Banning Therapy Applies a Bandage But Doesn’t Get to Heart of Real Issues
IHF Director Christopher Doyle Says Sexual Minority Youth Need Love, Not Legislation; New Research Project Explores Effects of SOCE
The call to ban “conversion therapy” around the nation has certainly made headlines recently. But one counselor says that move will not only limit the rights of minors and families, but simply ignore problems rather than addressing them head-on.
Executive Director of The Institute for Healthy Families, Christopher Doyle, has long advocated for therapy freedom and therapy equality, especially as activists fight harder to ban therapies for minors that help them deal with unwanted same-sex attractions and gender identity confusion.
Doyle and those like him who advocate for therapy freedom and therapy equality say these actions aren’t about protecting youth, but rather, about furthering a radical activist agenda.
“When it comes to sexual identity affirming therapy, our clients believe there are specific causes for their unwanted same-sex attractions and gender identity confusion. We are not ‘converting’ gay youth, as activists contend,” Doyle said. “We help them resolve those issues, affirm their sexual identity, and work with them to achieve their goals. Everyone has the right to resolve unwanted desires, attractions and unmet emotional needs. And if someone wishes to pursue therapy to resolve unwanted attractions, who are we to stop them and deny their right of self-determination?
“As a licensed therapist,” he continued, “I meet people where they are, to help resolve the issues that are causing the conflict. And I was once just like them. I used to experience unwanted same-sex attraction, but I resolved those issues, and today I’m married to my beautiful wife with five amazing kids.”
Doyle and his colleague, Dr. James Phelan, are working on the first study of youth who have undergone SOCE. Last month, they presented information about the new research at the 2015 Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity Conference and NARTH Training Institute. The research aims to discover the perceptions of adolescents undergoing, or those who have undergone, SOCE, as well as understand some of the possible influences (e.g. wellbeing; harm) it may or may not have.
“Make no mistake,” Doyle said, “reports, initiatives and calls for bans like these are not aiming to help anyone, but rather, seeking to further political and activist agendas. At the heart of this issue is not the well-being of minors, but instead, the denial that resolving unwanted same-sex attractions and gender identity conflicts is possible.”
Doyle is a former homosexual who knows that change is possible, and that efforts to ban these types of therapies are a way to take away options for youth who may be sexually confused or experience unwanted attractions or gender identity conflicts due to sexual abuse or trauma. He contends these efforts by activists are a part of a larger political agenda rather than a campaign to protect LGBT youth.
Once embroiled in a destructive and damaging homosexual lifestyle, Doyle says he is living his dream as a husband and father of five. And that change would not have been possible without the help of the therapy available to him and other supportive people and resources.
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