The Center for Feeling Therapy

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Center for Feeling Therapy (Los Angeles, 1971 to 1980) as documented by the journalist Carol Lynn Mithers (Therapy Gone Mad, Addison-Wesley, 1994, as described in the Kirkus and Publishers Weekly reviews), the Cultic Studies Journal (1991) and the sociologist Marybeth F. Ayella (Insane Therapy, Temple University Press, 1998). This guide covers the psychotherapist's own work with the legacy of the Center; it does not teach, and gives no exercises from, feeling therapy.

The Center for Feeling Therapy was a residential psychotherapy community in Los Angeles, founded by the psychologists Joseph (Joe) Hart and Richard (Riggs) Corriere after they and other therapists left Arthur Janov's Primal Institute [source: Kirkus review of Mithers 1994; Publishers Weekly review of Mithers 1994]. Its stated idea of change was that people had become cut off from their "true" feelings and that breaking down socialisation and psychological defences would let them live from those feelings in the present [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly]. In practice, as Mithers and the Cultic Studies Journal document, therapy became a total way of life in which therapists controlled members' relationships, sexual partners, diet, pregnancies and contact with the outside world, and members were humiliated and physically assaulted [source: Kirkus; Cultic Studies Journal 8(1), 1991, p. 36]. The Center closed in 1980 amid patient revolt and lawsuits; former patients later received large judgments or settlements and the founders faced loss of their psychology licences (details in the Harm account) [source: Publishers Weekly]. It is a named institute and community, not a single technique; it is listed here because of the harm it caused.

Today the Center no longer exists. Its relevance to a psychotherapist is threefold: former members (now in later life) and their relatives may come to therapy; it is a teaching case in professional ethics on dual relationships, therapist power and therapy communities that take over a client's whole life; and the same pattern of total control by a therapist or therapy group can recur in other settings [synthesis]. A documentary, Going Sane: The Rise and Fall of the Center for Feeling Therapy, is listed for 2026, which may bring renewed attention and contact from former members [uncertain: not verified]. Domain III 098 points to this guide for the Center's history and harms.

2. Framework

The phases below are a working structure for the psychotherapist; session number and length follow the client's needs and the setting [synthesis].

Historical phases of the Center, in outline (for orientation only)

Origins (early 1970s): Hart, Corriere and other defectors from Janov's Primal Institute found the Center in Los Angeles in 1971 [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly; Cultic Studies Journal 1991 gives 1971 to 1981].
Growth and community (1970s): patients live communally in Los Angeles; the Center works as a surrogate "family"; a hierarchy forms with therapists holding increasing power; about 350 members at its height [source: Publishers Weekly; Kirkus; Cultic Studies Journal 1991]. The model is reported to have shifted several times (from primal work to "present-life" feelings, dream work and "psychological fitness") [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Hart and Corriere's book on feeling therapy, Going Sane (with Binder, 1975), is reported as its main published account [uncertain: not verified].
Collapse (1980): after the therapists were away for some weeks, patients began asking questions, including about money, and the community broke apart [source: Kirkus].
Aftermath (1980s): nearly a decade of lawsuits and licensing proceedings [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly].

Phases of the psychotherapist's work

Recognition and assessment. Goal: identify that a client (or a client's relative) was involved in the Center or a similar abusive therapy community, and map current symptoms, risks and needs. Move on when risk is assessed and the client has agreed goals [synthesis].
Safety and stabilisation. Goal: suicide-risk management, a clearly bounded therapy frame that contrasts with the abusive one, and basic daily functioning. Move on when the client can tolerate talking about the past without being overwhelmed [synthesis].
Processing and repair. Goal: trauma-focused work, grief for coerced life decisions (relationships, children, career), rebuilding self-trust and trust in therapy. Contributors to the ICSA clinician's guide describe running present-life building and past-trauma work in parallel rather than strictly in sequence [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017]. Move on when the client's life is organised around their own choices [synthesis].
Reintegration, advocacy and follow-up. Goal: family repair, peer support, optional complaints or legal steps, and the clinician's own professional duties. End with a planned taper and an open door [synthesis].

