> At a Glance
> – Netflix’s Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story reveals how the Utah counselor turned LDS teachings into a lucrative, controversial practice.
> – Former clients claim Hildebrandt‘s advice destroyed marriages and drained savings, with some couples paying $50,000-plus.
> – Hildebrandt and YouTuber Ruby Franke now serve 4-to-30-year prison terms for abusing Franke’s two youngest children.
> – Why it matters: The film raises urgent questions about faith-based therapy oversight and the cost of unchecked influence in tight-knit religious communities.
The 30 December 2025 release revisits how Jodi Hildebrandt leveraged her standing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build ConneXions, a counseling brand that prosecutors say blurred spiritual guidance with psychological control.
Inside the $46,000-a-Month Practice
Investigators recovered ledgers showing roughly 46 individual clients paid an average of $1,000 each per month, stacking monthly revenue to about $46,000. Former client Ethan Prete recalls:
> “I was paying her $175 an hour for every individual session … we spent about $2,000 a month.”
Services included:
- One-on-one therapy
- Gender-specific groups ($75/week)
- Couples workshops and week-long retreats
- Online classes and content bundles
Valerie Jackson says the bills eclipsed her mortgage:
> “We paid well over $50,000, maxed-out credit cards and ended in divorce.”
When Counseling Unraveled Marriages
Several interviewees state Hildebrandt labeled spouses as “lust addicts” or “sexual addicts,” then ordered phone bans, internet cuts and year-long no-contact separations.
Prete believes the therapy doomed his marriage:
> “One-hundred percent it’s because of Jodi … it was some of the darkest moments of my life.”
Jackson echoes:
> “Within a year we were divorced … she was acting as a mouthpiece for God.”
Franke Partnership Turns Criminal
After Ruby and Kevin Franke sought help for marital issues, Ruby moved four of their six children into Hildebrandt‘s Ivins, Utah home in 2023. Journal entries reviewed by police describe escalating punishments.
Detective Jessica Bate reads from Ruby‘s notes on a planned desert relocation:
> “We will drop them like hot potatoes in the desert.”
The Escape That Ended It
On 30 August 2023, the couple’s malnourished 12-year-old son slipped out a window and asked a neighbor for help. While an officer spoke with the boy, Hildebrandt approached searching for him. Investigators say she later hid:
- Rope used to bind the child
- Handcuffs he had slipped off
- A safe-room drawer concealing evidence
A search warrant uncovered:
- Physical restraints
- Cayenne-pepper and honey dressings
- Four minor children in various locations
Both women pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and received four to 30 years, the statutory maximum.
Maintaining Innocence Behind Bars
Phone calls from prison feature Hildebrandt insisting she is persecuted:
> “I shouldn’t be here. I haven’t done anything wrong … we didn’t do that. Those pictures, we did not do.”
She frames incarceration as divine mission:
> “What’s a better example than to go to prison unjustly and then go teach the gospel?”
Key Takeaways
- Hildebrandt built a $46K/month counseling business targeting LDS couples before partnering with Ruby Franke.
- Former clients claim her directives-framed as religious truth-led to costly divorces.
- Police say Franke‘s journal detailed plans to abandon the children in the Arizona desert.
- Despite pleading guilty, Hildebrandt continues to assert she was framed and views prison as a platform for preaching.
The documentary underscores how charisma fused with faith can monetize vulnerability-until evidence overrides influence.
