Atlas›Domain XVI · Historical, discredited & harmful›Guide 077
Guide XVI-077

Core Issues Trust and IFTCC

Michael DavidsonNorthern Ireland
A 28 · L 59 · M 1320 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Court of Appeal judgment in R (Core Issues Trust) v Transport for London [2014] EWCA Civ 34 (27 January 2014) and the remitted High Court decision [2014] EWHC 2628 (Admin) (30 July 2014); the UK Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy, version 2 (October 2017; revision A, 3 July 2019); the APA resolutions on sexual orientation change efforts and gender identity change efforts (adopted 26 February 2021); the UN Independent Expert's report A/HRC/44/53 (2020); and the UK Government's Conversion Practices Draft Bill (CP 1604, June 2026).

This guide covers two organisations, not a single therapy. Core Issues Trust is described by the Court of Appeal as a Christian, non-profit company limited by guarantee and registered charity that supports people with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek a change in sexual preference; the court names Dr Michael Davidson as its founder and co-director [source: EWCA Civ 34]. It is based in Northern Ireland and registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland [source: Fox Business 2023; Byline Times 2023]. The International Federation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC) is reported as an associated organisation that shared Core Issues Trust's bank account [source: Fox Business 2023] and as a Core Issues Trust project, London-based, with Mike Davidson as its chairman [source: Byline Times 2023]. A founding year of 2015 for the IFTCC is [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

The organisations' own account, attributed: Core Issues Trust describes itself as helping adults who voluntarily seek to change their sexual identity and expression [source: Fox Business 2023]; both organisations say they do not endorse, practise or encourage "conversion therapy", and the IFTCC's International Declaration is presented by its chairman as its reading of the research on sexual orientation and gender incongruence [source: Byline Times 2023]. Opposition to statutory bans and to gender-affirming care for minors is attributed to the IFTCC in secondary summaries [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

The professional and international position: UK signatory bodies agree that conversion therapy, for sexual orientation or gender identity, is unethical and potentially harmful [source: MoU v2]; the APA states there is "no evidence of sexual orientation change" and that change efforts may be harmful [source: APA 2021 press release]; the UN Independent Expert concludes that no approach reviewed can claim conversion as an outcome and that such practices can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or torture, depending on circumstances [source: A/HRC/44/53, paras 62, 70, 83].

Core idea of change for the psychotherapist: distress about orientation or gender identity is worked with by exploration, reduction of distress and movement towards self-acceptance, without any agenda favouring one orientation or identity over another [source: MoU v2]. The psychotherapist never provides, supervises or refers to change-oriented work [synthesis].

2. Framework

Historical phases of the organisations, in outline [source: EWCA Civ 34; EWHC 2628 (Admin); GCN 2021; Fox Business 2023; Byline Times 2023; National Register 2026; CP 1604]:

  • 2012: Core Issues Trust planned an advert on 25 London buses reading "NOT GAY! EX-GAY, POST-GAY AND PROUD, GET OVER IT", in reply to a Stonewall advert; TfL refused it under its policy on adverts likely to cause widespread or serious offence, because it implied that homosexuality can be cured.
  • 27 January 2014: the Court of Appeal held the refusal was a proportionate interference with freedom of expression (Article 10), noted the advert was a confrontational assertion rather than a reasoned contribution to debate, and held that discrimination because of a past or changed sexual orientation is still discrimination because of sexual orientation under the Equality Act 2010. It remitted whether the then Mayor had instructed the refusal for an improper purpose.
  • 30 July 2014: the High Court found the Mayor had not instructed the decision and had no improper purpose; the claim was dismissed.
  • 2020: Barclays closed the account used by Core Issues Trust and the IFTCC; in 2021 the Northern Ireland charity regulator kept the Trust on the register, stating that a charity's purpose must be "beneficial not harmful" and that conversion therapy is not among the charity's registered purposes, and that legislation would give it a definitive steer on benefit and harm.
  • June 2023: Barclays settled a discrimination claim brought by Dr Davidson, with no admission of liability.
  • 27–29 October 2023: the IFTCC held a conference near Warsaw reported to have drawn more than 220 participants from 34 countries.
  • 2026: the US Supreme Court decided Chiles v. Salazar (see section 5); the UK Government published a draft bill for England and Wales (June 2026).

