Bad Therapist

Exposure collection

By: Evan Wright

Narrated by: Neil Shah

Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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 homicidal 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 listened to in a single astonished sitting.

©2019 Evan Wright (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

An RX for the rehab industry!!!

I'm a huge fan of this award winning-journalist's work, and I'm a very busy college professor during finals week, so I was very happy to be able to buy and audio version of this, as well as one to read. I closed my eyes and listened and could not stop until the story was done.
If you've read his book, "Generation Kill," (or seen the HBO version of the book, by the same name), you know what I mean. Wright provides through investigative reporting (I believe he won a Columbia School of Journalism Award, among other awards) on serious subjects, AND he knows how to touch the funny bone. I believe he locates in humor the source of human compassion, pleasure, and enjoyment, even the relief of stress in a time of war or when all the walls are falling down, as they do in this story. If you are like I am, you know countless people who have been affected by drug or alcohol addition. Like me, you may know people who have died from it, as my mother did. And so, this story is particularly compelling for me. It's about a con artist operating a multi-million dollar rehab scam in whom people entrust their lives and the lives of those they love. I sincerely hope and believe this book will change the rehab industry (what a word, industry, when it is supposed to be a health field to free people from the grip of a deadly disease). I believe Wright's newest book will have a huge impact on changing that industry. If you or anyone you know has been touched by addiction, I highly recommend this book. Anyone considering going to a rehab really SHOULD read this. Be informed, be aware, be picky. "Bad Therapist" has its heroes (the lovely sounding and brilliant Rose Stahl), its victims (how sad I am about the sisters from Ohio; coincidentally my mother was from there, she who died of untreated alcoholism); and its people whose lives and views hang in the balance..... and Chris Batham, its terrifying bad guy, a crook and con man, a "family man" who looks like he couldn't hurt a fly. In ways Wright describes so well -- drawing a picture of who the criminal element emerged -- the criminal Chris Batham convinces a great many very smart people to rely on him for the care of themselves or their loved ones. I wanted to post this tonight, even though I'm busy, because I think this book might actually help someone decide how to determine what kind of rehab to use, if they or someone they know is going to go that route. Our Country (and the world) is suffering from Opioid addiction. It's an epidemic. It's touching almost everyone in some way, be it through someone they know, themselves, or someone with whom they work.... So I hope they read this book. I would have done anything to get help for my mother, but I would NOT have wanted her to be treated in a rehab facility of this kind, and according to Wright the rehab business is a highly unregulated "industry," in many areas and ways. Yet people really do need help. There have to be reforms. The problems are tragically humanized and made real through the portraits and narrative writes, here.

the narration was awful

For some reason they chose to use character voices for all of the quotes in the book. This was a really poor choice. If there was even just a one word quote in the middle of the sentence, the narrator would switch into character mid-sentence and it was pretty grating. I think for this type of book quotes should just be read in the normal narrative voice. To make matters worse, the character voices themselves were really bad, creepy, and breathy. And even though the narrator was male, most of the male voices were also done in his breathy female voice style. The narration almost gave this book a mock-u-mentary feel.

When checking out the blurbs for the books in this collection, this one, Bad Therapist, was the only one that caught my interest at all. It seemed like it would be the best of the bunch but I just found it pretty cringe-inducing.

Terrible narration

The narrator should never read aloud again. I experienced second-hand embarrassment for him and felt awkward the entire time, almost ending the listen. Writing is a bit unorganized, but I stuck with it because it relates to my field and it piqued my interest. Overall, 4/5 for the book and 0/5 for narration.

sex, lies and justice in LA

compelling read.. the narration is a kind of cheesy, but if you hang in there.. the story is worth wading past the ridiculous voice that the reader uses to imitate females..

Very interesting and informative

I was born and raised in Anaheim, CA and I had no idea any of this was going on in LA.

The narrators impressions of people are very dramatic, to the point of annoying, but it helps keep the characters separated. The story itself is shocking but well written. Definitely worth listening to, very informative about the legalities surrounding recovery housing.

