Facing problems in her marriage, journalism student Laren Aniceto and her husband sought couples therapy. But soon after they began treatment with Mara Faget, who introduced herself as a respected psychologist and psychiatrist, she sensed something wrong.
"In the first session, she called me ‘cutie.’ She didn’t even know me — just turned and said, ‘Hey, cutie,’ " Aniceto told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). "When I left, I still didn’t even know anything concrete, but I said, ‘I didn’t like the way she spoke to me. That didn’t feel right.’ "
That initial discomfort grew. In ensuing sessions, the therapist manipulated the patient’s words, Aniceto said. Before long, Faget began seeing Aniceto for individual psychiatric consultations as well as couples therapy. Aniceto felt confused, but not sure why, she said.
So she followed her instincts and began using some of the reporting tools she was learning in school. She researched her therapist – gathering documents and eventually interviewing former patients – and what she unraveled was a bizarre and troubling series of accusations of psychological manipulation, illegal medical practice and fraud.
There were two journalistic results. Aniceto, 35, presented a detailed investigation for her final undergraduate thesis (TCC, in Portuguese) at Faculdades Integradas Hélio Alonso (FACHA) in Rio de Janeiro. It has not yet been published.
She also took her findings to Fantástico, one of Brazil’s leading television weekly newsmagazines. The program aired a segment on May 25 featuring Aniceto and other alleged victim. The story made national headlines. Faget’s lawyers have denied all allegations.
The case highlights how even a novice reporter, armed with curiosity and a dedicated pursuit for information, can uncover abuse in the most unexpected places. With no prior investigative experience but a careful eye for clues, Aniceto, now graduated, produced a thorough investigation that still has much more to reveal.
“This story had to come to light. It needed to expose her, but more importantly, to give strength to others who’ve stayed silent,” Aniceto said. “I want justice—but I also want to make sure no one else goes through this.”
Journalism student Laren Aniceto uncovered allegations of abuse and fraud after investigating her own therapist (Photo: Courtesy)
Aniceto and her then-husband first visited Faget’s office in August 2023, on the recommendation of another psychiatrist. On paper, Faget seemed credible — she had once served as director of the Philippe Pinel Institute, a well-known public psychiatric hospital in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Aniceto’s records, the couple attended 10 joint therapy sessions from August to early December 2023, while Aniceto herself began attending individual psychiatric consultations starting in October. Aniceto admits she kept visiting Faget despite her discomfort.
"It might sound strange that I kept seeing her even though I was already feeling uncomfortable, but at the time, everything was very confusing,” she said. “I myself wasn’t even sure if what I was feeling was real. She convinced me that I needed help and then positioned herself as the one who could give me that help."
Aniceto now believes Faget offered individual therapy in addition to couples’ therapy by design.
“I think it was a way to study us separately,” she said. “I would reveal things in private sessions, and she would later use that in couples therapy to steer us in a certain direction.”
At first, Aniceto assumed the therapist was simply unprofessional or unethical — not criminal. But a quick Google search told a different story. In October 2021, the Regional Council of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro had revoked Faget’s license for violating Article 40 of the Brazilian Medical Ethics Code, which prohibits physicians from using the doctor-patient relationship to gain physical, emotional, or financial advantage.
Further digging uncovered a criminal case tied to the revocation, along with three civil lawsuits alleging fraud, unjust enrichment, and financial harm. Aniceto suspected the plaintiffs were former patients.
According to one complaint, a 60-year-old woman said she took out loans totaling around 89,000 reais (about $16,000 USD) at Faget’s request. This complaint led the Elderly Protection Unit to initiate disciplinary action. As Aniceto gathered more testimonies, a troubling pattern began to emerge.
A criminal case and three civil lawsuits, supported by interviews Aniceto conducted, accuse Faget of borrowing large sums from patients without repaying them. She allegedly justified these requests by citing medical expenses for a bedridden ex-husband or a hospitalized mother. In some cases, the amounts involved reached as high as 500,000 reais (about $90,00 USD).
