Page "Conversion therapy" Paragraph 1

The highest-profile contemporary advocates of conversion therapy tend to be fundamentalist Christian groups and other right-wing religious organizations.

The main organization advocating secular forms of conversion therapy is the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality ( NARTH ), which often partners with religious groups.

Psychologist Douglas Haldeman writes that conversion therapy comprises efforts by mental health professionals and pastoral care providers to convert lesbians and gay men to heterosexuality by techniques including aversive treatments, such as " the application of electric shock to the hands and / or genitals ," and " nausea-inducing drugs ... administered simultaneously with the presentation of homoerotic stimuli ," masturbatory reconditioning, visualization, social skills training, psychoanalytic therapy, and spiritual interventions, such as " prayer and group support and pressure.

" NARTH repudiates aversive techniques and stresses therapeutic efforts toward growing more fully into what it considers one's biologically appropriate gender identity.