Format: individual outpatient therapy is the default; couple or family sessions when the client chooses them; peer support groups as an adjunct, not a replacement [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017 on support groups; synthesis].

3. Guiding principles

The psychotherapist never provides, supervises or refers to feeling-therapy methods or any similar confrontational, total-control programme. Meaning: no attack, "busting", humiliation, forced catharsis or regression work, whatever a client requests [synthesis].
No dual relationships. Meaning: no social, business, sexual, housing or employment ties with clients; APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships) applies [source: APA Ethics Code, https://www.apa.org/ethics/code].
The client decides about their own life. Meaning: never direct partners, marriage, pregnancy, diet, work or who the client sees; the Center's control of exactly these areas was central to the harm [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991; Kirkus; synthesis].
Transparency over mystique. Meaning: explain what you are doing and why, in plain terms, and invite questions; the Center positioned therapists as the arbiters of reality [source: Kirkus; synthesis].
Consent is ongoing. Meaning: obtain informed consent before and during every intervention, and the client may stop any exercise or topic at any time [synthesis].
No touch as treatment. Meaning: no physical confrontation or holding; touch, if any (e.g. a handshake), only with consent, with a right to refuse, never sexual [synthesis].
Pace safety before disclosure. Meaning: do not push for full accounts of abuse early; stabilise first [synthesis].
Normalise without minimising. Meaning: help the client see that intelligent, well-meaning people were drawn in and kept in by the group's methods, while taking the harm seriously [source: Temple University Press description of Ayella 1998, on susceptibility; synthesis].
Flexibility of method. Meaning: there is no single correct way to work with former members of abusive groups; draw on established trauma-focused approaches [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017].
Respect ambivalence. Meaning: former members may value friendships or experiences from the community alongside the harm; do not demand a single verdict [synthesis].
Neutral, non-moralising language. Meaning: use the client's own terms for the group, and describe conduct (control, assault, coercion) rather than labelling people [synthesis].
Safeguarding and reporting come first when a current risk exists. Meaning: know your licensing board's complaint route and your mandatory-reporting duties [source: California Board of Psychology, Filing a Complaint; synthesis].
Watch your own power. Meaning: seek supervision if you notice yourself becoming the client's main authority on what is real or right [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

The interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work; steps not drawn from a cited source are marked [synthesis].

4.1 Historical literacy for the clinician

Purpose: know enough about the Center to recognise references to it and to avoid re-enacting it; use before seeing a former member or when the name comes up [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Read a reputable account (Mithers 1994; Ayella 1998) rather than promotional material. (2) Note the key features: founders from the Primal Institute, residential community in Los Angeles, therapist hierarchy, control of relationships, diet and pregnancies, humiliation and physical assault, isolation from outsiders, collapse in 1980, lawsuits and licensing action [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly; Cultic Studies Journal 1991]. (3) Do not ask the client to educate you; learn first, then let the client tell their own version [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "I know a little about the Center from published accounts, but your experience is what matters here. Tell me as much or as little as you want."
Watch for: relying on sensational summaries; assuming every member had the same experience [synthesis].

4.2 Taking a therapy-history in every assessment

Purpose: detect earlier abusive therapy, which clients often do not volunteer [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask routinely about past therapy, groups and programmes, including residential or "community" therapy. (2) Ask what was helpful and what was harmful. (3) If the answer suggests total control, dual relationships or assault, note it and move to 4.3 [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Have you had therapy or been part of a therapy group before? Was there anything about it that felt wrong, or that you still think about?"
Watch for: guarded or minimising answers, shame, or the client checking whether you will judge them [synthesis].

4.3 Assessment of a former member

Purpose: map the after-effects. Former members of abusive groups can present with a range of symptoms after leaving [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017]; a documented former Center member became severely depressed and suicidal after returning home [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991].
Steps: (1) Standard intake: mood, anxiety, trauma symptoms, substance use, sleep, eating, physical health. (2) Life-impact domains: relationships ended or directed by the group, reproductive decisions, career and finances, family estrangement [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991; Kirkus]. (3) Current contacts with former members or leaders. (4) Strengths and supports. (5) Use validated measures you are trained in; do not reproduce items to the client from memory [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Some people find that the years in a group like that affected many parts of life: relationships, work, family, health. Which areas feel most affected for you now?"
Watch for: dissociation or shutting down when describing group sessions; slow onset of grief; physical-health problems that need medical review [synthesis].

