Reparative or Conversion Therapy (also known as Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE)) refers to counselling and psychotherapy that attempts to eliminate an individual’s sexual desires for members of their own sex. Until 1973, homosexuality was considered a curable mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association(APA). The APA and other reputable organizations now consider conversion therapy to be unnecessary, ineffective, and potentially dangerous. Despite the APA’s, (and several other major medical groups) denouncement of these treatments, there remains health professionals and paraprofessionals who continue to engage in attempts to convert homosexual men and women to heterosexuality.
Conversion therapy, is prefaced on the idea that homosexuality is a mental defect. It involves a wide range of treatments including psychoanalysis, hypnosis, reframing of desires, social skills training to induce gender typical behavior and aversion behavior therapy through systematic desensitization by inducing pain during arousal. There are a number of concerns that have emerged about the persistence of conversion therapy. Firstly, empirical studies have failed to show that conversion therapy works. In 1990, the APA’s executive director for professional practice stated, …show more content…
In many instances the parents who belong to certain religious sects sects view homosexuality as a sin. These parents will likely be relieved to learn that there are therapies that claim to be able to reform their same-sex-oriented children. These parents while well-meaning, will be subjecting their children to therapy that has been rejected by every major medical and mental health organization in the country. A 2015 case found that a Jewish group providing so-called conversion therapy violated the New Jersey’s consumer fraud protection laws by claiming it could cure LGBT persons using therapies that have been discredited by the medical
Conversion therapy, is prefaced on the idea that homosexuality is a mental defect. It involves a wide range of treatments including psychoanalysis, hypnosis, reframing of desires, social skills training to induce gender typical behavior and aversion behavior therapy through systematic desensitization by inducing pain during arousal. There are a number of concerns that have emerged about the persistence of conversion therapy. Firstly, empirical studies have failed to show that conversion therapy works. In 1990, the APA’s executive director for professional practice stated, …show more content…
In many instances the parents who belong to certain religious sects sects view homosexuality as a sin. These parents will likely be relieved to learn that there are therapies that claim to be able to reform their same-sex-oriented children. These parents while well-meaning, will be subjecting their children to therapy that has been rejected by every major medical and mental health organization in the country. A 2015 case found that a Jewish group providing so-called conversion therapy violated the New Jersey’s consumer fraud protection laws by claiming it could cure LGBT persons using therapies that have been discredited by the medical