Phases of the psychotherapist's work [synthesis, organised around MoU v2 and APA 2021]:

  1. Recognition and assessment: identify contact with a change-oriented organisation (past, current or contemplated), its setting (faith, online, therapeutic, family), age at exposure, coercion, and current risk. Move on once risk is assessed and the client's own goals are stated in their words.
  2. Safety and safeguarding: suicide-risk assessment, safety planning, child-protection action where a minor is involved. Move on when immediate risk is managed and any required report is made.
  3. Exploration and processing: open exploration of identity, faith, family and the experience of change efforts; reduction of shame and distress. Move on when the client can hold the topic without flooding and has their own direction.
  4. Repair, integration and follow-up: relationships, faith or community repair or grief, legal and complaint routes if wanted, advocacy, and planning for renewed contact with the organisations.

Session number and format: set by the client's needs; individual work is the default, with family or couple sessions by agreement [synthesis].

3. Guiding principles

  • No agenda on outcome: practise without favouring any orientation or gender identity [source: MoU v2]. Meaning: your goal is the client's wellbeing and self-understanding, never a target orientation or identity.
  • Neither orientation nor gender identity is itself a mental disorder [source: MoU v2]. Meaning: do not diagnose or formulate the orientation as the problem.
  • Exploration is permitted and needed: clients who are uncertain, conflicted or distressed may be helped to explore and to live more comfortably [source: MoU v2]. Meaning: you can and should talk about unwanted attraction or gender questions; you do not try to change them.
  • Gender-identity exploration is not prohibited by the MoU [source: MoU v2]. Meaning: open, unhurried exploration of gender questions, including before any medical step, is legitimate practice.
  • Validate and normalise: APA guidelines encourage psychologists to "validate, normalize, and assist" in understanding orientation, identity and expression, with attention to culture [source: APA 2021 press release]. Meaning: name the client's experience as understandable within their context.
  • Respect religious commitment [synthesis; DSM-5-TR Religious or Spiritual Problem, Z65.8, see Sources]. Meaning: faith is treated as a resource and value to be understood, not an obstacle to remove.
  • Even-handed account of the organisations [synthesis]. Meaning: describe their stated positions accurately and attribute the professional consensus to its bodies; avoid moralising.
  • Risk first: change efforts are associated with suicidal ideation and attempts [source: APA 2021; Blosnich et al. 2020; A/HRC/44/53 para 19]. Meaning: ask about suicide directly, early and again.
  • Children are especially vulnerable [source: A/HRC/44/53 paras 57, 71, 74]. Meaning: any minor's involvement triggers safeguarding thinking.
  • Never refer, supervise or collude [synthesis]. Meaning: do not pass a client to, co-work with, or endorse change-oriented services, even on request.
  • Competence and training: signatory bodies commit to training for cultural competence with sexually and gender diverse clients [source: MoU v2]. Meaning: get supervision and training before taking this work on.
  • Safe messaging [synthesis]. Meaning: discuss suicide without method detail or glamorising, and give crisis numbers: 988 (US), Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).

4. Intervention inventory

The interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work; steps not drawn from a cited source are marked [synthesis].

4.1 Organisational and historical literacy (therapist preparation)

  • Purpose: to recognise the organisations, their vocabulary and their legal history so you can respond accurately and without caricature. Use before taking referrals from faith communities or LGB and gender-questioning clients.
  • Steps: learn the 2014 Court of Appeal outcome and its Equality Act point on "ex-gay" status [source: EWCA Civ 34]; the 2021 regulator decision and its reasons [source: GCN 2021]; the organisations' stated self-descriptions [source: Fox Business 2023; Byline Times 2023]; and the MoU, APA and UN positions [source: MoU v2; APA 2021; A/HRC/44/53]. Keep a one-page summary in your own notes [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I know a little about Core Issues Trust and the IFTCC, and I'd rather hear what they meant to you than assume."
  • Watch for: your own reactions shaping the account you give; facts drifting out of date, especially legal status (recheck before relying on it) [synthesis].

