Trauma treatment can alter sexual attractions. Big tech won't let us talk about it
A landmark new study details how treating traumatic childhood memories can lead some adults with LGBT attractions toward heterosexuality.
Too bad most people won’t learn about it.
Recently published in the Journal of Human Sexuality, the study examined 75 adult males who reported same-sex attractions and wished to explore their sexual attraction fluidity. Participants worked with professional therapists using Reintegrative Therapy, a treatment method that seeks to identify and resolve past traumatic memories.
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Despite a dishonest campaign to associate this approach with the widely misrepresented “conversion therapy,” evidence is accumulating that trauma resolution therapy provides another option to many for whom change seemed impossible.
So, why are so many people unaware of these compelling findings?
Because Big Tech, in alliance with leftwing activists, is actively suppressing scientific data and client testimonials.
On January 15, Google-owned YouTube blocked all videos on my YouTube channel that referenced the research, along with testimonials from participants. They did so after a Forbes columnist, using cut-and-paste material from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), declared the Reintegrative Therapy work performed by me and others to be “hateful’ and “harmful.” GPAHE is pressuring social media companies to remove all content about unwanted same-sex attraction.
The Montgomery, Alabama-based group is run, not surprisingly, by people who used to work for the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, which was riven by race and sex scandals and which to this day falsely characterizes mainstream Christian groups like Alliance Defending Freedom as “hate groups.”
In response to my inquiry about being blocked, YouTube permanently banned my account. In doing so, YouTube cut off many sexual-abuse victims from scientific information they need to make healthy decisions about themselves and their sexuality.
As a clinical psychologist who conducts this therapy daily, I often work with victims of past sexual trauma. Many of these clients report emotional distress, depression, and suicidal thoughts that are, on occasion, tied to unwanted same-sex attractions. Through evidence-based, patient-led therapy, some (though not all) of these individuals can make shifts along the sexual-fluidity spectrum, as their traumatic memories are resolved.
Unlike so-called “conversion therapy,” a catch-all term that can include discredited approaches that attempt to change sexuality, Reintegrative Therapy resolves memories that clients identify as being traumatic. Changes in sexuality that may occur are a byproduct. In fact, actively attempting to change one’s sexuality without resolving the trauma might interfere with this process.
Independent researchers assessed the participants’ sexual thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and identity — all of which demonstrated changes away from same-sex attractions and toward heterosexual attractions. On average, participants demonstrated significant decreases in psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidality. They also showed significant overall increases in measures of well-being.
Suppression of this kind of research and therapy is part of a larger problem: Big Tech is becoming even more aggressive in censoring any content that doesn’t fit its narratives.
In July 2020, for example, Facebook and Instagram announced that they would ban all content that promotes “conversion therapy.” By misrepresenting any and all sexuality counseling as “conversion therapy,” this casts an absurdly wide net. Politicians who are rushing to criminalize what they mistakenly believe to be “conversion therapy” are being misled.
YouTube is a private company, and they have the right to ban whatever they want. But when a mega-corporation systematically suppresses one side of a scientific debate, it effectively shapes public opinion to its will and thereby contributes to spreading health misinformation — a practice YouTube preaches loudly against.
In the meantime, I’ve moved my videos over to Odysee — a decentralized video platform running on block-chain technology (like Bitcoin). That means it’s outside the meddling grasp of ideologically driven Big Tech corporations. I suspect platforms like it are where we’ll find the most compelling video content in the future.
It’s not just Big Tech taking orders from “woke” activists. Some medical journals are also being corrupted by ideologues. Scientists have a responsibility to protect the integrity of the record from political activists. Pushback is long overdue.
Last July, I filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court against the authors of a journal article who falsely conflated Reintegrative Therapy with their own definition of “conversion therapy.”
In order to counter political activists who are attempting to corrupt the record, we must now fight to preserve truth — or risk further damage to scientific research and its credibility with the public.
Because our access to objective research is being stymied by both Big Tech and political activists, most psychotherapists will not offer clients sexual-attraction fluidity exploration because they’ve been told there’s not enough research into its safety and efficacy, or worse — that it is harmful to engage in it. Because of this, it is the clients who are the greatest victims — they are effectively denied access to information about alternatives for their sexuality and their lives.
And that is why I fight.
Originally published at Real Clear Policy.
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, Jr. is the founder of the Reintegrative Therapy Association. He is a licensed clinical psychologist, researcher and author of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles.
