We went in expecting a commune. The paper trail led somewhere stranger: a psychotherapy practice that ended in disgrace.
The rumour
The story that brought us here was simple. Somewhere off a back road near Allenford, on Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula, sat an abandoned cult compound, left to rot after whatever happened inside it stopped happening.
The buildings fit the legend. They were empty, overgrown and strangely arranged for a country home. But when we started digging into who owned the place, there was no cult in the record. There was a doctor.
A psychotherapist with a country practice
The property belonged to a medical doctor who practised psychotherapy in Ontario for close to fifty years. He graduated from medical school in 1964 and held a full licence from 1969.
He saw patients in Toronto, at a practice he called an institute of “self healing.” He also saw patients here in Allenford. So this wasn’t only a weekend retreat. Therapy happened in this area, and quite possibly on this land.
How it unravelled
- 1964: Graduates from medical school and receives his first Ontario certificate.
- April 1995: The first warning. Ontario’s medical regulator finds him incapacitated and puts restrictions on his licence.
- August 1997: The restrictions are lifted. He returns to full practice.
- 2010: The regulator opens the first of two investigations into his practice.
- April 2012: Allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence are referred to a discipline hearing.
- January 2013: His licence is restricted for a second time.
- September 2013: At the hearing, he admits he failed to maintain the standard of practice. He is reprimanded and ordered to pay costs.
- October 10, 2013: He resigns and promises never to practise medicine again, in Ontario or anywhere else.
What investigators found
The details came out in an agreed statement of facts at the 2013 hearing. They describe a therapy practice where the line between doctor and patient had all but disappeared.
- Patients were hugged during sessions and encouraged to sit on his lap.
- In one case, he encouraged a patient to let him straddle her body.
- He spent personal time with patients outside of therapy.
- He did not assess or monitor patients’ mental state, and did not record diagnoses or treatment plans.
- He billed OHIP for sessions that were never properly documented.
In all, the regulator found that 25 patients had been exposed to risk of harm.
One sentence
In September 2013, the 72-year-old psychotherapist stood before a five-member disciplinary panel in a dark green blazer and yellow pants. Through the whole proceeding, he spoke only once.
“I am admitting I failed to meet the standards of the profession.”
At his disciplinary hearing, September 2013
The panel’s chair said the conduct brought dishonour on the doctor and on the medical profession. He was given five weeks to wind down his practice and transfer his patients’ care. After that, he was finished as a physician.
Walking through it now
Knowing all this changes how the place feels. The rooms we took for the leftovers of a commune may have been where patients came for help, and where some of them were let down by the person they trusted with their minds.
There was never a cult here. What happened was quieter than that, and in some ways worse.
Sources: the public register of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and news coverage of the September 2013 disciplinary hearing.
We have not named the former owner or published the property’s address. Out of respect for the people who were his patients, please don’t go looking for them. This property is private; don’t trespass.