4.2 Recognising contact with change-oriented organisations

  • Purpose: to notice when a client is in, leaving, or considering change-oriented support.
  • Steps: listen for self-descriptions such as "ex-gay" or "post-gay" (the 2012 advert's terms) [source: EWCA Civ 34], language of "unwanted" attraction, "choice" or "freedom to change", mentions of ministries, retreats or international conferences [synthesis]; ask neutrally where the client met these ideas. Note that in one US study most people who underwent conversion therapy received it from a religious leader, and fewer from a health care provider [source: Williams Institute summary of Blosnich et al. 2020].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You used the phrase 'post-gay'. Where did that phrase come from for you?"
  • Watch for: assuming every faith-based reference means change efforts; missing contact that happened online or through family [synthesis].

4.3 Structured assessment of exposure to change efforts

  • Purpose: to understand what happened, when, and with what effect, without asking for replication detail.
  • Steps: ask about age at first exposure, who was involved (family, faith leader, practitioner, peer group), whether participation felt voluntary, duration in broad terms, whether contact is ongoing, and effects on mood, shame, relationships, faith and sexuality [synthesis, organised around the harms listed in A/HRC/44/53 para 56]. Do not ask the client to describe methods in detail unless they choose to [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You don't need to walk me through what they did step by step. I'd like to know how old you were, who was involved, and what it left you with."
  • Watch for: shame making the client minimise; dissociation or flooding when recalling; signs of post-traumatic stress, depression or social isolation, which the UN report lists among effects [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 56].

4.4 Suicide-risk assessment and safety planning

  • Purpose: change efforts are associated with roughly doubled rates of suicidal ideation and attempts in one US adult sample [source: Williams Institute summary of Blosnich et al. 2020] and with more suicide attempts in a large study of LGBTQ young people [source: APA 2021 press release].
  • Steps: ask directly about current and past suicidal thoughts, plans, attempts and self-harm; assess protective factors (people, faith, purpose); agree a written safety plan in the client's words; discuss safe storage or removal of means without method detail; give 988 (US) or Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland); review at each session when risk is present [synthesis, standard practice].
  • Example language (illustrative): "People who have been through efforts to change who they are sometimes think about ending their lives. Have you had thoughts like that, now or in the past?"
  • Watch for: risk rising after leaving a faith community, after family disclosure, or after renewed contact with change-oriented groups; hopelessness about reconciling faith and sexuality [synthesis]. Working signs: the client can name warning signs and contacts and uses them.

4.5 Non-coercive psychoeducation on the professional consensus

  • Purpose: to give accurate information when a client asks whether change is possible or safe.
  • Steps: ask permission first; state, attributed, that UK bodies call conversion therapy unethical and potentially harmful [source: MoU v2], that the APA finds no evidence of sexual orientation change [source: APA 2021], and that the UN Independent Expert concludes no approach can claim conversion as an outcome [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 70]; then return to the client's view [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if I told you what the professional bodies say? Then I'd like to hear what you make of it."
  • Watch for: information delivered as pressure in the other direction; the client hearing it as rejection of their faith [synthesis].

4.6 Responding to a client who asks you to change their orientation

  • Purpose: to honour the client's distress while declining to attempt change.
  • Steps: say clearly that you will not try to change orientation and why (professional position, harm), then offer what you can do: explore the distress, its sources, the client's values, and ways of living more comfortably and reducing distress [source: MoU v2]; agree goals in those terms; revisit the request without pressure later [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I won't try to change your attractions; the evidence says that doesn't work and can hurt people. What I can do is help with how painful this is and what matters most to you."
  • Watch for: the client leaving to seek a change-oriented provider (ask openly, keep the door open); covert change goals entering your own work [synthesis].

