Website with details of a stellar career taken down

THE website listing the credentials of ‘Dr Fergus Heffernan’ has been removed after our investigation revealed that his PhD is fake.

On the website, Heffernan referred to himself as ‘Dr’. He claimed to have started his service with the Irish Defence Forces in 1975.

The website also stated that it was during this period with the defence forces that he realised his own fear and anxiety was coming from within his head and not as a result of anything he witnessed in the Lebanon.

He stated: ‘Although I trained to be a Psychologist, a Psychotherapist, a family therapist, a scientist and a biologist, in reality I am an Educationalist. All my workshops, seminars and clinical practices are guided by my understanding.’

He also wrote that during his lifetime he had been privileged to work in some of the ‘darkest’ places on the planet.

‘I have worked with genocide victims in Rwanda, soldiers in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, victims of famine in Ethiopia, tsunami victims in Sri Lanka, earthquake victims in Nicaragua and hurricane victims in Haiti,’ the website states.

It also claims that Heffernan has a Bachelor of Science in clinical psychology, a Master of Science in family therapies and a Master of Science in molecular biology – as well as the bogus PhD in Bio Psychology he claimed to have.

In another section of the website, Heffernan wrote of himself: ‘At first glance I am sure you would say: “This guy knows it all.” Not True!! I actually did think I knew it all once upon a time but I suddenly discovered that although I had acquired a vast amount of knowledge and information through academic qualifications, I actually had very little wisdom, ie, knowledge about me.

‘My mum was a highly educated woman, who went to medical school and qualified, but she spent her whole life in and out of psychiatric hospitals. The treatment she received was to stick electrodes to her head and fry her brain,’ he adds.