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licensed, to provide psychologi-
cal services under their watch for
more than a year. More recently,
according to the agency’s records,
Peavey was reprimanded for
having signed an employee appli-
cation to practice psychology in
the state “that contained inac-
curate and false information.”
Peavey is prohibited until August
from “providing any supervision
of psychological services provided
by another person.”
Lawlis was unwilling to
substantively address his his-
tory with the Texas State Board.
Peavey didn’t clarify either.24 clients. Lawlis visits for several
days each month and works daily
by email and phone.
Around the time of the
fire, Dr. Farrah Khaleghi, the
30-year-old, recently creden-
tialed psychologist daughter of
Creative Care’s husband-and-wife
co-founders, was appointed its
clinical director. “Dr. Lawlis calls
me ‘the phoenix,’ ” she explains
during a visit to the facility in
October. “I wanted to fine-tune all
of our program elements. We sur-
vived. Let’s use this opportunity
for a rebirth.” Though her parents
have had an affiliation witha complement to the overall treat-
ment regimen has been helpful in
convincing clients not to self-
discharge during their first month
in residence, a common challenge
for inpatient rehabs. “Sometimes
people that really struggle with
nervous system agitation — itchy
people that are always kind of
fidgety — neuroplasticity is a way
to regulate them, to settle them
down so they’re not acting out as
much and leaving,” she says. “The
first three or four weeks are super-
vulnerable and this is soothing.”
Khaleghi notes that the clients
often find Lawlis’ methodsthat he sent anybody to a program
that has had its license sus-
pended,” Lawlis explains.
McGraw — who declined to par-
ticipate in this story — wouldn’t
say why the facility had long
persisted as a preferred provider
of care despite its public record.
He also wouldn’t elaborate on
Dr. Phil’s vetting process for the
treatment facilities it directs its
guests and viewers toward.
A CBS spokesperson for the
program did, however, provide
a statement. “The platform pro-
vides the opportunity for guests
to connect with and avail them-
selves to a variety of health care
providers, including individual
therapy, outpatient and inpatient
facilities,” it reads. “In doing so,
guests meet with the resource
representatives and decide for
themselves if they choose to
participate or not. By form-
ing working relationships with
hundreds of quality profession-
als and facilities, it is expected
that these independent resources
comply with the laws and regula-
tions of their governing licensing
or regulatory agencies. Upon
being notified of alleged activity
that raises significant regulatory
concerns regarding any of these
resources, the working relation-
ship is terminated until the
matter has been resolved within
the rules and guidelines govern-
ing state agency or board.”LAWLIS IS STRIKINGLY CONFIDENT
about the BAUD, comparing
his breakthroughs to Charles
Goodyear’s discovery of vulca-
nized rubber. By his account,
86 patients were treated by 19
therapists in a study he con-
ducted, and “all were significantly
improved, with most having no
more symptoms in three sessions
or less,” he wrote in his 2015 book
Psychoneuroplasticity Protocols
for Addictions. (He’s published
more than a dozen books on
various subjects.)
Yet despite such an impres-
sive suggested outcome, other
researchers have since ignored
the device. This is because, Lawlis
acknowledges, his own study was
never accepted for publication.
“Credibility is an issue,” he says.
Lawlis — who has been pub-
lished in peer-reviewed outletsLawlis and Dr. Phil for more than
15 years, Khaleghi has leaned into
Lawlis’ methods to put her own
stamp on the program — a major-
ity of the facility’s clients now
utilize some component of Lawlis’
“Neuroplasticity Transformation
Program,” which includes use of
a sensory deprivation chamber
designed to his specifications.
The chamber is a heated water-
bed in which clients, cloaked in
darkness, speak to their thera-
pist or listen to music. Close to
half of those in treatment at
Creative Care also make use of
the BAUD: “It’s an extra layer of
support,” says Khaleghi. “For our
population that’s so acute, with
really serious mental health and
addiction issues, the more tools
the better.”
By Khaleghi’s account, her
staff’s use of Lawlis’ techniques asappealing because they’re a
departure from prescription
treatment. “It’s not invasive, it’s
not ‘artificial,’ it’s really present-
focused and organic,” she says.
Creative Care has its own
troubles, past and present. In
2012, the California Senate Office
of Oversight and Outcomes pro-
duced a report, “Rogue Rehabs,”
about how the state “failed to
police drug and alcohol homes,
with deadly results.” Creative
Care was a key case study. The
report noted that the facility had
“offered medical care, contrary to
state law, for 10 years.”
In December, after THR’s
visit, California’s Department of
Health Care Services suspended
its license following two client
deaths. According to the Los
Angeles County coroner’s office,
on Feb. 16, 2019, a 54-year-old
woman died by suicide on-site,
and on July 4, a 26-year-old man
died of a fentanyl overdose. (A
representative for Dr. Phil says
that neither was a show guest.)
“We have no comment,” Khaleghi
wrote by email when asked about
these developments.
Lawlis and McGraw have
recently cut ties with Creative
Care, and the rehab has scrubbed
its website of Dr. Phil material
at the TV host’s request. “Phil
doesn’t want anybody to thinkIn addition to his partnership
stake at the Texas clinic, Lawlis
is a salaried consultant at Los
Angeles-based Creative Care, an
inpatient rehabilitation center
that specializes in dual diagnosis
cases (the overlap of substance
abuse and mental illness) and is
one of fewer than two dozen “Dr.
Phil Preferred” facilities in the
country, meaning it’s received
his on-air seal of approval and
is listed on the show’s website
resource page. Show guests often
receive treatment there, their
cost covered by the program.
In return, Dr. Phil publicizes
Creative Care on-air, an arrange-
ment that drives nearly a third
of its admissions, according to
the rehab. The facility treats 300
people each year. Between two
and four Dr. Phil guests, who have
often already visited Lawlis’ Texas
assessment center, are in treat-
ment at Creative Care during the
show’s season at any given time.
Creative Care has operated for
three decades in Malibu, pioneer-
ing the region’s so-called Rehab
Riviera alongside Promises. Its
facility on a 40-acre property just
up the road from Broad Beach was
wiped out by the Woolsey Fire in
November 2018, so the center has
temporarily resettled to a series
of adjacent houses in Woodland
Hills, where it can treat up to“ SOMETIMES THE GUESTS ARE
THEIR WORST ENEMIES. WE DON’T
EXPLOITA PERSON’S PROBLEMS.”