Rachel and Ash peer into the soul of Phil McGraw, Oprah's favorite straight-talking daytime TV guru, who has more recently pivoted to pro-ICE content creator. Folksy animal metaphors abound. Sources: Phil McGraw, Self Matters: Creating Your Life From the Inside Out, https://shop.drphil.com/products/book-self-matters-creating-your-life-from-the-inside-out-studio Sophia Dembling & Lisa Gutierrez, The Making of Dr Phil: The Straight-Talking True Story of Everyone's Favorite Therapist, https://w...
Jun 10, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Ash and Rachel explore the checkered career of Wilhelm Reich, and try not to get too boxed in about it. Sources: Wilhelm Reich, The Sexual Revolution, 1945 Wilhelm Reich, Selected Writings, 1960 Peter Reich, A Book of Dreams, 1973 Christopher Turner, Adventures in the Orgasmatron, 2011 "Weatherwatcher: Wilhelm Reich's Cloudbuster," David Hambling, The Guardian, July 6 2011: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2011/jul/06/weatherwatch-cloudbuster Stillpoint Berlin, Re-reading the psychology of Wilhe...
May 27, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Rachel and Ash venture into the world of neuro-linguistic programming, trying (and failing) to use word-spells to get everything they've ever wanted. Content warning: NXIVM, murder, pick-up artists. Sources: Frank Clancy & Heidi Yorkshire, "The Bander Method" - Mother Jones, Feb/Mar 1989 https://books.google.com/books?id=DOcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22#v=onepage&q&f=false Robert S. Spitzer, "Virginia Satir & Origins of NLP" - https://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/NLP/NLP-Satir39...
May 13, 2026•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Rachel and Ash explore the work of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross and her five stages of death/grief. A scammy cult is involved, because a scammy cult always seems to be involved. SOURCES: Elizabeth Kübler-Ross - On Death and Dying (1969) Elizabeth Kübler-Ross - On Life After Death (1991) Elizabeth Kübler-Ross - The Wheel of Life: A Memoir (1997) Jessica Weisberg - Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed (2007) "Doctor Noted ...
Apr 29, 2026•1 hr 5 min
Ash and Rachel delve into the world of chatbot therapy -- sit back and listen as the machines glitch out and reveal their true selves. SOURCES: Hillman, James, and Michael Ventura. We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy – And the World's Getting Worse. New York: HarperCollins, 1992 (e-book version 2007) Balan, Raluca, and Thomas P. Gumpel. "ChatGPT Clinical Use in Mental Health Care: Scoping Review of Empirical Evidence." JMIR Mental Health (via PMC), December 24, 2025 Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. (...
Apr 15, 2026•58 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Season 2 of Bad Therapist starts April 14th.
Apr 08, 2026•1 min
Part Two of Two on Hysteria. Ash and Rachel seek knowns and unknowns about the contested origins of Hysteria finding its way into the emergent psychological annals. Golden Siggie takes the lead. Find metaphors doing *the most* in a teen's dreams, and more! This is the last of our current season. If Bad Therapist is pleasing to your psyche, please rate, review and subscribe. We hope to see you for Season 2! SOURCES Gilman, Sander L., Helen King, Roy Porter, G. S. Rousseau, and Elaine Showalter. H...
Feb 26, 2025•46 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Part One of Two on Hysteria. Ash and Rachel dig into the tangled history of this complex and ever-evolving diagnosis, starting with its medical origins. From ancient theories to outdated treatments, we're pulling from the antiquated archives to unpack the evolution of this so-called malady. Stay tuned for Part Two next week—Freud on Hysteria! SOURCES: Gilman, Sander L., Helen King, Roy Porter, G. S. Rousseau, and Elaine Showalter. Hysteria Beyond Freud. University of California Press, 1993. Acoc...
Feb 19, 2025•53 min•Season 1Ep. 8
This week, in honor of St. Valentine's Day, Bad Therapist makes a special guest appearance on a favorite podcast, You're Wrong About, to get to the bottom of Emotional Labor— a sociological and labor-related construct that has snuck its way into impersonal realms and colloquialisms. And in doing so, we solve the entire country's relationship problems— you're welcome. Hosted by Sarah Marshall. Produced by Carolyn Kendrick RESOURCES: Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Managed Heart: Commercialization ...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Rachel and Ash discuss an idea that's all the rage among coaches and influencer types in Austin and elsewhere: polarity. Spoiler alert: it's essentially a New Age-y version of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, and its inventor has some of the worst ideas we've ever heard about how to respond to an angry woman (….tickle her????). Sources: The Madelyn Moon Show - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU8GwCzSVVno7KHfqNFdqrw What is the Divine Feminine? - https://maddymoon.com/blog/divine-feminin...