4.4 Suicide-risk assessment and safety planning

Purpose: former members can be at risk; Kirkus reports members came to believe that leaving would be self-destructive, and one documented former member was suicidal after leaving [source: Kirkus; Cultic Studies Journal 1991].
Steps: (1) Ask directly about suicidal thoughts, intent and plans, using your service's standard framework. (2) Build a collaborative safety plan: warning signs, coping steps, people to contact, crisis lines. (3) Lethal-means counselling limited to safe storage and removal. (4) Give crisis resources: 988 (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland). (5) Arrange follow-up and escalate to urgent care where risk is high [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "When people leave a community that was their whole world, some have thoughts of not wanting to live. Have you had thoughts like that?"
Watch for: hopelessness about rebuilding a life, anniversaries, renewed media coverage, contact from the group [synthesis]. Never discuss methods.

4.5 Establishing a contrasting therapy frame

Purpose: make the therapy itself corrective: bounded, transparent, voluntary [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Explain fees, session length, confidentiality and its limits, and how to end therapy at any time. (2) State plainly that you will not direct their relationships, diet, work or family decisions. (3) State that there will be no social or business contact outside sessions, consistent with Standard 3.05 [source: APA Ethics Code]. (4) Invite the client to tell you if anything you do reminds them of the Center [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "You are in charge of the decisions in your life. My job is to help you think, not to tell you what to choose. If anything I do feels like what happened before, please say so; I will want to know."
Watch for: the client deferring to you on everything, or testing whether you will take control [synthesis].

4.6 Psychoeducation on coercive influence

Purpose: reduce self-blame by explaining how a group can take over judgment [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask permission to share information. (2) Describe, in outline, mechanisms reported at the Center: dependence on therapists as arbiters of reality, isolation from outsiders, public confession and humiliation, rewards and demotions in a hierarchy [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly]. (3) Mithers compares the Center's methods to Louis West's account of "debilitation, dependency, and dread"; present this as her framing, not a diagnosis [source: Kirkus]. (4) Link the information to the client's experience only as they choose [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Accounts of the Center describe ways it made people depend on the therapists and doubt themselves. Would it help to look at how that might have worked on you?"
Watch for: the client using the material to blame themselves further, or feeling lectured; keep it brief and collaborative [synthesis].

4.7 Restoring agency and choice

Purpose: rebuild everyday decision-making that the group took over [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Identify small decisions the client avoids or checks with others (clothing, food, plans). (2) Agree small self-chosen experiments. (3) Review what it felt like to choose. (4) Gradually extend to larger decisions [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "This week, what is one small thing you would like to decide purely for yourself?"
Watch for: anxiety or guilt after choosing; reassure that discomfort is expected and not a sign of being wrong [synthesis].

4.8 Present-life building alongside trauma work

Purpose: contributors to the ICSA clinician's guide describe a "double-helix" model (Whitsett) that pairs building the client's present life with working through past trauma [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017].
Steps: (1) Hold two agendas each session or across sessions: present-life goals (work, housing, relationships, health) and processing past events. (2) Let the client set the balance. (3) Return to present-life work when trauma work is overwhelming [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "We can split our time between what you want to build now and what still hurts from back then. How would you like to divide it today?"
Watch for: avoidance disguised as practical focus, or trauma work crowding out daily functioning [synthesis].

