On Alan Colmes Show tonight, Jerry Mungadze said he would take Michael Bailey’s offer to submit patients for testing in Bailey’s lab.
Mungadze struck a defiant tone when challenged on his data and said he would allow Bailey to examine his brain work. Mungadze asks patients to color a map of their brain and then Mungadze interprets the colors. He claims to be able to tell if someone is gay by these maps.
We’ll be watching doctor.
On the show, Mungadze said homosexual attraction stems from distant same-sex parent relations, overprotective opposite parent relationships and/or sexual abuse.
I’ll post the audio as soon as it is available. The segment of interest is in the third hour of the program.
Category: reparative therapy
Wayne Besen and Jerry Mungadze Will Be on Alan Colmes Tonight
Get some popcorn and gather round the radio kids because this promises to be a rip roaring good time. Bring some crayons too.
Alan Colmes is hosting Wayne Besen and Jerry Mungadze on his show tonight which begins at 7pm. Wayne has more details on his site (apparently this segment will air at 8pm).
Mungadze is the Texas therapist who uses crayons to map the brain and says his ex-gay clients demonstrate their change via brain changes. On this blog, Michael Bailey challenged Mungadze to send his patients to Bailey’s lab and Besen has offered Mungadze $10k to rewire his brain.
UPDATE: Mungadze said on Alan Colmes that he doesn’t believe in conversion therapy. That might be a surprise to The Joni Show folks. He also said he uses brain wave assessment to determine sexual orientation. This is in contrast to what he said on David Foster’s show Pure Passion. There was no mention of any kind of brain wave assessment on the Pure Passion show.
Therapist Describes Colorful Method to Determine Changes in Gay Brains
Brain scans? We don’t need no stinking brain scans!
At least Jerry Mungadze doesn’t. Crayons and markers on a map of the brain tells him all he needs to know about personality and sexuality.
Last week, I posted about Mungadze’s appearance on the Joni Show telling Joni, Joe Dallas and David Kyle Foster that the brains of his patients go straight as the result of his approach. I wondered at the time how he could support that claim with brain assessment. It turns out that he fully filled in the audience of Foster’s Pure Passion on his methods. Hint: He doesn’t demonstrate how to read MRI results. The full version can be viewed on You Tube here and here. For a brief excerpt of part two, see below:
Note that patients color in a map of the brain and Mungadze reads the map like a projective test. Apparently, pink relates to femininity, red to anger/aggression, and so on. He says he can tell gay people apart from straights; and when they revert to heterosexuality, he can tell by how they color between the lines.
Who needs brain scans when you have crayons?
Mungadze’s is best known for his work in trauma and dissociative identity disorder (DID). His most famous patient is football star Herschel Walker, who wrote a book citing Mungadze’s help to overcome DID. Mungadze wrote the forward.
As for the theory of the brain revealing itself via colors chosen by patients, I know of nothing to support it. Projective tests in general are not reliable and this one in particular looks like a method invented by Mungadze without reference to research or validation.
The offer from Michael Bailey to send patients for real brain scans still stands. They can even bring crayons.
Ex-gay Therapist Says He Changes Gay Brains; Michael Bailey Says Prove It
Recently, on the Joni Show, ex-gay therapist Jerry Mungadze said his therapy helps rewire the brains of gay clients. Listen (see RWW for transcript):
If you want the full context, go to this segment on the Joni Show and hear the rest.
Mungadze did not say how he accomplished this or how he tested it. His website mentions neurotherapy but we are not given many specifics.
Being aware that Michael Bailey at Northwestern University has challenged ex-gay therapists to send clients to his lab for brain scans to assess change in sexual arousal patterns. I asked him if he was open to issuing the same challenge to Mungadze. As I expected he agreed enthusiastically. Essentially, the challenge requires that Mungadze send a client to his lab before and after therapy to see if sexual arousal patterns have changed. Mungadze can invite the press or any other observers if he wants to. Bailey and I have discussed this for several years and made these offers to others. Thus far, no one has taken him up on the offer. I wonder if Mungadze will.
Christopher Doyle Misinforms Public on New Jersey Sexual Reorientation Bill
Like Matt Barber before him, Christopher Doyle is misleading his evangelical peers about a New Jersey bill which would prohibit sexual orientation change efforts for minors. Here is what Doyle told Christian Post readers:
The bill is being dubbed the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act, because when sexually abused children are denied treatment to resolve the symptoms of trauma, criminals like convicted pedophile and former Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky, go undiscovered, sometimes for decades.
If this legislation becomes law, monsters like Sandusky will have more protection to victimize, because children who develop SSA as a result of abuse may never tell their parents. They may never tell their parents because organizations such as Garden State Equality, the largest gay activist group in New Jersey, are indoctrinating young people to believe that homosexuality is in-born, and if a child believes they are born gay, then the possibility of resolving homosexual feelings that result from sex abuse may never enter their mind.
Either Doyle has not read Senate Bill 2278 or he is deliberately withholding information from his readers. The New Jersey bill specifically addresses the concern about abuse. The entire bill will legislative comment is below.
SENATE, No. 2278
STATE OF NEW JERSEY, 215th LEGISLATURE
INTRODUCED OCTOBER 15, 2012
Sponsored by:
Senator RAYMOND J. LESNIAK, District 20 (Union)
Senator STEPHEN M. SWEENEY, District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
Senator LORETTA WEINBERG, District 37 (Bergen)
SYNOPSIS
Protects minors by prohibiting counseling attempts to change sexual orientation.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
AN ACT concerning the protection of minors from counseling attempts to change sexual orientation and supplementing Title 45 of the Revised Statutes.
BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. A person who is licensed to provide professional counseling under Title 45 of the Revised Statutes, including, but not limited to, a psychiatrist, licensed practicing psychologist, certified social worker, licensed clinical social worker, licensed social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist, certified psychoanalyst, or a person who performs counseling as part of the person’s professional training for any of these professions, shall not engage in sexual orientation change efforts with a person under 18 years of age.
b. As used in this section, “sexual orientation change efforts” means the practice of seeking to change a person’s sexual persuasion, including, but not limited to, efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to reduce or eliminate sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward a person of the same gender; except that sexual orientation change efforts shall not include counseling that:
(1) provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, including sexual persuasion-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices; and
(2) does not seek to change sexual persuasion.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill prohibits counseling to change the sexual orientation of a minor.
Under the provisions of the bill, a person who is licensed to provide professional counseling, including, but not limited to, a psychiatrist, licensed practicing psychologist, certified social worker, licensed clinical social worker, licensed social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist, certified psychoanalyst, or a person who performs counseling as part of the person’s professional training, is prohibited from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with a person under 18 years of age.
The bill defines “sexual orientation change efforts” as the practice of seeking to change a person’s sexual persuasion,including, but not limited to, efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to reduce or eliminate sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward a person of the same gender. The term, however, does not include counseling that: provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support, identity exploration and development, including sexual persuasion-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices; and does not seek to change sexual persuasion.
Please note the section which addresses the issue of sexual abuse:
…except that sexual orientation change efforts shall not include counseling that:
(1) provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, including sexual persuasion-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices;
The bill correctly separates sexual abuse recovery from sexual reorientation. If a person is confused in their attractions after a trauma, then recovery from the trauma may bring some clarity to sexual attractions. This facilitation of coping and identity exploration is allowed by the law. Furthermore, the law allows therapists to discuss issues surrounding abuse (“unlawful conduct”).
In his Christian Post article, Doyle takes his opponents to task for presenting false witness. However, it seems clear that he has misrepresented the bill in his comments. Oppose the bill if you believe you should but don’t do it for false reasons.