Mark Hutten; Launching Children with Aspergers

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lostinholland
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06 Aug 2012, 10:35 am

Spent $19 on this e-book. Was very disappointed. Was letting it go at that until I got an email from the author offering follow up coaching services. Sent him this response;

"I'm sorry to say that your book was a big disappointment. Too much of it was taken up with apartment shopping and the little information that it contained on helping to launch a young adult with Asperger's was a few words of commonsense repeated several times.
I expected something from which I would glean at least one useful bit of information and I didn't get that."

Here's what he wrote back;

"This is about the most ridiculous and bizarre comment I have ever received.

This comment is totally rude and inappropriate.

I'm guessing you are the type of individual who simply likes to complain. What a miserable life you must have!

Are you so blind that you couldn't even get one piece of valuable information from the material?

I'm sure it's not the eBook - but the reader who is a disappointment.
Mark"

So, fellow parents please be warned. The book has little to offer that is not commonsense and the author does not seem, in my opinion, to be able to offer much in the way of coaching skills based on his reaction to my feedback.



FalsettoTesla
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06 Aug 2012, 10:54 am

$19 on an e-book? o.O



lostinholland
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06 Aug 2012, 10:57 am

Yes, stupid of me. However, his page had glowing testimonials and when desperate parents need help they'll try what they can.



kirayng
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06 Aug 2012, 11:14 am

Holy moly. You offer constructive criticism on your comment and you're repaid with vicious grade-school bullying. Please spread the word about this. I'm deeply frustrated with the money these charlatans are making off of well-meaning parents.



Blownmind
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06 Aug 2012, 1:56 pm

lostinholland wrote:
Yes, stupid of me. However, his page had glowing testimonials and when desperate parents need help they'll try what they can.

If they have to lean on testimonials...don't buy it. Check amazon.com/co.uk and read the reviews there, some are deliberately fake, but some are for real. Try to find the real reviews and listen to them. People rating 9 are often better to trust than those who rate a full 10.


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jstriding
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06 Aug 2012, 4:00 pm

I'm curious, what were you looking for that the book didn't provide? I've paid more for an ebook (by a speech therapist, $37 but I thought it was informative and therefore accepted the cost) -- it's more about the value of the information contained versus # of pages or format (ebook, paperback, whatever).

As for the coaching -- it's a bit strange to use the service / coaching model in this arena but I visited his site, and since he's a family therapist he's probably looking for ways to create a business out of helping families cope. I don't have a problem with that, but only if you're offering a worthwhile service and have that value proposition to back it up. There are so many vendors in the autism industry, always room for one more, I suppose.



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06 Aug 2012, 5:03 pm

Doesn't sound like the response of anyone with any kind of a license to practice any type of therapy or counseling. If I were you I'd do a little research into the guy and find out what he's faked on his resume and then report him. I think in some places anybody may be able to call themself a therapist, but if he's saying he's licensed or has degrees and doesn't, then you've got him.


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lostinholland
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06 Aug 2012, 5:04 pm

My problem with his book was that 14 of the 36 pages had to with apartment hunting, including whether or not the apartment had crown molding! Not a huge concern for most parents of young adults with Aspergers. 2 pages were an appendix. Almost 10 pages were a description of Aspergers. that doesn't leave much room for the subject of the title and the reason I bought the book, ' launching a young adult with Aspergers'. What few pages were left had little that was of particular pertinence to Asperger's but sounded as though they may have come from his other e-book on oppositional teenagers and in any case, were general commonsense and repetitive.
My real problem was with the vicious nature of the attack on me by the author. I had not initiated the contact. I was ready to just forget about the book but he emailed me offering his coaching services and my reply to him is in my original post as is his subsequent response by which I was shocked.
His website may list him as a family therapist but a little background checking shows his that his main work appears to be as a parole officer with repeat offenders.