4.9 Trauma-focused therapy with established approaches

Purpose: treat post-traumatic symptoms. Contributors to the ICSA guide draw on Cognitive Processing Therapy, attachment and mentalisation approaches, EMDR and trauma theory [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017]. Current national guideline recommendations for trauma treatment should be checked in the guideline your jurisdiction uses (e.g. NICE) [uncertain: not verified].
Steps: (1) Offer only approaches you are trained and supervised in, or refer. (2) Obtain informed consent, including that the client may pause or stop any exercise. (3) Explain contraindications and stabilisation needs before any exposure-based component; screen for dissociation and current crises. (4) Avoid any method that relies on confrontation, catharsis or regression [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "There are well-studied ways to work with memories like these. I'll explain each option, and you can decide whether and when to try one. You can stop at any point."
Watch for: the client experiencing a structured method as being "made" to feel; check consent often [synthesis].

4.10 Grief for coerced life decisions

Purpose: address losses the group imposed: relationships ended or assigned, marriages dissolved, pregnancies ended at the therapists' demand, years without children or family contact [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991; Kirkus].
Steps: (1) Name the losses the client identifies, in their own words. (2) Allow grief, anger and ambivalence. (3) For reproductive losses, offer referral to specialist reproductive-loss counselling if wanted. (4) Explore meaning-making and what the client wants now [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like some of the biggest decisions of your life were made for you. What do you most wish had been your own choice?"
Watch for: guilt about decisions made under pressure; distinguish responsibility from coercion [synthesis].

4.11 Body image, eating and physical health

Purpose: Kirkus reports women at the Center were kept nearly starved to stay thin, and the Cultic Studies Journal reports therapists regulated diets [source: Kirkus; Cultic Studies Journal 1991]; after-effects may include disordered eating and physical problems.
Steps: (1) Screen for disordered eating and body-image distress without discussing weight targets. (2) Route to the client's physician for medical review and to a registered dietitian or eating-disorder service when indicated. (3) Eating-disorder support: the National Alliance for Eating Disorders. (4) Never advise on diet, fasting or supplements, and never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Some former members say rules about food and weight stayed with them for years. How is your relationship with eating and your body now?"
Watch for: restriction, compulsive exercise, shame about appearance; medical warning signs need same-day medical routing [synthesis].

4.12 Rebuilding trust in therapy itself

Purpose: the harm happened inside "therapy", so the client may distrust any therapist, or over-trust you [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Acknowledge openly that therapy was the setting of harm. (2) Invite regular feedback on the sessions. (3) Treat mistrust as reasonable, not as resistance. (4) Offer the client copies of their records and explain how complaints about you would work [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Given what happened, it would make sense to be wary of me. You don't have to trust me yet; we can see how it goes."
Watch for: the client hiding disagreement to please you; build in explicit check-ins [synthesis].

4.13 Family repair and reconnection

Purpose: family ties were often severed and marriages dissolved [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991]; a documented former member sought help to reconnect with family [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991].
Steps: (1) Explore which relationships the client wants to rebuild, at their pace. (2) Prepare for conversations: what to share, what to ask, how to handle relatives' anger or guilt. (3) Offer conjoint sessions if both parties choose them. (4) Accept that some relationships may not be repaired [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Who would you like to be back in touch with, and what would a first small step look like?"
Watch for: pressure from relatives to give a full account quickly; blame between relatives [synthesis].

4.14 Working with relatives of someone in a total-control therapy group

Purpose: support families concerned about a relative in a current group with similar features; ICSA runs family workshops [source: ICSA, About us].
Steps: (1) Help the family keep warm, non-judgmental contact rather than confrontation. (2) Help them gather facts calmly (who runs it, licensing status, living arrangements). (3) Advise against coercive removal of an adult; this is never part of the psychotherapist's work. (4) Address the family's own stress and grief. (5) If a minor is involved or there is evidence of abuse, follow child-protection and reporting routes [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Keeping a door open, even when you disagree, is often what makes it possible for someone to come back."
Watch for: family desperation leading to ultimatums or coercive plans; safeguarding concerns for children [synthesis].

4.15 Working with a client drawn to an intensive or totalising therapy community

Purpose: help a client make an informed choice before joining a programme with warning signs [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Explore what the client hopes to gain. (2) Discuss warning signs drawn from the Center's history: therapists controlling relationships, diet, pregnancies or contact with outsiders; communal living with therapists; public humiliation or physical confrontation; a ranked hierarchy of members; claims that leaving is dangerous [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly; Cultic Studies Journal 1991]. (3) Encourage checking practitioners' licences with the relevant board. (4) Respect the adult client's decision and keep the door open [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "It's your choice. Before you decide, could we look together at a few questions people find useful when weighing an intensive programme?"
Watch for: the programme discouraging the client from speaking to you or family; sudden urgency to commit [synthesis].

