Summer 2021

The Therafields  Psychotherapy Community:  Promise,  Betrayal,  and  Demise  (2020)
Brenda M Doyle, PhD  

The Therafields Psychotherapy Community, by Academy for Lifelong Learning member Brenda Doyle, is a compelling cautionary tale that unfolds in and around Toronto from the 1960s to 1980s. During that historical period, tens of thousands of communes proliferated in North America and Europe, each with their own coalescing purpose. The Therafields community was an example of this phenomenon but was unusual in its psychotherapy focus and methods.  Individual therapy could lead to group therapy and for some, living in Therafields-owned houses. At its high point the organization had about 1,000 participants, many living in 35 large houses in the Annex area of Toronto and at five farm properties.

Brenda Doyle’s connection with Therafields began in 1966. At the recommendation of a trusted priest, she met with Lea Hindley-Smith, a counsellor with a burgeoning practice in the Annex area. Two years earlier, Father Gregory Baum and a coterie of his graduate students had formed a group with Lea, one of which a year later became her first “learning group.” By 1966 some of these men and women were beginning to take on clients of their own, under Lea’s supervision.

Lea Hindley-Smith had few formal qualifications beyond her eclectic life experiences and psychology readings, which she had leveraged into a counselling practice. Self-taught, she was a compelling personality who tangentially had quite a knack for acquiring real estate. Some who met her early on recall her as “intelligent, insightful, compassionate and very encouraging to her counselling clients.” For Brenda and many others, their initial therapy was morphing into a longer commitment. They felt the attraction of Therafields as it evolved: here was a place to live with others, developing friendships, a sense of belonging and purpose, and working with good people. Throughout was the appeal of learning more deeply about oneself and others from Lea.

For the next 17 years, Brenda was part of Therafields. She is now a registered psychologist in  private practice, bringing a professional lens to its story, noting that with so many moving parts  shifting over two decades, an entity like Therafields can be hard to pin down—while something  was going on in one place, something completely different would be going on in another. Each chapter examines an angle on Therafields and as the chronology unfolds, Brenda weaves insightful observations on the incremental development of dysfunction that eventually took it apart. A variety of perspectives emerges from the 47 interviews conducted with former Therafields members at every level.

Some members shared positive experiences with caring, earnest therapists and enjoyed the comradeship while working at the farm properties or those in the city. But at the centre of  things was the growth of Lea’s increasingly unassailable position as “Teacher, Supervisor and Ultimate Leader.”  By 1975 she was actively discouraging outside friendships and sources of learning. Loyalty to her was becoming highly valued; expressing disagreement was increasingly risky. As one interviewee explained, anyone who disagreed with Lea would be “therapized,” subjected to a gruelling group therapy confrontation (prompted by Lea but usually led by Lea’s supporters), unearthing some pathology within the person. The messenger was taken apart and the message swept aside.

Other darker threads included a lack of boundaries. A number of interviewees remembered their discomfort when earlier, Lea began a relationship with the husband of one of her therapy clients and then placed him in a vaguely defined, but generously salaried, position at Therafields. This went unchallenged. Like the “boiled frog” scenario, where the trouble heats up incrementally and goes unnoticed until it’s too late, a cult-like atmosphere was building. Many did not perceive the drift, despite feeling uneasy at times. Members recall just thinking there was something wrong with themselves.

But cracks were appearing, which would become fissures from the mid-1970s on. There were mounting demands from some working therapists to open up the books and provide financial accountability. Early on Lea had appointed her younger son and loyal supporter to well salaried positions managing the finances. In 1981 therapists left to establish their own practices. For them but also other community members, the pressure to work on even more property- enhancement projects was no longer met with enthusiasm. Many who had volunteered much of their time and labour over the years to transform these properties wanted to move forward with independent lives.

Moreover, Lea’s elder son Malcolm was running a private school for children of Therafields parents, charging onerous tuition. In a devastating chapter, the author outlines the signs of serious trouble at the school. In one example a parent had to get a judge’s court order to “restore” their child to its father. Yet the school continued to operate until Malcolm was arrested, convicted and jailed for crimes against two underage children in his care. Darker threads had become, as the author described it, a path into “the heart of darkness.”

This nuanced, multi-faceted unpacking of the Therafields story is recommended as an instructive contribution to the social history of Toronto and specifically of early efforts to address mental health needs. The incrementally downward trajectory of Therafields underscores how the human drama inherent in any form of institution can overwhelm its original purposes. Therafields evolved in a particular period of history, in response to the need for mental health services. For many young people, their desire for a sense of community and structure, friendship and support was met. However, unaddressed dynamics gradually snuffed out an ambitious organization that became hobbled, unable to develop within the original values of its founders.

Reviewed by Ellen O’Donnell Walter