Month: March 2007

Certified Sexual Reorientation Coach

In Richard Cohen’s most recent media performance, he mentioned that he is a certified sexual reorientation coach. I looked this up on his website and learned that Richard is the lead certifier and, at present, probably the only CSRC in the world. That may soon change however, as the training program to become a CSRC begins this month and is open to “counselors, clergy, coaches and ministry leaders.” Becoming a CSRC involves the following:

The Counselor’s Training Program is for therapists, coaches, clergy, and ministry leaders who wish to assist those dealing with unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA). Training includes:

• Evaluating and developing a treatment plan for clients

• Four stages of healing unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA)

• Cognitive and inner child approaches to healing

• Creating affirmations for healing gender identity

• Psychodynamic/Therapeutic techniques for greater healing:

Focusing / Voice Dialogue / Bioenergetics / Psychodrama /

Family Constellations / Holding & Healthy Touch

• Assisting clients in establishing healthy friendships and mentors

• Understanding the meaning of sexual fantasies and masturbation

• Working with families: Attachment Therapy

• Strategies for family interventions and relational healing

• Preparing SSA men and women for dating

• Taking care of the therapist, preventing burn out

The total costs for the four weekends is $1400. It is not mentioned on the website, but I suppose the cost of the tennis raquet is not included in the fee. Pillows are probably included. I suspect a lighter version of this training will be offered for those who want to be an Assistant Coach.

It is clear that no one holding the CSRC “credential” could meet the sexual identity therapy guidelines. We developed the guidelines to help the public discriminate among approaches and we specifically discourage Cohen’s methods. The public needs some way to know what they are getting themselves into. In a reverse manner, the CSRC may actually serve a purpose. If a directory of CSRCs ever comes out, I will buy it so I can know who to avoid.

UPDATE: The term “certified sexual reorientation coach” has disappeared from Richard Cohen’s website. It is here in a Google cache for awhile. Mr. Cohen has responded to the fallout from his Daily Show performance which I will post soon.

Richard Cohen on the The Daily Show

It’s like deju vu all over again. Wanna be a CSRC? I kept wondering when Donnie Davies was going to appear.

UPDATE: 3/22/07 Randy Thomas of Exodus weighs in on the Daily Show appearance. The comments on his posts are interesting as well.

Also, You Tube has taken the video down as a result of their dispute with Viacom over copyrighted content.

Accurate public statements: A Montel post-mortem

Since last Thursday’s Montel Williams Show, I have called show producers and emailed the show several times asking them for research to support a statement made by psychiatrist Alicia Salzer in reference first to Alan Chambers’ story and then to change therapies in general. She said:

This is marketing; this is not science: Science has shown us that 96% of people cannot change and along the way, absorb an enormous amount of self-loathing, a lot of confusion, a lot of family conflict, so I know the harm.”

I am completely aware that harmful things have been done and continue to be done in the name of reparative therapy, but Salzer’s statement about a rate of change cannot be supported. The closest thing to a study that might yield a 4% change rate is Shidlo and Schroeder’s qualitative study of those who said they were harmed by some type of effort to change. This was not a study that could test hypotheses about rate of change for any population. At present, science cannot say much about such change, and “it” surely cannot say what Dr. Salzer did. As noted, I have repeatedly contacted the Montel show about this statement with no response.

All mental health professionals are bound to make tentative statements about research findings and to take care to separate opinion from “science.” Consider this statement from the physician code of ethics:

Section 7

A physician shall recognize a responsibility to participate in activities contributing to the improvement of the community and the betterment of public health.

1. Psychiatrists should foster the cooperation of those legitimately concerned with the medical, psychological, social, and legal aspects of mental health and illness. Psychiatrists are encouraged to serve society by advising and consulting with the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of the government. A psychiatrist should clarify whether he/ she speaks as an individual or as a representative of an organization. Furthermore, psychiatrists should avoid cloaking their public statements with the authority of the profession (e.g., “Psychiatrists know that…”).

I feel pretty sure that Dr. Salzer believes she is acting to better community and public health. However, I do not believe exaggeration is the way to accomplish this end.

UPDATE: 3/20/07 – I received a call from Melissa Borusso, producer of the Montel Show. She left a voice mail saying that, as suspected, Dr. Salzer was relying on the study of Shidlo and Schroeder for her statistics.

So if I went on national television and said that science has shown us that 66% of gay males and 44% of lesbians can achieve good heterosexual functioning through reorientation therapy (from Spitzer’s study), what do you think the reaction would be? Would there be a You Tube video up denouncing my misuse of research? I would hope so…

Freud on homosexuality: Letter to a mother

Commenters on recent posts have mentioned Freud’s views of homosexuality. I am looking for an easy link to the section in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality where he discussed homosexuality. In the mean time, I thought I would post his letter to a woman who wrote him about her homosexual son.

Dear Mrs. X (April 9, 1935)

I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual. I am most impressed by the fact that you do not mention this term yourself in your information about him. May I question you, why do you avoid it? Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function produced by certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.

By asking me if I can help, you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way, we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies which are present in every homosexual, in the majority of cases it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual. The result of the treatment cannot be predicted.

What analysis can do for your son runs in a different line. If he is unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, inhibited in his social life, analysis may bring him harmony, peace of mind, full efficiency, whether he remains a homosexual or gets changed. If you make up your mind that he should have analysis with me (I don’t expect you will!!) he has to come over to Vienna. I have no intention of leaving here. However, don’t neglect to give me your answer.

Sincerely yours with kind wishes,

Freud

P.S. I did not find it difficult to read your handwriting. Hope you will not find my writing and my English a harder task.

Source:

Freud, Sigmund, “Letter to an American mother”, American Journal of Psychiatry, 107 (1951): p. 787.

Pictures of the original letter are here and here.