| Title | : | Bad Therapist (Exposure collection) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 164 |
| Publication | : | First published May 30, 2019 |
Inside the biggest scandal in the history of America’s $40 billion drug recovery industry: a predatory Malibu rehab guru—and the fearless female patient who exposed his empire of deceit.
Chris Bathum was a respected therapist, addiction specialist, and founder of one of the fastest-growing rehabilitation chains in America. But Bathum was a total fraud: he was a meth-head with a history of sexually abusing his patients, scamming insurance companies, and eliminating whistle-blowers. Like Rose Stahl. But this intended victim would be his last. Stahl would risk her life to bring down the monster she and so many other people in need had once trusted for their salvation.
Evan Wright’s Bad Therapist is part of Exposure, a collection of six incredible and true stories of American double lives from millionaire CEOs and suburban teens to undercover investigators and scam artists—all for whom secrets are a way of life. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single astonished sitting.
Bad Therapist (Exposure collection) Reviews
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What could have been an amazing book got dropped to three stars by lacking in structure. I found the timeline to be all over the place and hard to follow. Unfortunate that such an interesting topic wasn’t portrayed more clearly.
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It’s amazing how far this scam lasted, and how easily it was to pull out. I felt so sad for the victims of this terrible person.
The story is strong enough that kept my attention and helped me ignore the absolutely horrible narration. -
Wow!
Wow! What an insane and infuriating story. A clear example on how horribly our country is failing those who suffer from addiction. Dropped down to 3 stars, because while the story was insane, the writing was meh. -
I listened to this on Audible--free for Amazon Prime members. This 4+ hour work was frustrating. I was shocked to learn about massive fraud in the rehab industry, but the author was much more interested in the salacious details of the fraudster/rapist Chris Bathum. Did I really need to know that Bathum had a small penis and that it smelled bad?
In addition, the narrator was not up to imitating the voices, although his imitation of Bathum was somewhat humorous.
I feel the rehab industry deserves an investigation by a skilled investigative journalist like John Carryou (Bad Blood) or any others. Hopefully, I can find another book or series of Newspaper articles that explains this corrupt industry better. -
Fascinating! I had no idea it was so lucrative and uncomplicated to commit such extensive fraud! It was a story I had never heard about (happening on the other side of the country...). The downside was that the book was long. It jumped around in the timeline of events too much and it took forever to get to the point of it all.
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An interesting read.
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Another Exposure Success
Overall the books in the Exposure series have been excellent exposes on topics of great importance. In Bad Therapist, Wright details the dangers of the underregulated rehab/sober house industry and the toll it has taken on those who depended on the system to save their lives. He outlines the general issues and their underlying cause while digging into one particular case, that of faux - therapist, convicted felon, drug addict, and con artist Christopher Bathum. The horrors of the case are worse than I imagined. The bravery of those who came forward may never be fully recognized because of the controversy of their spotted pasts, but it does not detract from how important it was for them to act. I think the narrative could have been a bit tighter, with less back and forth between time periods, but it definitely packed a punch. I'm so angry at people who would take advantage of someone at their lowest point. Research into the topic and the case seems very thorough, as does the evidence against Bathum. Bad Therapist is worth the read, and will hopefully stimulate conversation on better protecting people who are preyed upon by a broken system and the predators who abuse it. -
This blows the door on the rehab industry wide open. I listened to this on audio, and the information was well organized and easy to follow.
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Fascinating story, poorly written.
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I dislike the narrator trying to do voices, I really wish that was not a thing as it’s quite annoying!
The format was a little crazy, got a bit confused at times but overall I found the story tragic and fascinating.
None of the books in this series (Exposure) have been great for various reasons, but overall the subject matter of this one kept me intrigued. There was a lot of crazy stuff happening. -
2.5 A topic like this is always interesting for so many reasons. How could someone be this evil? How do people blindly follow someone when there’s clearly something not right? Why is our system so broken that people in distress feel they have no other options? But the writing at times seemed like a pulp fiction novel. Sometimes a little cringy with the adjectives. It became hard to get through.
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Is there a movie being made about this book? What a total mess!
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Clear and concise. Easy reading for non-fiction. But content? Wow. It is a lot to take in.
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Wow. "Bad Therapist" contains insightful information about the rehab and sober living industry. But this book is written out of chronological order and filled with sexual content and profanity.
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Don't be put off by the amateurish look of this thin book--too many photos have no captions and the font is too small for the size of the page--because the writing, imho, is very good. The story is chopped up and taken out of order, which is not helpful, but the story is very important. Post-rehab or halfway houses apparently fall into a crevice where they don't have to be regulated like rehab but at the same time could not be inspected due to privacy protected under ADA as addiction is a disease.
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Addictions, Drug Overdoses, Fraud, Sexual Assults, Attempted (and possibly successful) Murders. Greed!
I am terrified for those fighting for sobriety; they may unwittingly become prey, victims of an incredibly corrupted and flawed system. Where does one turn when seeking help and guidance from an industry with little to no oversight?