Courageous

Very well written showing the courage of a lady willing to stand against a monster. However the narrator needs to change his approach or just not narrate anymore. He was very distracting, unrealistic and at times downright creepy when he didn’t need to be.

Good story, not well told, terrible performance

The facts of this story are fascinating, but it’s often told in a dry, boring way. The narrative is not well crafted and sometimes circles back on itself. The performance is truly terrible. The voice actor reads the words of female characters in a ridiculously breathy cartoon Jessica Rabbit voice. It makes them sound stupid and works against the seriousness of their stories.

Hold on for a wild ride

As an addict in recovery, I was shocked and sickened by Bathum's actions and the inaction of the government and other regulatory institutions. This is one hell of a well-written story and Wright does a great job of providing enough background on the people involved that you almost feel as though you know them.
My only complaint was how Shah(narrator) did Rosie Stahl's voice (and some of the other female characters' voices). Maybe he should have a woman fill in those roles in the future.. it would make it much more believable (and less comedic).

Unbelievable deception

As a psychotherapist and addictions counselor, this was difficult to listen to at times. It is appalling that those in need where treated in such a dehumanizing way. I am grateful to see the outcome. If there ever needed to be a wake-up call in Addictions Health and Mental Health this situation demonstrates what needs to be stopped. Providing treatment is about compassion and caring - not abuse and deception. I did finish this and found it compelling to listen to the end.

Eye opening book about the failed rehab system.

This book blew my mind. I still see some of the things going on with rehab centers that are described in this book. Amazing that there was some kind of justice paid out to one of the masterminds of the fraud. Feels as if nothing changed after that in the industry.

Terrible narrator

This is a badly written story of what could potentially be a very interesting topic. However, it is not well written, and what’s more, the narrator is the worst I’ve ever heard. The terrible and unnecessary imitations of the real people involved are embarrassing and cringe worthy to listen to. I can’t stress enough how much I disliked listening to this narrator. It was a hard listen to get through.

Might have worked as a 30-minute podcast

Listened to two and a bit chapters, then deleted - not worth several hours of anyone’s life. There is an interesting story somewhere in here, about how lack of oversight in the rehab industry allows abuse to thrive and how gaps in the Affordable Care Act opened the market to fraudsters: this audiobook isn’t it, though. Instead it gives you paragraphs and paragraphs on the dress sense and peccadilloes of interviewees. You practically get told what their favourite sandwich fillings are.

Gripping

Bad Therapist is a shocking true story of fraud, abuse and drug addiction in California. The book is beautifully written and researched. A gripping listen.

Interesting exposé

I'm not American so it was a revelation to find out just how corrupt the rehab industry was/is. Fascinating to discover how yet another well-intentioned social intervention was appropriated by neoliberalism and profiteers.

Don’t be put off by the comments on the narration

Amazing true story typical of swindlers and fraudsters that see an opportunity in the system to fund their lifestyles and cause great harm and hurt too others .. Well told story with excellent narration giving it a unique feel … a different style but definitely worth a listen

Weird narration

Interesting story and seemingly well researched but diverts by quite a way and the narration turns very strange, comedic at points. This mis-match, especially with the seriousness of the theme is distracting.

What’s with the odd voices???

Genuinely hilarious voices for Rose and the therapist - what in earth possessed the narrator to do it and someone to sign that off saying ‘yep that’s great’?!!! Couldn’t listen to much as was too
busy laughing.

could have been better

narrators depictions of female characters is awful...makes them sound air headed. story would be been more thrilling if narrator was better

Story drags, Female voices do not suit narrator

Story dragged on quite a bit. I don't think it needed to be as long as it was. The narrator's voice for every single woman was said in a whispering, sexual and bimbo type tone of voice. He should have used an actual woman. I don't think his vocal cords can pull off a female tone, nothing personal towards him as a narrator, it just isn't his thing. His regular narrator voice was good to listen to though - calming, steady and deep.