An Ex-Gay Watch operative called NARTH earlier this week to determine if Bill Curnow’s western Michigan based LIFE Coaching International is a member.
I pray that one day my son will be on eHarmony.com looking for a wife. Do you have any therapists in the Grand Rapids area?
You know, that sorta story.
NARTH’s receptionist informed our caller there are no referrals for the entire state of Michigan and then proceeded to try and give out information for a therapist in New York.
Either NARTH needs to brush up on their geography or they’ve got a major membership gap in the Midwest.
To aid Michigan PFOX moms in finding NARTH therapists in New York, we have created this handy Google map:
Click the map to enlarge, or visit Google Maps for road directions.
I called NARTH today to locate any members in western New York or closer locales, but NARTH’s headquarters is unexpectedly small: They only keep office hours from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
Well NARTH’s headquarters is really just Nicolosi’s Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic.
What ever happened to Dr Sander Breiner? Surely after all those years at Uni.Michigan he must know hundreds, or even “hundreds of thousands”, of local exgay therapists…
I notice that the route outlined takes the traveller through part of Canada (Ontario no less) – North American home of nationally recognized same-sex marriage. Egads!
LIFE Coaching Intl takes PayPal. How new economy.
I don’t know about Michigan NARTH franchisees, but Wheaton, IL, is a lot closer to west Michigan than the Hudson River valley. And Mario Bergner, whom you might call ‘NARTH North’, does road trips to confab with the American Anglican Council elite in order to help the Episcopal Church with its problematic revisionists. Why, people very close to me hosted a meeting not so very long ago.
Sorry, I intented to tag Rev. Bergner since there is addition info about him on XGW.
Very true Jay — but Mario is, alas, also not a “qualified therapist”. Surprised?He is, however, M.Div. and a former actor; or a still active one, depending on one’s persepective :)He also achieved medical history and been ‘cured’ of AIDS. It must be very frustrating for him and his healing to have never seen any interest by a medical journal.—Phil /snort!”Sorry Mum and Dad — I was on my way to get healed, and I met this cute guy along the way… and married him instead. We’ve both joined the mounties and run away to the North.”
OMG!!!Now this we did nearly wet ourselves laughing over. Plainly a police force with a very campy sense of humour — just how gay is the very idea of an equine musical!(Hope they invited Nancy Reagan to attend the “Neigh” campaign launch.)
Most of Western New York is sparsely populated. But if there are any NARTH members who are active therapists (and not retired or non-therapeutic professionals) in the Buffalo-Rochester area, then the one-way travel time from Grand Rapids to Buffalo is seven hours via Canada, or much longer via Ohio. Travel time to Albany (where I am almost certain there are exgay-friendly therapists) is 12 hours.
Travel time from Grand Rapids to Wheaton, Illinois, is four hours. Are there pro-exgay therapists in Wheaton who agree with NARTH’s pretense of secularism?
Mike, I don’t know about that, but as a former Wheaton resident, I can tell you it’s home to Wheaton College (Billy Graham’s alma mater) which is VERY fundamentalist. NARTH could be a good fit for that environment so I wouldn’t be surprised to see NARTH having members in that environment. Wheaton does offer a psychology program. Here’s a link https://www.wheatongrad.com/?p=66.
Perhaps a coincidence of geography, but IFI and our “friend” Peter LaBarbera are headquartered in Glen Ellyn, about two or three miles from Wheaton College.
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Grantdale, let’s expand on your story and make it into a remake of a Jeannette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy musical! 😉
Mike, I live in Buffalo with my partner. I am reasonably confident there are no NARTH outposts here in western NY. I was, however, once refered by Exodus to the one local member ministry (unfortunately the leader dropped dead in an adult bookstore soliciting sex) and since the ministry was in transition I was then referred to a ‘Christian counselor’. The guy was the local ‘expert’ for Christians struggling with SSA but I’m pretty sure he was not affiliated with NARTH. My year of reparative therapy ended, BTW, when he urged me to read Cohen’s book and then suggested we bring my father in to practice holding therapy with me. I freaked out and within weeks I was on the road to becoming happily gay.
My BF and I would be happy to provide B&B accomodations to those ex-gays traveling from Michigan to Albany for therapy.
I checked into the geographic reach of NARTH myself several years ago.
It’s a small office in Encino, an ajoining neighborhood to me here in Studio City, CA.
It’s tiny, only a few people there at a time and their materials are avaliable only there or on Amazon. No mainstream book distributors sell them.
I think the N for national in their anacronym is more a fantasy ambition, than a reality.
Any of the religious anti gay groups that mention NARTH, only mention it as a resource and the names involved. They make it sound much larger and more influential in this country than it is. There really isn’t any large amount of peerage that accepts NARTH, nor is there any large commercial or widespread influence that’s got the endorsement of any secular or medically legitimate organizations.
Just anti gay groups cite NARTH and speak of it as if they are widespread and a gold standard on a par in general psychiatric and psychological circles.
More of a typical behavior, claims without substantiation.
One wonders why a man like Cohen, who is not only unlicensed, but has been cited for bad and inappropriate behavior, still is allowed to practice anything.
NARTH is in that category and they are simply getting away with it because they are in fact a very small operation.
“(unfortunately the leader dropped dead in an adult bookstore soliciting sex)”
Oh that is too funny.