OliveOilMom
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06 Aug 2012, 9:29 pm

lostinholland wrote:
My problem with his book was that 14 of the 36 pages had to with apartment hunting, including whether or not the apartment had crown molding! Not a huge concern for most parents of young adults with Aspergers. 2 pages were an appendix. Almost 10 pages were a description of Aspergers. that doesn't leave much room for the subject of the title and the reason I bought the book, ' launching a young adult with Aspergers'. What few pages were left had little that was of particular pertinence to Asperger's but sounded as though they may have come from his other e-book on oppositional teenagers and in any case, were general commonsense and repetitive.
My real problem was with the vicious nature of the attack on me by the author. I had not initiated the contact. I was ready to just forget about the book but he emailed me offering his coaching services and my reply to him is in my original post as is his subsequent response by which I was shocked.
His website may list him as a family therapist but a little background checking shows his that his main work appears to be as a parole officer with repeat offenders.


Oh, he's a PO. That explains the response.

Find out where he works and report him to his boss. I don't think they would want him doing that and giving them a bad name.


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20 Sep 2012, 12:17 pm

That wasn't my experience at all with Mark Hutten. I think you must be exaggerating. I too spent $19 on his eBook. Best 19 bucks I ever spent! I do admit that he comes from a "tough love" school of thought. But that's what I needed. He was brutally honest with me (which stung a bit initially), but that's exactly what I needed. He basically told me that I was an over-indulgent parent -- and he was right (as much as I didn't want to admit it). I'm the one that put myself in the position of having a verbally abusive 26-year-old son (w/Aspergers) living in my house way past the time that he should have been out on his own. Without Mr. Hutten's support and advice, I would have never ever got him to be independent. My son currently lives with his cousin and they both work at Verizon. He's doing good. But it was a tough road. Anyway... I don't know how anyone can sell an eBook and provide ongoing coaching for only 19 bucks like Hutten does. I can tell that he's truly committed to helping parents like me. My son and I spent years going to "therapy"... I've lost count of the money I've spent. And I got more out of Hutten's eBook and coaching in 4 weeks than we did in counseling over the past 9 years. Highly recommend his program :)



lostinholland
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20 Sep 2012, 1:51 pm

I didn't exaggerate at all. If you read my first post you can see where I quote Mark Hutten verbatim; he was rude and insulting.
I have tried to confirm his credentials but have not been able to.
Forgive me for being a little suspicious Mr. 'Mole' but your first post ever to this forum is to say how wonderful Hutten's ebook and coaching is! Your style of writing resembles his.
I suppose it depends on where you're starting from but frankly, I already knew how to shop for an apartment, knew the definition of Asperger's and knew not to let anyone verbally attack me. That's why I found his book to be a waste of money. There was no substance to it. It's also why I chose to post a warning to other parents. No one who attacks a buyer for expressing disappointment with a purchase should be exposed to verbal abuse and no one prone to verbal abuse is any position to be coaching.



Last edited by lostinholland on 20 Sep 2012, 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wreck-Gar
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20 Sep 2012, 2:49 pm

Wow, I am assuming the book is self-published. Sounds like it's mostly filler.



21 Sep 2012, 8:18 am

I agree with melvin. I also bought his book (actually it's 4 ebooks - you failed o mention that). And I spoke with him twice on the phone - at length - for extra pointers. At 19 dollors, mr hutten clearly does this work out of a sense of mission rather than making money. It's true: no good deed goes unpunished. Why anyone would spend all this time trying to give him a bad name is beyond me.



21 Sep 2012, 8:41 am

MArk Hutten is a retired probation officer with a masters degree in counseling psychology who spends all his time working with children on the spectrum (and their parents). I've been a satisfied customer of his since April of '09. Have 3 of his ebooks and consult him regularly. Good man - good info!



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21 Sep 2012, 9:04 am

WARNING:

This book must be really bad. I've just deleted three fake member accounts and associated posts in this thread in support of this book. They were all made by the same person pretending to be three different members. It is quite possible the author made the posts here in this underhand manner to try to boost sales of his book.


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21 Sep 2012, 10:08 am

Thanks TallyMan. I thought the post I saw yesterday was suspicious and I almost posted a snarky reply then just decided to skip it. Glad we've got good Mods on this board keeping an eye out for this kind of garbage.