In this episode, we take a deeper dive into Jodi Hildebrandt — a former licensed therapist who presented herself as a moral and spiritual authority and later became a central figure in a widely reported child abuse case.

You may remember Jodi from our Ruby Franke episode, but today we shift the focus fully onto her: her background, her belief system, and how a person trained in mental health moved from therapist, to life coach, to claiming a unique access to “truth” — while facing serious ethical and professional consequences.

We explore Jodi’s upbringing in a strict LDS household, her early fixation on purity and moral perfectionism, and how reported trauma, rigid belief structures, and a desire for control appear to have shaped the framework she later imposed on others. We unpack her professional rise, her involvement in porn addiction treatment, the violations that led to the suspension of her therapy license, and her eventual rebrand into Connexions — a hierarchical, faith-based coaching model that framed obedience as healing and disagreement as moral failure.

From there, we examine the people who were impacted: former clients, members of Connexions, her own family, Jessi (her nibling who has publicly shared their experiences), and the Franke children — whose suffering was reportedly framed as “treatment.” We discuss how isolation, fear, and spiritual authority were used as tools of control, and how Jodi embedded herself into families and decision-making structures.

This episode isn’t just about one person — it’s about what can happen when unregulated power goes unchecked, when belief replaces evidence, and when systems fail to intervene. We also look at Jodi’s arrest, court proceedings, and public statements following her conviction, as well as how she continues to describe her actions.

Content Warning: child abuse, spiritual manipulation, coercive control, abuse of power