The most telling part of this entire, sorted ordeal is summed up in a single sentence -
"Nothing has changed, except for Rose" -
Interesante y explica cosas sobre el negocio de los centros de rehabilitación en USA que no conocía.
Lo que no me ha gustado y me ha dado un poco de rabia es que el narrador hiciera voces para algunas de las personas: las voces para las mujeres las hacen sonar como si fueran tontas y las de los hombres, idiotas. Sobraba. -
A short Amazon originals story about the biggest scandal in the drug recovery business (I do mean business!) and the "therapist" who perpetrated it, a junkie/rapist/scammer that preyed on the most vulnerable. Interesting story and would have rated it higher but for the lack of structure, it jumped around and made it a little hard to follow.
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* I borrowed this book for free from Amazon Prime. *
I liked this book. I thought it was interesting. -
Sad ....this story is just sad .
As a Recovery Home Coordinator in a Sober Living home I am sickened . I am also a nurse
( although not practicing in my current position ) . Drug addiction is such an epidemic in this country , lives are lost to over-doses every second of the day and the addicts seeking help deserved just that - tell me how anyone could do the unthinkable shit that Chris Bathum did !
Sad , it is just plain sad .
I found the book informational for those out there unfamiliar with the drug rehab world . A lot of reviews talk about the poor timeline , etc . ... I get it , but the information alone is worth 3 stars ;-) -
Bizarre story of a con man who thrived as a bogus "health care provider."
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The story itself is interesting, but the erratic writing choices throughout made it less enjoyable. The occasional abrupt time-skips of events, backtracks and lack of narrative buildup in between made it hard to follow.
However the forced emotionality and black/ white characterization of all people involved was the biggest annoyance for me. Especially since those blatantly portrayed as good received more in-depth backgrounds and explanations while the ones identified as bad were kept to short, terse sentences that were often sprinkled with stretches of out-of-context past behaviors or faults.
I don't need a continuous added layer of emotionally heavy explanation to decide if someone made good or bad decisions. Let the actions be told factually because overtime a pattern of behavior will stand on its own merits, good or bad. But I realize this is a personal reading preference of mine. If the same level of "character buildup" (I know these are real people) had been applied equally to all, no matter the intensity of emotionality portrayed, I wouldn't have found it nearly as irksome.
I still recommend reading this book, or about Rose Stahl's story in general. At least the ending here gives a motivating factor for readers to be aware and possibly take action against the kind of laws that allow such illegality to thrive.
(Minor Spoilers Maybe?) This isn't about the writing style, but it was also pretty disheartening to learn the FBI didn't initially care at all about the sexual harassment and coercion. -
Predator Therapist
This is a sad story of predator who took advantage of people at their worst, in need of help and preyed upon them for sex, money and drugs. A man with no experience of credentials was able to create and run a series of sober living houses for recovering addicts which netted millions in insurance fraud. Many joined the gravy chain, but learned that the cost was much higher than expected in more ways than one. It took the courage of a woman who was a former addict to help bring him to justice. The lack of state and federal safeguards is also appalling regarding this issue. An eye opening read. I hope that Rose has a better life now along with the others. A must read for anyone interested in the racket that addiction treatment has often been. The audio book was a compliment to the book -
This was the first in the Exposure series (free with amazon prime). I read others first, which I’m glad I did, as this is my least favorite. I listened to it on audio and when the narrator did most voices, it grated on me. The therapist story was okay, but I was more interested in the development of sober houses and how the system is conned.
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Raise your hand if you check your state's medical board licensing verification site before you visit a doctor...
Waiting...
Yeah, well, you should. There are MANY people who claim to be therapists, chiropractors, physicians who have never passed any kind of test or attended a program. They are liars. Avoid them.
This "bad therapist" took advantage of his "clients" -- he was supposed to be helping them kick their addictions. Instead he gave them more drugs.
This still happens in the recovery industry today. Seek in-network addiction treatment programs. Especially if you're looking at programs in California or Florida. I cannot stress to you enough how many "facilities" there are out there that are truly JUST sober living homes. They claim to over counseling, etc, but they actually just bus patients from their very pricey sober living home to non-facility AA/NA meetings. They bill insurance for THOUSANDS of dollars for "partial hospitalization" when other programs may only charge a thousand dollars for a month of the same level of care.
DO YOUR RESEARCH. (If you need assistance or have questions, please feel free to reach out. I am in know way an expert (or a therapist), but I am pretty familiar with the industry.) -
Educational read. The Affordable Care Act fixes one thing (treatment for addicts) and leaves a loop hole big enough to drive an aircraft carrier through. A loop hole that causes exploitation of those addicts. (free prime read)
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This is a great read and part of (mostly) solid series of short books called Exposure. 4.445 stars rounding down, only because the prose dries up and feels rushed at times. The pacing is good, the structure compelling, and the story mind boggling.
