Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy

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The Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MoU) is a joint publication by a coalition of mental and physical health organisations in the United Kingdom disavowing the practice of conversion therapy. It was initially published in 2015 and only condemned sexual orientation change efforts, before being updated to include gender identity change efforts in 2017. Signatories include the Royal College of Psychiatrists, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, NHS England, the British Psychoanalytic Council, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. The UK Council for Psychotherapy was a signatory to both editions, but withdrew in 2024 over the inclusion of protections for transgender children.

Contents

History

In 2015, the Department of Health invited key figures from mental health organisations such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and the UK Council for Psychotherapy to compile the MoU to attempt to abolish the practice of conversion therapy. [1] 13 of the United Kingdom's major psychological bodies came together to pass a Memorandum disowning the practice. [2]

The original version did not include transgender or asexual people. [1] In 2016 Dominic Davies, the founder of LGBT counselling clinic Pink Therapy and one of the signatories, resigned from the BACP. [1] He had pushed to include transgender and asexual people in the 2015 version and then to be included in a later update and the BACP had argued against it. [1] The BACP stated their board was "unlikely to sign" it and there was no evidence of the populations receiving conversion therapy. In a statement to Buzzfeed news, they stated "BACP understands the principles that the proposed MoU is aiming to promote: at the same time, we understand that there is a debate about the evidence regarding conversion therapy and transgender issues". [1]

In 2017, a revised Memorandum was published which included them. [3] The 2017 MoU, headed by Dr. Igi Moon, was signed by organisations such as NHS England, the British Psychoanalytic Council, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. [4] The 2017 version was signed by over 25 physical and mental health organisations with the stated aim "to end the practice of conversion therapy in the UK." [5] It defined conversion therapy as:

a therapeutic approach, or any model or individual viewpoint that demonstrates any assumption that any sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently preferable to any other, and which attempts to bring about a change of sexual orientation or gender identity or seeks to supress an individual’s expression of sexual orientation or gender identity on that basis. [6] [7]

Parliament argued conversion therapy was not a major issue and that the MoU was enough to discourage the practice in 2017, though multiple evangelical organisations continue to advocate and practice conversion therapy. [2] In 2022, the British government announced it would not include transgender people in an upcoming conversion therapy ban following lobbying from gender-critical groups. Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated "We will have a ban on gay conversion therapy, which to me is utterly abhorrent, but there are complexities and sensitivities when you move from the area of sexuality to the question of gender". [8] The Coalition Against Conversion Therapy published an open letter calling for the ban to include all forms of conversion therapy. The director of gender-critical campaign group Transgender Trend criticised the letter, highlighting the interim report of the Cass Review. [8]

UKCP Withdrawal

In November 2023, the UK Council for Psychotherapy published a statement on gender critical views that "Psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors who hold such views are likely to believe that the clinically most appropriate approach to working therapeutically with individuals who present with gender dysphoria, particularly children and young people, is exploratory therapy, rather than medicalised interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or reassignment surgery." [9] [10] In April 2024 the UK Council for Psychotherapy withdrew from the Memorandum and membership of the Coalition against Conversion Therapy on the grounds of not wanting to oppose conversion therapy for trans young people. [11] [9] The UKCP argued that the ban could ban "exploratory therapy" of why children want to change gender and the chairman of the UKCP told the Telegraph that "The current MoU makes no distinction between adults and children, which we believe is not in the best interest of children and could compromise their wellbeing." [4]

Dr. Moon, head of the MoU, stated "It is with great regret that any organisation would want to leave the MOUv2 whose aim is to bring an end to conversion therapy" and "The MOU does not ask therapists to practise any model of therapy, all therapy models are exploratory to some degree". [4] Directors of other signatory organisations also criticised the decision. [9] A group called UKCP members Therapists Against Conversion Therapy and Transphobia (TACTT) published an open letter criticising the organisation and started a petition calling for the board's removal in response, which gained 1,500 signatures, more than 10% of the UKCP's membership. [4] [9] The board was retained as only 20% of voters called for their removal. [12]

