Comments on: Is there a gay agenda?

By: Throckmorton

Throckmorton — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:16:00 +0000

If you mean the O’Reilly thread on this blog, you are indeed correct. Maybe my biggest…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:14:00 +0000

Off topic, but you appear to have quite a fan over in the O’Rielly thread

Boo

By: grantdale

grantdale — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 02:52:00 +0000

I only have anecdotal stories 5-10 years out but this is the same as nearly all other therapists I know. No one is keeping that kind of information on clients unless it is via some kind of research project.

Indeed — one of my major bugbears about the therapy industry, full-stop.

This is why the anedoctal stories of success need be tempered by the anecdotal stories from those therapists who see these clients 5 or 10 years down the road (when everything falls apart, including those carefully created narratives). I think it highly unlikely a client would attend the original reorientation therapist at that point.

Privacy issues aside, I see this lack of follow-up (and often unwillingness in the profession to acknowledge the lack of reality testing caused by that lack of follow-up) as an environment rife for abuse. Anyway, my 2c.

And yes — familiar with Portsmouth OH… that would be where Nicolas Cummings came into view as the founding CEO of Amer.Biodyne (which eventually became Magellan.) You had kind words about Cumming’s recent book. Mildly interestingly, Cummings also founded CSPP where Nicolosi got his Pd.D. and where Epstein works/ed (at CSPP-AIU) apart from being the senior editor of Psychology Today; the publication (and editor) that created a ruckus after accepting an advert for Nicolosi’s book.

And that was just a 5 minute google about 2 years ago.

What a funny old “Six Degrees of Separation” World we live in… 🙂

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 18:21:00 +0000

I think Jody’s a “he.”

Boo

By: Throckmorton

Throckmorton — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 17:08:00 +0000

Don’t worry about Jody. She’s an angry nobody with nothing worthwhile to say or contribute.

Well, I don’t see anybody as a nobody and I am not particularly worried about her. Apparently she has plenty to say but I will agree it didn’t make much of a contribution. Clearly her mind is made up. Interesting that she keeps reading and posting.

By: Throckmorton

Throckmorton — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 17:02:00 +0000

No I am talking across the board from the beginning of my private practice to now. On campus, I am no longer director of counseling but in teaching full time. My private practice was open to all and was the largest within an 80 mile radius of Portsmough Ohio. It was purchased by a hospital about a year and a half before I came to Grove City. I only have anecdotal stories 5-10 years out but this is the same as nearly all other therapists I know. No one is keeping that kind of information on clients unless it is via some kind of research project.

By: grantdale

grantdale — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:42:00 +0000

“clients” — “students on campus”

Now I’m a little confused. I thought you didn’t have any such clients from GCC campus?

Given the client group, I’m also a little sceptical about the 90%+. Not the before and after per se, which I can well believe — heck, I get those results when I self-select clients as well! — but I’m thinking 5-10 (or perhaps even 20) years down the track.

And if you are pandering to a particular client group, I presume they would be delighted — particularly if they’ve done the rounds and faced therapists refusing to attempt reorientataion or therapists who only promise a low success rate.

I presume we’re only talking reorientation clients here.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:26:00 +0000

Don’t worry about Jody. She’s an angry nobody with nothing worthwhile to say or contribute.

By: Throckmorton

Throckmorton — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:22:00 +0000

I think the truth is that for the last two years more clients are calling because they know my writings. However, prior to that time, students on campus didn’t know anything about it. People seeing me from the community certainly did not. My views have been forming for 20 years, long before I was involved in anything like this publicly. I was influenced a lot by my supervisors during my master’s (Bob Lovinger) and doctor’s (Tom Sweeney) programs who had similar ideas as mine. Both men believed that clients teach the therapist about the world of the client and then therapist communicates empathy by working within that framework. I have carried that stance over into my work with people who are conflicted over sexuality. I do not think of this as reparative therapy since I do not have a preset view of the cause of the client’s experiences. I survey all of my clients during and post therapy and have a 90plus % satisfaction rating from clients dating back to my private practice in Ohio. This is the main thing I use to self-monitor.

By: grantdale

grantdale — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 09:55:00 +0000

Oh, naturist, That's right... wow, what a difference "al" makes. But you can understand why I therefore rapidly closed the National Parks Service page when my eyes scanned: [Thomas] Jefferson was a naturalist, a keen observer of the objects in the world around him. Back on topic... Communicating bias. While you may not (or try to not?) do so in the session -- how many of your clients appear on your threshold with no knowledge of who you are? I'd guess not many. You mentioned a client from State that sought you out because he was already familiar with your views. ?