abuse, this story does not identify them by name.

One of the first reports arose years before Worthen’s arrest. Bennett testified that Worthen’s nephew reported allegations to North Park police in 2018, but investigators determined at the time that those allegations were outside the criminal statute of limitations.

During that investigation, one of Worthen’s other eventual accusers told a detective he had no memory of being sexually assaulted by her. By 2024, he reported remembering abuse. Bennett confirmed that change during the preliminary hearing cross-examination.

The Cache County Sheriff’s Office opened a new investigation in 2023 after three additional people came forward.

At the preliminary hearing, defense attorneys repeatedly questioned Bennett about how investigators attempted to corroborate allegations that dated back decades.

Asked what evidence he had obtained corroborating the specific alleged acts, Bennett pointed to materials from earlier civil litigation, including recordings and deposition transcripts. Asked whether he had obtained other records, Bennett said, “The records that I obtained were from the civil suit. I don’t have additional records.”

The prosecution, however, argued that similarities among four accounts and statements from other family members provided corroboration. Prosecutors also argued that the accusers were generally aware that other family members had made allegations but did not know the details of those allegations.

Bennett testified that the clients told him they took precautions not to discuss their memories with one another because they did not want to influence each other. He said he encouraged them to continue doing so.

When defense attorneys suggested the memories emerged through therapy, Bennett offered a distinction.

“What has been presented to me is that the memories have surfaced independent of the therapy, and then the therapy was sought after to help them cope with the memories,” Bennett testified.

That contention would later become a central issue for the court.

Judge ordered closer examination

At the July 2024 preliminary hearing, Judge Spencer Walsh ruled there was enough evidence under Utah’s preliminary-hearing standard to bind Worthen over for trial on all 23 counts.

Walsh emphasized that he was not deciding whether the accusations were true. Under the preliminary-hearing standard, he said he was required to view the evidence in the light most favorable to prosecutors and could make only limited credibility determinations.

Still, when considering Worthen’s release from custody, Walsh said the court had to give some consideration to “the nature of how the suppressed memories have supposedly come back,” while again stressing he was not ruling on the credibility of the allegations.

The questions became more consequential as the case moved toward trial.

On Feb. 3, 2025, Walsh issued an oral ruling on a defense request for an evidentiary hearing into the recovered-memory evidence. Reviewing the preliminary-hearing record, Walsh noted that one accuser had denied remembering abuse during the 2018 investigation but later reported memories of it. He also noted evidence that the accusers’ memories emerged after Worthen’s nephew began publicly discussing his allegations and pursuing a civil lawsuit.

All three accusers tied directly to the criminal charges had received treatment from Barcus, Walsh said, and each had discussed the alleged abuse in therapy. He also noted testimony that all three reported having been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, and that some allegations involved memories purportedly dating to extremely early childhood.

“There’s evidence before the court that the alleged victims did not remember the alleged abuse until later on in life,” Walsh said.

He continued that there was evidence one accuser claimed to remember abuse from infancy, that another previously reported no memory of abuse and that all three sought treatment from the same therapist.

The defense wanted to question Barcus and the accusers about when the memories first appeared, what occurred during therapy and what methods Barcus used. Walsh concluded that those questions were significant enough to warrant examination before the evidence went before a jury.

“The court, in its gatekeeping duty, must determine whether the necessary threshold of reliability has been met,” Walsh said. “So the court is going to grant the motion to conduct an evidentiary hearing.”

Walsh ordered the hearing closed to the public because it would involve private mental health information. He said the proceeding was intended both to protect the accusers’ privacy and give Worthen’s attorneys enough information to prepare a challenge to the reliability of the testimony.

The February ruling was not itself a finding that the memories were unreliable. Walsh repeatedly said he was keeping an open mind. The hearing was intended to develop the evidence needed for a later admissibility decision.

Worthen died May 6, 2025, at age 75, before the evidentiary hearing could occur. The criminal case was subsequently dismissed with prejudice.

As a result, the court never completed the process Walsh had ordered, and the reliability questions were never litigated to a final judicial ruling.

State licensing action came the following year

DOPL’s action against Barcus came more than a year after Worthen’s death.

The agreement is a pre-adjudication settlement rather than the result of a contested professional-licensing hearing, but by signing it, Barcus expressly admitted the facts listed in the document, waived adjudication and administrative and judicial review, and agreed that her conduct constituted unprofessional conduct under Utah law.

The sanction is more substantial than a five-year suspension. Barcus surrendered her Utah psychologist license and forfeited her right to practice psychology in the state. She cannot apply for licensure as any type of mental health professional in Utah for five years from the agreement’s effective date.

Even after that period, DOPL does not guarantee it will approve a new application. The disciplinary action can also affect licensing applications in other states and may be reported to national disciplinary databases.

Barcus had been licensed as a Utah psychologist since about Dec. 3, 1992, according to the agreement.

Barcus has had a decades-long career in education and psychology, including work at Utah State University, mentoring Native American psychology students and directing the university’s American Indian Support Project. She received the American Psychological Association’s Samuel M. Turner Mentor Award in 2006 and maintained a private psychotherapy practice whose clinical focus included adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The DOPL agreement does not identify the experts who reviewed Barcus’ treatment or specify in the five-page document which therapeutic techniques they concluded violated professional standards.

Worthen’s family argues that the licensing findings show the allegations against Worthen were not reliable evidence. Because the family asked that its formal statement not be excerpted selectively, it is reproduced below in full.

Statement from the Family of Ruth Worthen

On July 20, 2026, the Utah Division of Professional Licensing approved a disciplinary agreement surrendering Carolyn Barcus’s license to practice as a psychologist. Barcus was the therapist who helped four individuals “recover” the memories behind the arrest and criminal charges against Ruth Worthen in June 2024.

The signed agreement states that experts in the field determined her methods did not follow established scientific and professional standards and caused considerable risk of cross-contamination and false memories. It goes on to specify that she did not obtain informed consent about the techniques she used and that her overlapping relationships with the four clients who accused Ruth further increased the risk of cross-contamination and false memories.

The allegations against Ruth were based on memories of abuse the accusers say they had “repressed” for decades, only surfacing years later and reaching in some instances as far back as six months of age.

Ruth faced these charges for nearly a year before passing away unexpectedly on May 6, 2025. She died two weeks before the evidentiary hearing that would have tested this repressed-memory evidence in court.

We believe these findings from the State’s own licensing authority show that the allegations were not reliable evidence.

It is encouraging that mental health providers are held to professional and ethical standards, which exist to protect patients and preserve the integrity of the profession. We are grateful to see some accountability, even when it comes too late for Ruth.

Individuals deserve to have their allegations heard and thoroughly investigated. Similarly, individuals who have allegations made against them also deserve to have these allegations thoroughly investigated. Our hope is that the gatekeepers of our justice system will take greater care in the future regarding accusations like these so no other individual or family will have to endure a similar experience.

— The Family of Ruth Worthen

Attempts to find current contact information for Barcus for additional comment were unsuccessful as of publication.