4.16 Working with former staff or junior therapists

Purpose: some former members held staff or therapist roles and may carry guilt or unresolved accountability [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Hold both their own victimisation and their actions in view. (2) Explore responsibility without collapse into shame. (3) Discuss repair options they may choose (acknowledgement, apology). (4) If they disclose ongoing harm to others or a current professional role, consider your reporting and safeguarding duties [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "It's possible both to have been harmed there and to regret things you did there. We can look at both."
Watch for: self-punishment, or minimisation of harm to others [synthesis].

4.17 Supporting a complaint, civil claim or other legal step

Purpose: some clients want accountability; former Center patients pursued lawsuits for nearly a decade [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly].
Steps: (1) Explore what the client wants (acknowledgement, prevention, compensation). (2) Explain that licensing boards handle complaints about licensees; for example, the California Board of Psychology accepts complaints from anyone about dual relationships, sexual misconduct, negligent conduct and therapy centred on the clinician's own needs, and reports of unlicensed practice, which it can refer to the District Attorney [source: California Board of Psychology]. (3) Prepare the client for the process: a formal investigation, possible testimony, and a disciplinary process that may take up to two years [source: California Board of Psychology]. (4) Refer to a lawyer for civil claims; do not give legal advice. (5) Keep accurate, factual records [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "You don't have to decide anything now. If you want, I can explain how a complaint to a licensing board usually works."
Watch for: retraumatisation during proceedings; schedule extra support around hearings [synthesis].

4.18 Referral to peer support and survivor organisations

Purpose: support groups can be therapy or an adjunct to it [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017]. ICSA describes itself as a network for people affected by psychological manipulation and abuse in "cultic and other high-control environments", offering recovery workshops for former members, family workshops, conferences and an e-library, with fee waivers for those in need [source: ICSA, About us].
Steps: (1) Describe options neutrally, as organisations describe themselves. (2) Let the client choose. (3) Review the experience afterwards [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Some people find it helps to meet others who were in similar groups. Would you like information about that?"
Watch for: a support group that itself becomes controlling; meeting other former members can also bring back painful memories [synthesis].

4.19 Duties when a colleague or institution uses similar practices

Purpose: protect current clients when you learn of a practitioner running a total-control therapy community, humiliating or assaulting clients, or entering dual relationships [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Document what you know and how you know it. (2) Consult your professional body's ethics service or a senior colleague. (3) Where appropriate, raise the matter with the colleague informally only if safe and if it would not compromise a client's confidentiality. (4) Report to the licensing board; boards accept complaints about dual relationships and unprofessional conduct [source: California Board of Psychology]. (5) Follow mandatory reporting for children or vulnerable adults. (6) Never refer clients to the practice [synthesis]. Standard 3.05 sets out the multiple-relationship standard [source: APA Ethics Code].
Example language (illustrative, to a client): "What you describe concerns me. Would you be willing for me to help you think about reporting it, and I'll explain what I am required to do?"
Watch for: your own reluctance to report a well-known colleague; confidentiality limits [synthesis].

4.20 Responding to renewed public attention

Purpose: books, documentaries and news can re-expose former members and relatives [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask whether the client expects to see or avoid new coverage. (2) Plan coping and supports. (3) Discuss media requests: the client may decline, and may set conditions on anonymity [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "If there's new coverage about the Center, how would you like to handle it?"
Watch for: spikes in symptoms or suicidal thoughts after exposure (see 4.4) [synthesis].

4.21 Clinician self-monitoring and supervision

Purpose: prevent drift into charismatic or controlling practice; the Center's founders were trained psychologists [source: Publishers Weekly; synthesis].
Steps: (1) Regular supervision. (2) Check for warning signs in your own practice: clients socialising with you or each other at your direction, you shaping their life choices, group practices that shame members. (3) Keep group work voluntary, bounded and confidential [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative, in supervision): "I've noticed this client asks me to make decisions for them, and I've started to. Can we look at that?"
Watch for: special status, flattery or devotion from clients [synthesis].

