The Independent, UK is reporting on the number of therapists in the UK attempting so-called conversion therapy for homosexuality despite the evidence that the process is ineffective or even harmful:
In Britain today therapists are trying to convert gay men and women to heterosexuality. I know this, because for several months I infiltrated this network of therapists and put myself – a happy, “out” gay man – through treatment.
According to a report by Professor Michael King of University College London, one in six UK psychiatrists and psychotherapists have sought to reduce or change a patient’s sexual orientation. And with the help of the American conversion therapy movement, practitioners here, along with a clutch of international “conversion” organisations, are becoming co-ordinated and unified. They plan to gain credibility, university backing and government funding. In some cases, the NHS is even paying for the treatment.
This is despite the fact that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – psychiatry’s glossary of conditions – 36 years ago. And despite much evidence that such practices are damaging and ineffective.
Read the article for the various treatments the author investigated.