Signatories

Signatories in 2024 include: [5]

Related Research Articles

Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have been used to this end include forms of brain surgery, surgical or chemical (hormonal) castration, aversion therapy treatments such as electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, hypnosis, counseling, spiritual interventions, visualization, psychoanalysis, and arousal reconditioning. There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and that it frequently causes significant long-term psychological harm. The position of current evidence-based medicine and clinical guidance is that homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender variance are natural and healthy aspects of human sexuality. An increasing number of jurisdictions around the world have passed laws against conversion therapy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust</span> London Psychotherapic Clinic

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health trust based in north London. The Trust specialises in talking therapies. The education and training department caters for 2,000 students a year from the United Kingdom and abroad. The Trust is based at the Tavistock Centre in Swiss Cottage. The founding organisation was the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology founded in 1920 by Hugh Crichton-Miller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ rights in the United Kingdom</span>

The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have developed significantly over time. Today, lesbian, gay and bisexual rights are considered to be advanced by international standards.

Ex-ex-gay people are those who formerly participated in the ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, but who then later went on to publicly state they had a non-heterosexual sexual orientation.

Supervision is used in counselling, psychotherapy, and other mental health disciplines as well as many other professions engaged in working with people. Supervision may be applied as well to practitioners in somatic disciplines for their preparatory work for patients as well as collateral with patients. Supervision is a replacement instead of formal retrospective inspection, delivering evidence about the skills of the supervised practitioners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ego-dystonic sexual orientation</span> Psychiatric diagnosis

Ego-dystonic sexual orientation is a highly controversial mental health diagnosis that was included in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) from 1980 to 1987 and in the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) from 1990 to 2019. Individuals could be diagnosed with ego-dystonic sexual orientation if their sexual orientation or attractions were at odds with their idealized self-image, causing anxiety and a desire to change their orientation or become more comfortable with it. It describes not innate sexual orientation itself, but a conflict between the sexual orientation a person wishes to have and their actual sexual orientation.

The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a professional association of psychotherapy organisations and practitioners in the United Kingdom.

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is a professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists practising in the United Kingdom.

Child psychotherapy, or mental health interventions for children refers to the psychological treatment of various mental disorders diagnosed in children and adolescents. The therapeutic techniques developed for younger age ranges specialize in prioritizing the relationship between the child and the therapist. The goal of maintaining positive therapist-client relationships is typically achieved using therapeutic conversations and can take place with the client alone, or through engagement with family members.

In the United Kingdom, counselling is not under statutory regulation, and is overseen and supported by several organisations, none of which are officially recognised by the government.

Gay affirmative psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy for non-heterosexual people, specifically gay and lesbian clients, which focuses on client comfort in working towards authenticity and self-acceptance regarding sexual orientation, and does not attempt to "change" them to heterosexual, or to "eliminate or diminish" same-sex "desires and behaviors". The American Psychological Association (APA) offers guidelines and materials for gay affirmative psychotherapy. Affirmative psychotherapy affirms that homosexuality or bisexuality is not a mental disorder, in accordance with global scientific consensus. In fact, embracing and affirming gay identity can be a key component to recovery from other mental illnesses or substance abuse. Clients whose religious beliefs are interpreted as teaching against homosexual behavior may require some other method of integration of their possibly conflicting religious and sexual selves.

