About this episode

This episode examines the dangers of Mormon therapists and how religious beliefs can compromise mental health care.

Jodi Hildebrandt is not just the story of one deeply harmful therapist. She is a warning sign about what can happen when mental health care stops being guided by professional ethics, evidence-based treatment, and client well-being—and instead becomes filtered through rigid Mormon beliefs about sin, obedience, sexuality, shame, and worthiness. In this episode, Bill Reel examines the broader problem of Mormon health professionals who practice through a religious lens rather than a clinical one. The issue is not that a therapist happens to be Mormon. The issue is when Mormon ideology overrides sound therapeutic care—when a counselor’s loyalty to Church culture, moral judgment, patriarchy, sexual repression, or “saving the family” becomes more important than the emotional safety and autonomy of the client sitting in front of them. Using Jodi Hildebrandt as a case study, this episode explores how spiritual abuse can be repackaged as therapy, how vulnerable clients can be manipulated under the language of healing, and why Mormon-informed therapy can sometimes function less like treatment and more like ecclesiastical control with a license on the wall. This episode also includes two…

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