4.7 Exploration with religious clients

  • Purpose: to work with conflict between faith and sexuality or gender without taking sides.
  • Steps: use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions [uncertain: DSM-5-TR wording not verified]; where the difficulty centres on faith, the Religious or Spiritual Problem may be recorded as Z65.8 (see Sources); map the client's tradition, community, beliefs about sexuality, and their own interpretations; hold multiple possible outcomes (celibacy, a different congregation, reinterpretation, leaving faith, others) as the client's to choose [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your faith matters to you and so does this part of you. I'm not here to choose between them for you."
  • Watch for: your own beliefs about religion; the client taking a choice to please you or their community; spiritual distress and loss [synthesis].

4.8 Working with shame and internalised stigma

  • Purpose: shame and self-hatred are among the reported consequences [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 19].
  • Steps: name shame when it shows; trace its sources (messages from family, faith, change-oriented programmes); validate and normalise the client's experience in context [source: APA 2021 guidelines, as summarised]; build self-compassion and contact with affirming relationships at the client's pace [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds as if you were taught that this part of you was something to fix. I wonder how that sits with you now."
  • Watch for: shame redirected at the therapist or at the client's own faith; collapse into self-criticism after progress [synthesis].

4.9 Trauma-informed processing for survivors

  • Purpose: to help clients who were subjected to change efforts process the experience; the UN report lists post-traumatic stress symptoms among effects [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 56].
  • Steps: stabilise first (grounding, routines, supports); let the client set pace and depth; use an evidence-based trauma approach in which you are trained, adapted to identity-related trauma; avoid re-enacting control (offer choices, explain, check consent throughout) [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "We'll go only as far as you want today, and you can stop us at any point."
  • Watch for: re-experiencing, dissociation, rising risk; any felt resemblance between therapy and the change programme (name and discuss it) [synthesis].

4.10 Grief and community loss

  • Purpose: to work with loss of faith community, friendships, family closeness or a hoped-for future after leaving change efforts; loss of relationships is a reported harm [source: APA 2021 press release, on GICE].
  • Steps: name the losses; allow ambivalence (missing people while rejecting what was done); help rebuild belonging, including affirming faith communities where wanted; mark endings that had no ritual [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You can miss them and still know what happened there wasn't good for you."
  • Watch for: complicated grief, isolation, return to the group from loneliness [synthesis].

4.11 Family work with parents who seek change for their child

  • Purpose: to help parents who have contacted, or are considering, change-oriented organisations for a son or daughter.
  • Steps: meet parents' fear, grief and faith concerns with respect; share, attributed, the APA's statement on the negative impact of change efforts on young people and the UN's point that children are especially vulnerable [source: APA 2021; A/HRC/44/53 paras 57, 71]; shift the goal from changing the child to keeping the relationship and the child safe; offer family sessions where the young person consents [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You love your child and you're frightened. The research says pushing change tends to hurt young people. Can we think about what keeps them safe and close to you?"
  • Watch for: rejection or expulsion from home; covert enrolment in programmes; a young person's rising risk after disclosure (assess them separately) [synthesis].

4.12 Safeguarding minors

  • Purpose: to protect a child or young person exposed to change efforts; the UN Independent Expert urges states to take urgent measures to ban such practices for children [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 74].
  • Steps: assess immediate safety and suicide risk; follow your local child-protection procedure (UK: designated safeguarding lead and local authority children's services; US: mandatory reporting to child protective services where criteria are met); consider police where abuse, coercion or violence is alleged; record facts and decisions; obtain assent from the young person and consent from those with parental responsibility for therapy, within local law [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I need to keep you safe, so I may have to share some of this with people whose job is to protect young people. I'll tell you what I share and why."
  • Watch for: harm that falls below a reporting threshold but still warrants monitoring; family retaliation after a report [synthesis].

4.13 Gender-questioning clients

  • Purpose: to explore gender identity openly; the MoU states that it does not stop clinicians exploring gender identity, including assessment before medical steps [source: MoU v2]; the APA opposes efforts to change gender identity [source: APA 2021].
  • Steps: explore the client's experience, history and hopes with curiosity and no target outcome; distinguish exploration from pressure in any direction; coordinate with specialist gender services where the client wants medical options; never advise on starting, stopping or changing medicines [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not trying to steer you anywhere. Tell me how you experience your gender right now."
  • Watch for: external pressure (family, faith group, online communities) presenting as the client's own wish; distress and low self-worth, reported harms of pressure to conform [source: APA 2021 press release].