Jack Drescher is an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst known for his work on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) is a UK-wide umbrella association of training institutions and professional bodies providing psychotherapy services to the public, mainly in the private sector. As implied in the title their therapeutic approaches are guided by analytical psychology and the psychoanalytic schools of psychology and treatment. It is a registered charity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research</span>

Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR) is a psychoanalysis research, training and low-cost treatment centre located in London, United Kingdom. CFAR is a member organisation of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. CFAR operates within the psychoanalytic tradition of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genspect</span> Organization opposing transgender rights

Genspect is an international group founded in June 2021 by psychotherapist Stella O'Malley that has been described as gender-critical. Genspect opposes gender-affirming care, as well as social and medical transition for transgender people. Genspect opposes allowing transgender people under 25 years old to transition, and opposes laws that would ban conversion therapy on the basis of gender identity. Genspect also endorses the unproven concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), which proposes a subclass of gender dysphoria caused by peer influence and social contagion. ROGD has been rejected by major medical organisations due to its lack of evidence and likelihood to cause harm by stigmatizing gender-affirming care.

Many health organizations around the world have denounced and criticized sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts. National health organizations in the United States have announced that there has been no scientific demonstration of conversion therapy's efficacy in the last forty years. They find that conversion therapy is ineffective, risky and can be harmful. Anecdotal claims of cures are counterbalanced by assertions of harm, and the American Psychiatric Association, for example, cautions ethical practitioners under the Hippocratic oath to do no harm and to refrain from attempts at conversion therapy.

The history of conversion therapy can be divided broadly into three periods: an early Freudian period; a period of mainstream approval of conversion therapy, when the mental health establishment became the "primary superintendent" of sexuality; and a post-Stonewall period where the mainstream medical profession disavowed conversion therapy.

The International Federation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice (IFTCC) is a London-based organization that internationally lobbies governments and religious organizations to oppose bans on conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, which has condemned by medical organizations and human rights groups as "unethical, unscientific and ineffective and, in some instances, tantamount to torture."

Therapy First, originally named the Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA), is a group created in 2021 by members of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) and Genspect to advocate gender exploratory therapy, which experts consider to be a form of conversion therapy.

The early 21st century has seen a rise in and increasing organisation around anti-transgender sentiments in the United Kingdom, the most common strain being that of gender-critical feminism. This has led to some referring to the United Kingdom by the nickname "TERF Island".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Strudwick, Patrick (2016-02-20). "Top Gay Therapist Attacks His Professional Body For "Failing" LGBT People" . Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  2. 1 2 Romero, Christopher (2019-01-01). "PRAYING FOR TORTURE: WHY THE UNITED KINGDOM SHOULD BAN CONVERSION THERAPY". George Washington International Law Review.
  3. ↑ Wright, Talen; Candy, Bridget; King, Michael (2018-12-01). "Conversion therapies and access to transition-related healthcare in transgender people: a narrative systematic review". BMJ Open. 8 (12): e022425. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022425. ISSN   2044-6055. PMC   6318517 . PMID   30580262.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Bodkin, Henry (2024-05-01). "Psychotherapy body rows with trans activists over conversion therapy memo". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  5. 1 2 "Memorandum of understanding on conversion therapy in the UK". www.bacp.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  6. ↑ Trispiotis, Ilias; Purshouse, Craig (2022-03-07). "'Conversion Therapy' As Degrading Treatment". Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. 42 (1): 104–132. doi:10.1093/ojls/gqab024. ISSN   0143-6503. PMC   8902017 . PMID   35264896.
  7. ↑ https://www.bacp.co.uk/media/21242/memorandum-of-understanding-on-conversion-therapy-in-the-uk-july-2024.pdf.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. 1 2 Parry, Josh; Moss, Lauren (2022-04-06). "Mental health groups call for trans conversion therapy ban" . Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Broughton, Ellie (April 9, 2024). "The group trying to quietly rebrand conversion "therapy"" . Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  10. ↑ "UKCP guidance regarding gender critical views". www.psychotherapy.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  11. ↑ Davison, Kate; Hubbard, Katherine; Marks, Sarah; Spandler, Hel; Wynter, Rebecca (2024-10-07). "An Inclusive History of LGBTQ+ Aversion Therapy: Past Harms and Future Address in a UK Context". Review of General Psychology. doi: 10.1177/10892680241289904 . ISSN   1089-2680.
  12. ↑ "Members vote for the Board to remain in post". www.psychotherapy.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
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