5. Handling problems

All guidance in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is given.

Client stuck in self-blame ("I chose to stay"). Revisit 4.6; separate choice made under coercion from free choice; note that accounts describe hundreds of people drawn in [source: Publishers Weekly; Kirkus].
Client defends the Center or misses it. Respect ambivalence; explore what was genuinely valued (friendship, belonging) and how to meet those needs now; do not argue.
Mistrust or testing of the therapist. Treat as understandable (4.12); invite feedback; keep the frame consistent.
Over-compliance. The client agrees with everything; ask for disagreement explicitly; offer choices rather than recommendations.
Overwhelm during trauma work. Pause; return to present-life focus (4.8); grounding chosen by the client; resume only with consent.
Missed sessions or non-adherence. Do not pressure or fine; ask what got in the way; the client keeps control of attendance, unlike the Center's punitive structure.
Rupture (the client feels controlled by you). Thank them; ask what you did; acknowledge and change it; repair openly.
Requests for confrontational, cathartic or regression work. Decline any method of the kind used at the Center; explain why; offer established alternatives (4.9).
Suicidal crisis. Follow 4.4; 988 (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
Contact or pressure from former leaders or members. Help the client set boundaries; if there is harassment, discuss reporting; the California Board notes complainants have the right to file without harassment and should tell the Board if harassed [source: California Board of Psychology].
Disclosure of sexual coercion. Respond with belief and without probing for detail; offer specialist sexual-violence services; discuss reporting options.
Physical-health or eating concerns. Medical routing (4.11); the National Alliance for Eating Disorders for eating-disorder support.
Your own strong reactions (outrage, fascination). Use supervision; keep the focus on the client's goals.

Harm account

What was actually done

Who, where, when. The Center was founded in Los Angeles in 1971 by Joseph Hart and Richard Corriere, who had led a group of therapists out of Arthur Janov's Primal Institute; it had about 350 members and ran until 1980 (the Cultic Studies Journal gives 1971 to 1981) [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly; Cultic Studies Journal 1991]. Mostly young adult patients lived together in Center housing in Los Angeles, and the Center functioned as a surrogate "family" [source: Publishers Weekly]. Branches in other cities are reported [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
How it was justified. Patients were told they were cut off from their true feelings and that their defences and socialisation had to be broken down; members came to see themselves as a community of "the sane" and an elite of psychologically superior people, and were taught that mental health could only be reached by living in the therapeutic community [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly; Cultic Studies Journal 1991].
What patients experienced. In plain terms, as the sources describe it: therapists, some of them described as amateur, ranked patients in a hierarchy and gained increasing power over them; patients were made to confess publicly and were humiliated in front of the group ("busted"); patients were physically assaulted by therapists; harsh, prolonged confrontations left many feeling worthless; therapists decided what counted as reality [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly]. Therapists chose patients' sexual partners and controlled their sexual lives, regulated their diets (women were pressed to stay very thin, Kirkus reports nearly starved), and demanded that pregnant patients have abortions; no children were born in the community during its existence [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991; Kirkus]. Marriages dissolved, family ties were cut, and members lost contact with the outside world [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991; Kirkus]. Members came to believe that leaving would be self-destructive [source: Kirkus]. Fines for poor performance, unpaid labour and sleep deprivation are also reported [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
An example of the pattern. A woman who came for a short programme for marital problems did not return home; her husband was not allowed to live with her, the couple were pressed to take other partners, her reluctance was labelled dependency, and she was severely depressed and suicidal when she eventually returned home [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991].
How it ended and what followed. When the therapists were away for some weeks in 1980, patients began asking questions, including where the money had gone, and the community broke apart; nearly a decade of lawsuits followed [source: Kirkus]. Publishers Weekly reports that the plaintiffs received about $7 million in judgments, that courts found the leaders were driven by greed and a desire for power, that Hart lost his licence to practise psychology, and that Corriere moved into corporate counselling [source: Publishers Weekly]. A 1986 settlement of about $6 million and the loss of psychology licences by the founders, reported by the Los Angeles Times in 1987, are described in secondary summaries [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. No criminal charges are reported [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