Faget emotionally manipulated patients to get money, abusing the trust built in therapy, Aniceto said.
“I called them one by one, and Mara always had the same story—an ex-husband in need, or later, a mother who was sick and needed hospitalization. She always claimed she couldn’t cover the costs because she didn’t have health insurance,” Aniceto said.
Initially, Aniceto started looking into Faget’s past for personal reasons — to convince her husband that their therapist was unqualified. But by April 2024, with her final project deadline approaching, the effort took on an academic dimension. Her school encouraged students to take on hands-on reporting projects for their graduation work.
“I realized I couldn’t do two investigations at once. So I decided: this is going to be my graduation project,” she said.
Aniceto interviewed 38 people, including former patients, family members, former colleagues, physicians involved in the license revocation, other psychoanalysts, and lawyers. She compiled screenshots of text conversations, prescriptions, and social media content as evidence.
The accusations are serious: emotional manipulation, misdiagnosis, illegal prescribing, and even inappropriate personal relationships. One patient said she was falsely diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and another that she prescribed antipsychotics without clinical justification. Others reported emotional or sexual involvement with the therapist or their relatives.
Even after losing her medical license, Faget continued to present herself as a psychoanalyst—an unregulated profession in Brazil. Aniceto said she also continued prescribing medications, which is illegal without a license.
According to her thesis advisor, Professor Luciano Zarur, the quality and depth of Aniceto’s work are exceptional for a student project.
“Most students are under pressure to finish their degrees and choose simpler topics. Laren took on a highly complex case, with personal stakes, and handled it with professional standards,” Zarur told LJR. “It reads like a piece of literary journalism. Work of this scale is extremely rare at the undergraduate level.”
After losing her medical license in 2021, Faget was hired by Rio de Janeiro’s public health system in administrative roles that still involved contact with mental health patients, Aniceto said. At least as recently as 2023, she worked in the Psychosocial Care Network (RAPS) in Araruama, according to Aniceto’s reporting. She also continued practicing as a psychoanalyst until this year.
Contacted by LJR, Faget’s attorney, Renan T. O. Silva, denied she illegally practiced medicine after losing her license. His client, he said, had been working as a psychoanalyst for decades and no longer presented herself as a psychiatrist. He added that Faget will seek to reinstate her license through legal action.
Silva rejected the accusations of breaching patient trust, including using confidential information from individual therapy in joint sessions, saying there is no court ruling or documentary evidence to support them.
He also disputed claims of improper prescribing, saying there is “no credible evidence” to back them. As for the fraud and financial misconduct cases, Silva characterized them as part of a smear campaign.
“This is all motivated by revenge,” he said in a written response. “The Fantástico piece didn’t reflect the facts of the case. There were major falsehoods. Everything is documented in the case files.”
The Fantástico episode aired on May 25. Besides Aniceto, the show also interviewed a former patient who had been treated by Faget in 2014 and requested anonymity.
That former patient said Faget disclosed personal problems during therapy sessions and later asked for money. She said she took out about R$92,000 in loans (around $16,500), fell into debt, and had to move in with a cousin.
Fantástico reporter Nathalia Butti told LJR the team was impressed by the quality and volume of evidence that Aniceto gathered.
“She did a truly excellent job of investigative reporting,” Butti said.
The story struck a nerve, Butti added, because it involved a breach of trust in one of the most vulnerable human relationships.
“It’s a unique bond — you could compare it to that between a person and a spiritual leader,” she said.
Several lawsuits connected to the investigation are now in civil court. Aniceto is also in talks with a magazine to publish a version of her investigation based on her final project. The full scope of her work goes far beyond what Fantástico was able to air.
Aniceto’s marriage didn’t survive. It ended along with the therapy, she said. A recent graduate still looking for her first job in the field, she begins her journalism career with a memorable investigation.
“I’m still following the case because so many people are still scared, ashamed, and blaming themselves,” she said. “I understand the kind of psychological hold this can have—and I know that only a powerful and truthful narrative can begin to break that.”