4.14 A client drawn to the organisations or their events

  • Purpose: to work with a client considering contact with Core Issues Trust, the IFTCC or similar groups, without referring them and without abandoning them.
  • Steps: explore what draws them (belonging, hope, family pressure, faith); give attributed information on effectiveness and harm (4.5); state that you will not refer and why; discuss what they will do if they go, including warning signs of rising risk and a safety plan; keep the therapeutic door open [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I won't point you towards them, because of the harm reported. It's your life, though, and if you go I'd still like to see you and hear how it is."
  • Watch for: secrecy; an all-or-nothing frame ("change or lose my faith"); post-event crises [synthesis].

4.15 When a colleague or institution offers change-oriented work

  • Purpose: to act on professional duties when a colleague, service or employer provides, promotes or refers to change efforts.
  • Steps: check the facts; raise concerns directly where safe; consult supervision; use your professional body's complaint or concerns route (in the UK the MoU's signatories include BACP, BPS, BABCP, the British Psychoanalytic Council and the Association of Christians in Counselling and Linked Professions; the list changes over time, so check the current version) [source: MoU v2]; in the US, the APA Ethics Code (https://www.apa.org/ethics/code) applies to psychologists, including Standard 3.05 where your own church, ministry or community ties create a multiple relationship with a client or a colleague's organisation; other ethics points are [synthesis]. Document what you did [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative), to a colleague: "I'm concerned that referring clients to a change-oriented ministry conflicts with our professional guidance. Can we talk about it?"
  • Watch for: retaliation, client confidentiality in any report, and treating disagreement about faith as misconduct (the issue is practice, not belief) [synthesis].

4.16 Legal literacy and signposting

  • Purpose: to give clients accurate pointers to legal information, not legal advice.
  • Steps: know the current position in your jurisdiction (section 5 and the harm account); signpost to a solicitor or attorney, police, or an equality body where the client wants to act; note that the Court of Appeal treated discrimination because of a changed or past orientation as sexual orientation discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 [source: EWCA Civ 34] [synthesis for the signposting steps].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I can't advise you legally, but I can help you find someone who can, if you want to look at that."
  • Watch for: pressure to pursue or drop action; law changing (recheck before stating it) [synthesis].

4.17 Record-keeping and consent

  • Purpose: to keep clear records of requests for change, your response, risk assessments and safeguarding decisions [synthesis].
  • Steps: record the client's stated goals in their words, your explanation of what you will and will not do, consent to the agreed goals, risk assessments and any reports; share with the client where appropriate [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'll note that we agreed to work on the distress and on what you want for your life, rather than on changing your attractions. Does that match what you said?"
  • Watch for: notes that pathologise orientation or identity, contrary to the MoU position [source: MoU v2].

4.18 Supervision and self-examination

  • Purpose: to meet the MoU training commitment to cultural competence with sexually and gender diverse clients [source: MoU v2].
  • Steps: bring cases to supervision; examine your beliefs about sexuality, gender and religion; seek CPD offered by your professional association [source: MoU v2] [synthesis for the self-examination step].
  • Example language (illustrative), in supervision: "I notice I get defensive when this client praises the ministry. I want to look at that."
  • Watch for: steering in either direction; avoidance of faith topics; burnout in survivor work [synthesis].

4.19 Advocacy and public information

  • Purpose: to contribute, within your role, to accurate public understanding.
  • Steps: refer to professional and international statements when commenting; support institutional policies (schools, services, employers) that reflect them; recognise that public bodies have weighed equality duties in decisions such as the 2012 TfL advert refusal [source: EWCA Civ 34]; keep clients' details out of public advocacy [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative), to a service: "Our guidance is that we don't promote or refer to change-oriented services. Here are the professional statements we follow."
  • Watch for: advocacy overriding a particular client's own wishes; moralising tone [synthesis].

