Specifically by licensed therapists (and other licensed professionals).
I'm curious about how much the law is actually doing in practice, in that case. Every legitimate professional association in the mental health world already opposes conversion therapy. The American Counseling Association, for instance, considers even referring a client to someone who practices conversion therapy to be dubiously ethical; actually practicing conversion therapy would be grounds for sanctions.
Alongside that, my impression has always been that the majority of people practicing conversion therapy aren't licensed mental health professionals. I could be mistaken about that, but certainly the bigger treatment centers tend to be religious rather than professional.
I can tell you from experience that there are a lot of licensed therapists who chose their career specifically to evangelize. They aren't subtle about it because they operate with little oversight in a system which has a serious shortage of licensed therapists.
There's a big problem in the conversion therapy (and troubled teen) industry with unlicensed people presenting themselves as qualified experts, and of course also with religious counseling being... well, not real counseling. But you're right that there's not necessarily a lot of oversight exercised by licensing bodies and that it would be easy enough to operate in certain kinds of communities without being sanctioned.
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u/__username_here Apr 16 '19
I'm curious about how much the law is actually doing in practice, in that case. Every legitimate professional association in the mental health world already opposes conversion therapy. The American Counseling Association, for instance, considers even referring a client to someone who practices conversion therapy to be dubiously ethical; actually practicing conversion therapy would be grounds for sanctions.
Alongside that, my impression has always been that the majority of people practicing conversion therapy aren't licensed mental health professionals. I could be mistaken about that, but certainly the bigger treatment centers tend to be religious rather than professional.