A Manhattan therapist who marketed his practice to gay men was arrested Thursday and charged with raping and sexually assaulting two vulnerable patients in his care.
Joseph LoGuidice, who founded Liberation Psychotherapy and ran the private LGBTQ therapy group Variety Practice, faces rape in the third degree, sexual abuse, and 10 counts of criminal sex act in the third degree. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Cori Weston held him on $100,000 cash or $300,000 partially secured bond during a bail hearing Thursday afternoon.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Claudia Khoury-Yacoub told the court that LoGuidice began preying on his first victim shortly after the man became a patient in fall 2022. The patient, who is in his 30s, had been attending therapy to cope with a recent sexual assault when the therapist allegedly crossed every professional boundary.
During one session, LoGuidice made a “flirtatious comment” and leaned in to kiss the patient, Khoury-Yacoub said. “They entered the office where the defendant closed the blinds,” she continued. Inside, the victim performed oral and anal sex on LoGuidice. The patient had told the therapist he did not want to have sex because he was recovering from surgery on his anus.
“He told complainant one to not tell his private therapist,” Khoury-Yacoub told the court.
The alleged abuse escalated. In a separate incident in November 2022, LoGuidice anally raped the same victim in his office, prosecutors charged. Afterward, he told the patient to “attend the other sessions…. [where] men there were hotter.” The patient suffered panic attacks following the encounters and eventually reported the abuse on Aug. 18.
A second patient came forward with his own account of assault, according to prosecutors. This man had sought therapy from LoGuidice in fall 2022 to help process an abusive relationship. LoGuidice allegedly began making comments that left him feeling “uncomfortable,” telling him he’s “attractive” and allegedly commenting on his penis.
The abuse allegedly continued for more than a year. On Jan. 8, 2024, LoGuidice kissed this patient in a bathroom during a therapy session and told him to follow to an office under construction, where they allegedly had oral sex. LoGuidice then ordered him to “not tell anyone” because he would get in trouble, Khoury-Yacoub said.
The contact allegedly persisted into late 2025. “When can I suck on that d—k,” LoGuidice allegedly texted the patient in November 2025, according to prosecutors.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg addressed the arrest in a statement Thursday. “Liberation Psychotherapy’s clinical director, Joseph LoGiudice, allegedly sexually assaulted two patients in his care at the very practice he founded,” Bragg said. “While expressly described as an LGBTQ-centered practice, we allege that LoGiudice abused the trust placed in him as a therapist to sexually assault members of the LGBTQ community he serves. This investigation is ongoing.”
The case centers on a therapist who built his career serving LGBTQ patients, only to allegedly exploit the very trust that brought vulnerable men into his office. Both victims had sought help for trauma—one from a recent sexual assault, the other from an abusive relationship—when prosecutors say LoGuidice turned their sessions into opportunities for abuse.