4.20 Ending, follow-up and renewed contact

  • Purpose: to plan for times when clients meet the organisations again (events, family pressure, online material).
  • Steps: review gains and supports; agree warning signs and a relapse-of-distress plan; restate crisis numbers (988 US; Samaritans 116 123 UK and Ireland); offer a follow-up or re-contact route [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you find yourself pulled back towards those groups, or the old shame returns, that's a good time to get in touch."
  • Watch for: endings that feel like abandonment, mirroring losses from the faith community [synthesis].

5. Handling problems

  • Client insists on change and rejects anything else. Restate what you will and will not do (4.6); explore what change would give them (acceptance by family, God, community) and work on those needs directly; keep risk under review; if they leave, part respectfully with crisis numbers and an open door [synthesis].
  • Client defends Core Issues Trust or the IFTCC. Do not argue; reflect their experience of the groups, including what was helpful (belonging, being taken seriously), and give the organisations' own stated positions accurately alongside the professional statements [source: Byline Times 2023; MoU v2; APA 2021] [synthesis for the response].
  • Rupture: client feels you are biased against their faith, or, conversely, that you are colluding with change. Name the rupture, ask what you did that gave that impression, own your part, restate your no-agenda stance [source: MoU v2] [synthesis for repair steps].
  • Overwhelm in survivor work. Slow down, return to stabilisation, reduce detail, increase session structure and supports, reassess suicide risk; consider specialist trauma referral within mainstream services [synthesis].
  • Stuck: client can live neither inside nor outside their faith. Widen options (other congregations or traditions, private practice of faith, time-limited "not deciding"); use values work; accept ambiguity as a valid place to rest [synthesis].
  • Non-adherence to safety plan, or concealed ongoing participation. Explore without blame what made the plan hard to use; revise it with the client; for minors, reassess safeguarding [synthesis].
  • Family or community pressure during therapy. Hold confidentiality; offer the client rehearsal of conversations; family sessions only with the client's agreement; safeguarding if coercion or threats affect a minor or an adult at risk [synthesis].
  • Organisations' public profile and legal disputes. The Trust has litigated over advertising and banking (it lost the advert case in 2014; Barclays settled in 2023 without admitting liability) and reports receiving abusive messages [source: EWCA Civ 34; EWHC 2628 (Admin); Fox Business 2023]. Keep comment on the organisations factual and attributed, and keep clients' identities out of any public matter [synthesis].
  • Legal status is changing. England and Wales: the Government published a draft bill in June 2026 creating an offence of carrying out an abusive conversion practice causing serious harm, with up to five years' imprisonment on indictment, extending to England and Wales only and excluding health care unless it falls far below the expected standard [source: CP 1604]; whether it has been enacted is [uncertain]. Northern Ireland: as of April 2021 conversion therapy remained legal and a ban was being progressed [source: GCN 2021]; current status [uncertain]. Scotland: [uncertain]. United States: on 31 March 2026 the US Supreme Court ruled 8–1 in Chiles v. Salazar that Colorado's conversion-therapy law, as applied to a counsellor's talk therapy, regulates speech based on viewpoint; it reversed the lower courts, which had not applied sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny, and sent the case back (SCOTUSblog; NPR). Its effect on other states' laws is [uncertain]. Other countries' bans listed in secondary summaries are [uncertain]. Recheck before advising anyone [synthesis].
  • Therapist's own distress or strong views. Use supervision (4.18); do not take on the work without competence [source: MoU v2].
  • Research disputes raised by the client. Some clients cite reanalyses disputing the link between change efforts and suicidality; a published exchange between a critic (Sullins, 2022) and Blosnich and colleagues exists [uncertain: not verified]. Acknowledge that research is debated, attribute positions, and keep the focus on the client's own safety and experience [synthesis].

