A British psychotherapist may be struck off after she tried to convert a gay man straight, by praying to God to ‘heal' him. The Daily Mail reports Lesley Pilkington, 60, will appear at a landmark disciplinary hearing this week where she faces being stripped of her accreditation to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Her treatment was secretly recorded by a gay rights campaigner at two sessions before he reported her. The Daily Mail says a small group of counsellors believe all men are born heterosexual, but some choose a “gay lifestyle” which they claim can be changed through therapy. Pilkington is a devout Christian. She told the Sunday Telegraph that her method - Sexual Orientation Change Efforts - is legitimate and effective. Some of therapy, from the US, involves sending patients away with straight men to “encourage their masculinity and 'in time develop healthy relationships with women.” The counselling has been described as 'absurd' and the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the 'so-called treatments of homosexuality' allow prejudice to flourish. Pilkington's 29-year-old son is gay, but she said he simply has a 'homosexual problem.' She has accused the gay rights campaigner of entrapment.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 17th January 2011 - 9:23am