At the start of this year the UK’s Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC) sent out a statement declaring that they do not support any form of therapy to help people overcome unwanted homosexual feelings, what they define as reparative or conversion therapies, and that no member of the ACC could offer them. This is a worrying change of position as, until the statement, the ACC was the only UK body that supported both the client’s right to choose such a therapy and the therapist’s right to offer this type of therapy. Already we have seen a therapist kicked out of the ACC due to their change of position.

The full statement is full of errors and misunderstanding and has the tone of having been dictated by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and the UK government’s new Professional Standards Authority (PSA), the body to oversee the “voluntary” register that the government is creating. In fact the statement appears, including from the testimony of those who have had their membership of the ACC revoked, to be based entirely on the desire to have ACC members allowed to join the new PSA register rather than to be based on proper consideration of the evidence.

At the current rate, it appears that soon no one in the UK will be able to receive counseling from a licensed mental health practitioner for unwanted same-sex attractions

In the ACC statement they refer specifically to reparative and conversion therapy as the means to overcome unwanted homosexual feelings. The reality is that, while the model of therapy from Dr Joseph Nicolosi is called Reparative Therapy, therapists who work with those with unwanted homosexual feelings neither attempt to repair or convert. Sexual Orientation Change Efforts, to use the term from the American Psychological Association, use counselling and psycotheraputic techniques to deal with the psychological wounds that contribute to the development of the same sex attraction just as they would use them to deal with the contributing psychological factors for eating disorders, low self-esteem, body image problems and other issues. To use, as the ACC and others such as the UKCP does, terms such as conversion therapy shows a deliberate misrepresentation of the methods used in and the aims of sexual orientation change efforts.

The ACC statement also includes the fact that “Counsellors / therapists do not make assumptions that the client is looking for a particular outcome”. Yet all therapy does this. If a client comes to me because they want to overcome an eating disorder, obsessive compulsive behaviour, low self-esteem what am I as a therapist to do? Am I to presume that they do not actually want to stop self-harming? That they do not want to break the cycle of binge eating and vomiting that is bulimia?

Am I to presume that there is something else or am I to work with the client on the issue that they want to work with? Not if it is unwanted homosexual feelings? In this case I am to presume that they are suffering from the effects of a hetero-normative society (whatever that means) and refuse to work with them on their desired outcome in line with their religious belief system. This position makes nonsense of the role of the therapist and of the authority of the professional body by breaching the core principle that underlines all counselling and psychotherapy – that we deal with the issues that the client wants to deal with.

This position is based on the false belief that by defining homosexual behaviour as unhealthy, by saying that overcoming unwanted homosexual feelings is possible, that we are calling homosexuality a disease or a sickness. Let us look though at another issue – the involvement of young people in violent gangs. We would call this as dangerous and unhealthy because of the psychological and sociological factors that drive a young man or woman to join a gang, but this does not mean that we are calling gang membership a mental disorder or disease. We would, if someone came and wanted out of a gang, work with them not only to leave the lifestyle but also to help them deal with the issues that led them to that lifestyle – yet to do the same with someone who either wants to leave the gay lifestyle or wants to prevent themselves going into it by dealing with unwanted homosexual feelings is unethical. This reality has passed the ACC by in the rush to be registerable.
Phelim McIntyre, N.L.P.M.P. is a professional counselor and life coach specializing in issues concerning masculinity, including sexual orientation, based in the South of England. He is an ex-homosexual, having come out at the age of 13  and now overcoming SSA. He has now been straight for over 10 years.

     Voice of the Voiceless Urges Maryland Delegates to Reject Politically Motivated HB 91

Today, Voice of the Voiceless applauded the Virginia General Assembly for rejecting HB 1135, which would take away the rights of parents and their minor children to seek out counseling from a licensed mental health provider to overcome unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA). The bill was rejected with a vote of 4-1 and failed to get out of committee.

Click here watch Christopher Doyle’s testimony in front of the Virginia Legislature

“This is a huge victory for the children of Virginia, especially those who have been sexually abused and seek help from a licensed mental health practitioner to resolve unwanted same-sex attractions that may have resulted from molestation,” commented Christopher Doyle, licensed clinical professional counselor and President of Voice of the Voiceless. “We are urging delegates in the state of Maryland to follow Virginia’s lead and also reject House Bill 91, which would ban minors in the state of Maryland from seeing a licensed mental health practitioner to resolve trauma that results in unwanted SSA, even if that minor voluntarily sought out the counseling.”

House Bill 91 states that Maryland has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well being of minors and should protect them against exposure to serious harm caused by sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE), yet, there is not one single peer-reviewed scientific study that has researched the outcomes of minors that have undergone SOCE therapy. On the contrary, a groundbreaking new book by Dr. James Phelan entitled “Successful Outcomes of Sexual Orientation Change Effort Therapy: An Annotated Bibliography” cites 100 years of scientific research documenting success and showing that therapy has helped some clients resolve their unwanted SSA and experience heterosexual attractions.

“This legislation makes unfounded claims that SOCE therapy is harmful and ineffective, while ignoring the reality that some minors who develop homosexual feelings have already been harmed by sexual abuse and will be unable to pursue help to overcome sexual confusion that may result from that molestation,” commented Doyle. “Children who have been molested and are confused about their sexual orientation as a result of the abuse will be denied access to therapy simply because it is not gay-affirming. In effect, a child will be raped twice – first by the perpetrator and then again by HB 91, which will prohibit the child from seeing a therapist to help them heal trauma and resolve unwanted SSA.”

Christopher Doyle sitting next to several gay activists who testified in favor of HB 1135 in Richmond, VA

House Bill 91 relies exclusively on policy statements from so-called “mainstream” mental and medical health organizations such as the American Psychological Association (APA), who formed a Task Force in 2009 made up exclusively of gay-identified and gay-affirming psychologists. Not only did the Task Force refuse to include psychologists and licensed psychotherapists that worked with clients undergoing SOCE therapy and/or were former homosexuals, but all members of this Task Force had previously gone on the record as opposing SOCE therapy for philosophical and political reasons.