The short answer is verbally. Talk therapy is about discharging affects in a verbal context to take the pain out of action and into reflection.

I would assume there has to be a way to release that energy or resolve those feelings.

Thanks!

I must agree with you that much more research and documentation is needed in order to determine the validity of these techniques, above the anecdotal level, in helping men overcome unwanted same sex attraction.

Seriously, I am not even against controlled trials of most approaches. However, one problem is that none of these things have been examined well. When it comes to SSA, psychoanalytic therapy, some behavioral therapies, cognitive behavior therapy and group therapy has been used and modestly evaluated.

Mark and I try to avoid some of the problems in that by suggesting we focus on the total client rather than the SSA and help a person construct a valued identity. This is pretty standard therapy.

But we said we’re seeing parallels, not an identical match up in all cases etc.

And, please, don’t get me started on the way psych. professional bodies have long dealt with, ummm, “newly emerging therapies”. Thank heavens you lot don’t build bridges or aircraft 🙂

In contrast to your list, not all approaches to exgay therapy match up with the concerns you listed. This was one of the real problems from my vantage point with the CNN report. Richard Cohen is a convenient target for critics but he is not representative of all reorientation counselors, probably even all reparative therapists.

(Who on earth has ever canned worms? And why? But I digress.)

Without wishing to get into the story of any individual — anecdotes have a place (to find outliers that often raise further questions) — but it does strike me that the dynamics of the situations have some strong parallels to exgay therapy.

> not been evaluated or researched
> driven by anecdotal (and/or solicited) testimony
> reports critical of techniques used
> promotion of the immediate but no long-term follow-up
> re-labelling of (obvious) “failures”
> ditto, (not-obvious) “successes”
> triggering or tapping into other issues, possibly deliberately
> issues with boundaries
> generating inaccurate recollections
> issues of client choice and a (professional) therapist’s decision to participate
> fringe and non-professional “experts”, many of whom aren’t even qualified to drive a bus let alone mess around with such strong emotions from distraught people.

“I suppose people who have found the opposite will contest that but one cannot say that venting by beating things has a uniform outcome. There is potential for harm and worse outcomes.”

This sounded like an echo. It was: the APA/APsA/ACA et al statements on exgay therapy. Beating a phone book with a hose. A cushion with a tennis racket. Or beating up on ones own self.

Since we’re in the middle of doing it, we might just use your recent exgay guidelines as a template and see where that takes us.

“I looked for research to support these therapies”.

Yes, well, let’s not even go there… 🙂