Jan 22, 2025•54 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Ash and Rachel tackle two bad therapists (or one bad therapist and one flawed-but-relatable ex-therapist) who worked with the rich and famous: Eugene Landy, the man who trapped and swindled Brian Wilson, and Phil Towle, Metallica's "performance enhancement coach." Warning: lots of anti-Metallica slander in this ep! Sources: Berlinger, J., & Sinofsky, B. (Directors). (2004). *Metallica: Some Kind of Monster* [Film]. IFC Films. Hilburn, R. (1988, June 26). *Brian Wilson: Surfacing Again.* *Los...
Jan 08, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Rachel and Ash make a guest appearance on one of their favorite podcasts, Culture Study, to chat with Anne Helen Petersen about the rise of therapy speak, their least-favorite therapized buzz words, and why this kind of language has become so frustratingly prevalent. Hosted by Anne Helen Petersen. Produced by Melody Rowell.
Jan 01, 2025•53 min
This one's a little different: First, Rachel talks to her uncle, John Monroe, who was subjected to conversion therapy in the 1970s. Then Rachel & Ash discuss a few of the harmful pseudoscientists who have tried (and failed) to use psychology to turn queer people straight over the years. SOURCES: -Arana, G. (2012.) My So-Called Ex-Gay Life. American Prospect. Retrieved from https://prospect.org/civil-rights/so-called-ex-gay-life/ -Roughgarden, J. (2004). Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender...
Dec 11, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Ash (INTP) & Rachel (ENFP) explore the very strange origin story of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator — a journey that ventures into erotic Carl Jung fanfiction, an intense mother-daughter dynamic, and the most upsetting hot chocolate recipe you'll ever hear about. SOURCES: -Emre, M. (2018). The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing. Doubleday. -Briggs, K. C. (1947). The Personality Paintbox. Published privately. -Cook Briggs, K. E. (n.d....
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Rachel and Ash discuss the astonishing abundance of coaches via an exploration of The Life Coach School, a glossy (and expensive!) program with some MLM-esque overtones. SOURCES: - I'm a Life Coach, You're a Life Coach: The Rise of an Unregulated Industry - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/06/life-coaching-brooke-castillo-unregulated-industry - LifeCoachSnark subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeCoachSnark/ - The Dream podcast - season 3 - https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the...
Nov 27, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Ash & Rachel discuss the hot new Tiktok trend: #shadowwork. What is the shadow and why are all these Austin influencers suddenly preoccupied with it? SOURCES: - How a Self-Published Book Broke 'All the Rules' and Became a Best Seller - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/books/booksupdate/keila-shaheen-shadow-work-journal-tiktok.html - Keila Shaheen's Shadow Work Journal - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Shadow-Work-Journal/Keila-Shaheen/9781668069189 - Julian Himself - https://www...
Nov 21, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Rachel & Ash discuss the Sullivanians/Fourth Wall community, a collective of self-credentialed therapists with great real estate and solid politics that, can you believe it, turned into something pretty sinister. SOURCES: -The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune by Alexander Stille - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-sullivanians-free-love-psychotherapy-and-the-wild-life-of-america-s-largest-urban-commune-alexander-stille/18789052 -The Sullivanians - Thr...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Rachel Monroe and Ash Compton introduce Bad Therapist. Topics include: the conception for the pod, their bad therapists, and, somehow, puppets. Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes.
Nov 18, 2024•12 min
Welcome to Bad Therapist, a podcast about the shadow side of mental health, and the scammers and manipulators who reside there. Cads, opportunists, and charlatans have been a part of the world of psychology since the beginning; some of them have even made lasting contributions to the field. Bad Therapist delves into two centuries of sketchy behavior, spanning everything from questionable nineteenth-century hypnotists to the TikTok-famous therapy hustlers. At a moment when therapy speak has good ...
Nov 16, 2024•1 min
