WASHINGTON — The American Psychological Association expressed support for a report released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration calling for an end to the practice of “conversion therapy” for children and youth.
“This important report makes it clear that conversion therapy is not appropriate for dealing with sexual orientation or gender identities in children and youth,” said Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD, APA’s associate executive director for public interest government relations. “It provides guidance to clinicians on current science and best practices for this vulnerable population.”
Children benefit from developmentally appropriate identity exploration and integration, said Glassgold, who led APA’s Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation before joining the association’s staff. That task force issued a report in 2009 that found insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.
“Interventions aimed at a fixed outcome, such as gender conformity or heterosexual orientation, including those aimed at changing gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation, should not be part of behavioral health treatments,” Glassgold said. “This vital document builds on APA’s longstanding work on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns, especially its report on appropriate therapeutic responses to sexual orientation and its guidelines for working with LGB (PDF, 1.5MB)opens in new window and transgender and gender variant (PDF, 617KB)opens in new window clients.”
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 122,500 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.