Center For Feeling Therapy - Rebellion and Closure

Rebellion and Closure

After nine years, the patients rebelled and the center in Los Angeles (along with its satellites in Boston, Honolulu, Munich and San Francisco) was shut down in November 1980 and the therapists were subsequently (1986–1987) banned from practicing in California as a result of lawsuits initiated about five years earlier by the patients against the therapists, accusing them of rape and other forms of mistreatment. The victims and some observers of the case were shocked and dismayed that criminal charges were not brought against the therapists, and the victims never received the apology they had hoped for from the founders. A lawsuit involving as many as 55 former patients that charged the Center with fraud, brainwashing, and physical and emotional abuse was settled on favorable terms in January 1986.