Myths about conversion therapy harm same-sex oriented people

I am the bogeyman. Yes, according to LGBTQ+ activists and their sympathizers, I am the terror that haunts their dreams.

What am I? I am a psychotherapist and offer help to people who are exposed to unwanted homosexual eroticization and want to change their sexual inclinations and behavior. The activists call me a “conversion therapist” and expect that to be enough to demonize me.

My supervillain story is that God placed a burden on me in college as I saw my fellow students struggling with unwanted homosexual attraction and behavior. These men were in a bind. If they told our Christian college administration, they risked being disciplined for violating the school’s code of conduct. If they sought counseling off campus, they were often paired with a therapist who claimed to be Christian but did not affirm their values ​​and tried to convince them to identify as gay and explore homosexual relationships.

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But I couldn’t just ignore this problem. No, instead I made it my mission to read the books of leaders of the ex-gay movement, like Frank Worthen, Andrew Comiskey, Joe Dallas, and others. And after interning at a counseling practice that specialized in all kinds of sexual issues, I started a support group at my alma mater, which I led for eight years. The group consisted of both men with heterosexual sex addiction and men with unwanted homosexual attraction, all processing past pain. We shared courageously and honestly, responded with acceptance, destroyed shame, and encouraged each other to move toward healing and growth.

After leading this group for several years, I went to graduate school to become a psychotherapist so I could do this kind of work full time. In June 2015, my graduate school kicked me out of the program for committing the heinous crime of helping men with unwanted homosexual tendencies. I was four weeks away from graduating. They told me I was a threat to the field of psychotherapy.

Those words haunt me like a ghost, even though I have since graduated and received my license as a professional counselor. And I have no shortage of clients, most of whom are men and women, overcoming addiction to unwanted same-sex eroticization. I am not ashamed of my work. I see the good fruits all the time. And that is why I am very open about it on my social media platforms. This has cost me job opportunities and made me the target of frivolous complaints from complete strangers to my old employer and my state board. With the passage of various bans on “conversion therapy,” I am constantly at risk of being ostracized.

My opponents justify their witch hunt against me and my colleagues around the world by saying that they have successfully indoctrinated the world with certain myths about our work. Perhaps they even believe these lies themselves and fall victim to their own propaganda. Surely the masses, desperate to be seen as compassionate and “on the right side of history,” have swallowed these myths. They trust the ever-so-reliable and objective institutions (sarcasm) like the two APAs, the ACA, the WHO, etc., all of which parrot the same line: that so-called “conversion therapy refers to a range of dangerous and discredited practices intended to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.”

This mantra is supported by at least two myths: the myth of harm and the myth of ineffectiveness. The myth of harm claims that all forms of counseling (or pastoral care, or self-help) to explore changes in sexuality are inherently harmful. The myth of ineffectiveness holds that any attempt to change sexuality is impossible. Both myths are rooted in what I call the “sexual orientation paradigm,” the idea that all people are categorized by supposedly innate and unchangeable sexual arousal patterns that are inherent in one’s identity. Another myth that is often assumed is the myth of coercion, which assumes that people—especially minors—only seek sexual counseling because of external pressure or coercion.

Because these myths are deeply embedded in the collective psyche of our culture, the privileged class in our post-sexual revolution society can easily suppress dissent. They can justify violating your rights by claiming to protect helpless victims from so-called perpetrators of something they portray as barbaric. The LGBTQ oligarchy holds all the institutional power in the US (and most of the Western world). But as long as they perpetuate the myth that I am a monster and my clients are victims, they can strike and appear virtuous doing so.

The truth is that the bullies who oppose my work are not motivated by compassion. It is resentment and contempt for the sexual norms and normative sexual development that God has established and communicated in Scripture and general revelation. They want to ensure that for people with feelings, ideas, and experiences that deviate from God-ordained norms of sexuality, there is only one path: full consent. Any response—no matter how safe or successful—that encourages people to align their sexual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with the higher principles of God’s plan and purpose for sex and marriage is rejected out of hand. These ideologues literally believe that they are oppressed by normalcy.

Yes, I am suggesting that opposition to counseling for same-sex attraction is ideologically motivated and driven, not by a preponderance of evidence showing that seeking counseling to change sexuality is inherently coercive, harmful, or ineffective. The truth is that those in power have no genuine interest in the truth about our clients’ situations, worldviews, and motivations for seeking counseling; what we actually do in therapy, nor the results. They decided decades ago.

That’s why they don’t want you to know the truth either. And so there is a war for information and freedom of therapeutic choice and thought. Remove all other options and the field is free of competition. Begin indoctrination into the new sexual orthodoxy.

In July 2019, at the behest of a UK gay activist, Amazon wiped its website of books it had sold by Joseph Nicolosi, the founder of authentic reparative therapy, as well as books by other respected leaders of the ex-gay movement such as Joe Dallas and Anne Paulk (now Anne Edward). It was a modern-day book burning. This incident inspired me to respond with a video series on my YouTube channel PsychoBible, titled Myths and misunderstandings about “conversion therapy”the basis for this particular commentary. As you might expect, YouTube just recently deleted part of this series, so you’ll have to go to one of my alternate platforms (Rumble.com or Odysee.com) to watch all the parts.

I plan to write a few articles dispelling the myths surrounding sex therapy. Maybe we’ll find out that I’m not the bogeyman after all.