How it caused harm

Psychological: depression, worthlessness and suicidality after leaving [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991; Publishers Weekly].
Physical: assaults by therapists; diet control and pressure towards thinness [source: Kirkus; Cultic Studies Journal 1991]. Reported lasting physical injuries from overwork and sleep loss [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
Reproductive and relational: abortions demanded by therapists, years without children, partners assigned and marriages broken up, families cut off [source: Cultic Studies Journal 1991; Kirkus].
Loss of autonomy: therapists took over decisions about relationships, bodies and reality itself, leaving former members to rebuild judgment and self-trust [source: Kirkus; synthesis].
Mechanism, as Mithers frames it: methods resembling Louis West's account of brainwashing (debilitation, dependency and dread) [source: Kirkus]. Ayella's sociological study presents the Center as a case of how susceptible people can be to group thinking of this kind [source: Temple University Press description of Ayella 1998].
Professional: the abuse took place under the authority of licensed psychology, which damaged former members' trust in therapy [source: Publishers Weekly; synthesis].

Recognising it today

Warning signs in any therapy, group or programme, drawn from the Center's history [source: Kirkus; Publishers Weekly; Cultic Studies Journal 1991; synthesis]:

therapists living with clients, employing them, or running their social life (dual relationships; APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05) [source: APA Ethics Code];
therapists directing partners, sex, marriage, pregnancy, diet, weight, clothing, work or contact with family;
public confession, group humiliation, shaming or any physical confrontation presented as therapy;
ranks or levels of clients, with promotion and demotion by the therapists;
claims that only this community is truly healthy and that leaving is dangerous;
isolation from outsiders and discouragement of second opinions;
secrecy about money, or pressure to give money or labour. In assessment, a client may describe such a setting without naming it; ask about past therapy routinely (4.2).

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

Supported care: individual, bounded, consent-based therapy using established trauma-focused and other approaches the clinician is trained in; contributors to the ICSA clinician's guide draw on Cognitive Processing Therapy, attachment and mentalisation approaches and EMDR, with flexibility and attention to present-life rebuilding [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017]. Check the trauma guideline your jurisdiction uses (e.g. NICE) [uncertain: not verified].
Survivor and family support: ICSA offers recovery workshops for former members and workshops for families, conferences, an e-library and fee waivers [source: ICSA, About us]. Support groups as an adjunct [source: ICSA review of Goldberg et al. 2017].
Reporting and legal routes: complaints about a licensed psychologist go to the state licensing board; in California the Board of Psychology accepts complaints about dual relationships, sexual misconduct, negligence and therapy centred on the clinician's own needs, and reports of unlicensed practice [source: California Board of Psychology]. Civil claims require a lawyer. Mandatory reporting applies to children and vulnerable adults.
Crisis resources: 988 (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
For the clinician: see sections 4.2 to 4.21; never use confrontational, cathartic or total-control methods; keep to Standard 3.05 [source: APA Ethics Code].

Sources

Web sources:

Books and articles cited:

Mithers, C. L. (1994). Therapy Gone Mad: The True Story of Hundreds of Patients and a Generation Betrayed. Addison-Wesley.
Ayella, M. F. (1998). Insane Therapy: Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult. Temple University Press.
Goldberg, L., Goldberg, W., Henry, R., & Langone, M. (2017). Cult Recovery: A Clinician's Guide to Working with Former Members and Families. International Cultic Studies Association.
Hart, J., Corriere, R., & Binder, J. (1975). Going Sane [uncertain: not verified].
Timnick, L. (1987, 30 September). Psychologists in "Feeling Therapy" lose licenses. Los Angeles Times [uncertain: not verified].
Timnick, L. (1986, 21 September). Inquiry targets disputed psychotherapy methods. Los Angeles Times [uncertain: not verified].

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