Jodi Hildebrandt: Therapist arrested for child abuse with Ruby Franke accused of destroying marriages
OREM, UTAH: Author and life coach Jodi Hildebrandt has been accused by several former clients of destroying their relationships with loved ones, per NBC News.
As Hildebrandt, the creator of Connexions Classroom, and her business partner Ruby Franke face felony child abuse charges, other allegations against the life coach are also surfacing.
What are the accusations against Jodi Hildebrandt?
Several former clients of Hildebrandt claimed that she destroyed the personal relationships of the people who sought help from her through therapy and counseling. They also accused the Connexions Classroom founder of isolating them.
Several clients who sought her help from 2008 to 2019, told the news outlet that she separated partners, accused them of addictions and advised them to cut off connections with anyone who was not her follower, claiming it to be almost “cult-like.”
Twenty nine-year-old Stephanie Jones, who sought her service in 2019 with her ex-husband, told the news outlet, “The theory was that if you’re meeting with Jodi, then you are all living in truth.”
Jones added, “And so she didn’t want you talking to anyone else about your problem. She wanted you talking to people that were also living in truth. So this is where I started to feel like it kind of got cult-like. She wanted everything to stay in the group. You’re not allowed to have a different opinion than her.”
Per her LinkedIn page, Hildebrandt established Connexions Classroom in 2007 which many of her former clients said is based on the principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormon church.
Several former male patients of Hildebrandt said that they were treated for porn addiction, while they clearly did not have any.
Spencer Tibbets, now 21, said he was institutionalized under Hildebrandt when he was 16.
When he acquired a secret phone, he was taken to Hildebrandt for his video games addiction. But he said that soon he was ripped off from the children’s group and put into a men’s group which was being treated for porn addiction.
He said, “I had a secret phone, but I didn’t even know what porn was.”
He also said that Hildebrandt told him that if he “didn’t accept the Mormon God, [he] would never be able to get help from therapy,” which led him to question his faith.
Adam Paul Steed, 40, who visited Hildebrandt for marriage counseling with his then-wife, was also kept in probation for porn addiction.
Saying he got divorced due to Hildebrandt’s action, he told NBC, “My family got destroyed,” before adding, “My life got destroyed.”
Jodi Hildebrandt allegedly used cayenne pepper to 'dress wounds' inflicted on her business partner’s children
Hildebrandt was arrested last month along with her business partner Ruby Franke on charges of child abuse. Reports then claimed that the two women allegedly used cayenne paper to “dress wounds” that they inflicted on Franke’s two youngest children. Hildebrandt and Franke, 54 and 41, respectively, were arrested on August 30 and seemingly charged with six counts of felony child abuse.
The matter apparently came to the fore after one of the children, 12, escaped and ran to the neighbor asking for food and water. The two podcasters were arrested from Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins, Utah, per People.
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Now, KUTV2, ABC4, and the Associated Press have obtained three search warrants, which detailed some of the things the Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department found from Hildebrandt’s home. One officer claims that the 12-year-old was found with duct tape around his ankles and looked “abnormally thin and weak.”
“The victim informed officers and medical personnel that the wounds were from the rope that was used to tie the victim to the ground,” a statement establishing the grounds for a search warrant read, according to the news outlets.
“The victim informed officers that ‘Jodi’ put the ropes on their ankles and wrists and that ‘they’ used cayenne pepper and honey to dress the wounds.”
The reports further claimed that the authorities also found “two used medical gauze dressings near cayenne pepper and honey paste.” The officers also apparently confiscated three Apple iPhones and four Apple Macbook laptops.
