Pioneer in reparative therapy's son continues his father's legacy

DETROIT, (ChurchMilitant.com) - California is pushing three laws that will prevent children and adults with same-sex attractions or gender confusion from setting personal therapy goals unless they fit the gay agenda's narrative. 

Church Militant spoke with Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr., the clinical director of the Breakthrough clinic, to learn how California's proposed ban would affect his clients. Dr. Nicolosi, Jr. is the son of the late Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, Sr., the inventor of reparative therapy, and Dr. Nicolosi Jr. has been working to continue his father's legacy to help men overcome same-sex attractions.   

Church Militant: How long have you been working in the field of reparative therapy?

Joseph Nicolosi, Jr.: I've treated hundreds of men with unwanted same-sex attractions over the last 8 years.

CM: How did your father's work with clients and advocacy influence you?

JN: My father showed me the fundamental premise of our work— the recognition that everyone should be free to find therapy and support to help them achieve their desired outcomes and goals. Everyone has the right to walk away from sexual practices that don't work for them. So when men come to us because they want to walk away from homosexual attractions, we recognize that this is their freedom.

It's amazing, especially in the age of Harvey Weinstein that there are still some people who don't get it: everyone has the right to walk away from sexual practices that don't work for them. Though most people would agree with that statement, we've discovered a double standard that somehow if those feelings are homosexual in nature, then it's not OK to walk away. That it's somehow "anti-gay" to want to walk away from homosexuality and to have help to do so. Everyone has the right to walk away from any kind of sexual practices that don't work for them for any reason.

CM: You've seen the effects of reparative therapy first hand. What do the clients say it's done for them?

JN: Our clients commonly report gaining powerful insight into the roots of their same-sex attractions, discovering which emotional states increase and which states decrease their attractions, and they commonly report how when their non-sexual relationships with men grow more deeply, they experience a significant decrease in their unwanted attractions.

Typically, my clients' goal isn't to become a guy who walks down the street and wants to have sex with every good-looking woman he sees. That isn't a realistic goal. His goal is to genuinely fall in love with a woman and not have that attraction feel manufactured. He wants it to be genuine. He wants to genuinely fall in love with one special woman, someone he's crazy about and maintain that genuine relationship with her. That's his right, that's his journey. The elites in the radical LGBT political movement may not understand or respect that desire. But it doesn't matter. Respect for self-determination and individualism —the very same values our nation was built upon— means we allow these men to walk their own path, knowing it's their journey of discovery.

We receive so many calls, emails and letters from our clients who have found help through our therapy. I hear from the wives, the women that my clients went on to marry. They married men who refused to accept at face value what our pop culture told them about their sexuality. Instead, they explored the roots of their attractions, resolving any sexual abuse they suffered, the sexual addictions they've had, the feelings of inferiority in their gender and the difficulty maintaining non-sexual intimacy with men.

CM: Does sexual abuse children may suffer have any impact on same-sex attractions or gender dysphoria?

JN: Sexual abuse can have an impact on an individual's sexual development and the American Psychological Association acknowledges this. That's why legislation that attempts to ban our work is so destructive and cruel to sex-abuse victims. So many men come to us, saying, "I was sexually abused by an older man when I was just a boy. Now, because of that life-changing event, I struggle to resolve these unwanted, confusing attractions." What's true compassion: to help them resolve those unwanted attractions or tell them to live those attractions out?