A survey has found that 17 percent of therapists in the UK have offered a client therapy to “reduce” same-sex attractions. Four percent said they would try to “change” a patient’s sexuality if asked.
The findings are from a study carried out by a team at University College London, whose ongoing research into conversion therapy is being documented online at www.treatmentshomosexuality.org.uk.
The reseachers, led by Dr Graham King, questioned 1,400 mental health professionals. They described the number willing to offer help for gays to become straight as “a significant minority,” and concluded that the lack of evidence for change made such therapy “unwise or even harmful.”
The study was published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, and is available to read online in full.
That really is a shockingly high number considering that there is no convincing evidence that anyone can or has actually changed their sexual orientation from gay to straight as a result of any type of therapy. I really am dumbfounded by this number. I wonder how many of these practitioners are older and when they last engaged in this futile exercise.