Harm account

What was actually done

Core Issues Trust, a Christian charity in Northern Ireland founded and co-directed by Dr Michael Davidson, has described its work as supporting people with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek a change in sexual preference [source: EWCA Civ 34]; it describes itself as helping adults who voluntarily seek to change their sexual identity and expression [source: Fox Business 2023]. In 2012 it sought to run a London bus advert describing its supporters as "ex-gay" and "post-gay"; TfL judged that it implied homosexuality can be cured and refused it, and the courts upheld the refusal [source: EWCA Civ 34; EWHC 2628 (Admin)]. The IFTCC, a Core Issues Trust project chaired by Mike Davidson, organises international events for professionals, faith leaders and self-described "ex-gay" people, including a 2023 conference near Warsaw where, according to Byline Times, speakers framed LGBT identities as something to leave behind [source: Byline Times 2023]. Both organisations say they do not endorse, practise or encourage conversion therapy [source: Byline Times 2023]. The 2021 decision of the Northern Ireland charity regulator noted that conversion therapy is not among the Trust's registered charitable purposes [source: GCN 2021]. The cited court and regulator decisions make no finding that either organisation harmed a client.

How such offers can look to a client (practice class, not these organisations). The UK study commissioned by the Government Equalities Office found that conversion practices in the UK were seldom called conversion therapy; they were offered as "pastoral support", "counselling", "ministry", "discipleship" or "healthy relationships", by church leaders, life coaches and private counsellors, sometimes at conferences and weekend retreats run by US-linked organisations and under non-disclosure agreements; interviewees described being attributed childhood causes for their attraction, psychodrama-style exercises, and encouragement into gender-stereotyped activities [source: GEO 2021, sections 4.2-4.4]. These findings describe the practice class generally; neither the study nor the cited court and regulator decisions attributes any of them to Core Issues Trust or the IFTCC.

How it caused harm

The harm documented by professional and international bodies concerns change-oriented practice as a class. UK signatory bodies call conversion therapy unethical and potentially harmful [source: MoU v2]. The APA states that former participants view change efforts as harmful, that there is no evidence of sexual orientation change, and that young people exposed to change efforts reported significantly more suicide attempts [source: APA 2021 press release]. The UN Independent Expert reports damage in 98 per cent of 940 surveyed people who had undergone such practices, including depression, anxiety, shame, self-hatred, suicidal thoughts, social isolation, sexual dysfunction and post-traumatic stress symptoms; finds the practices discriminatory and by their nature degrading; and reports that an independent forensic expert group described offering them as deception, false advertising and fraud, potentially amounting to torture depending on circumstances [source: A/HRC/44/53 paras 19, 21, 56, 59, 62, 83]. That expert group is associated with the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, whose own 2020 statement is [uncertain: not verified]. In a US adult sample, sexual minority people who underwent conversion therapy were nearly twice as likely to think about and attempt suicide, after controlling for adverse childhood experiences [source: Williams Institute summary of Blosnich et al. 2020]. Messaging that implies orientation can be "cured" was judged by TfL and the courts to have clear potential to cause serious offence to gay people [source: EWCA Civ 34].

Recognising it today

  • Self-labels such as "ex-gay", "post-gay" or "once-gay"; framing of "therapeutic choice" or "unwanted same-sex attraction" [source: EWCA Civ 34; Byline Times 2023] [synthesis for the list].
  • Invitations to invite-only or undisclosed-location conferences, ministries or support groups promising freedom from same-sex attraction or from a transgender identity [source: Byline Times 2023] [synthesis].
  • Faith-based providers: a UK survey cited by the UN found most providers were faith-based [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 30]; in the US study most recipients received it from a religious leader [source: Williams Institute 2020].
  • Change goals hidden inside mainstream counselling; the MoU notes the practice can be hidden within mainstream practice [source: MoU v2].
  • Clients presenting with shame, depression, isolation or suicidal thinking after faith-based "healing" groups [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 56].

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • Supported care: therapy without an outcome agenda that helps people explore, reduce distress and reach self-acceptance [source: MoU v2]; validation and normalisation as in the APA guidelines for practice with sexual minority persons [source: APA 2021 press release]; gender-identity exploration without pressure [source: MoU v2].
  • Survivors: trauma-informed processing, grief work and rebuilding community (4.9, 4.10); suicide-risk assessment and safety planning (4.4) with 988 (US) and Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland) [synthesis]. Survivor organisations should be approached as they describe themselves [synthesis].
  • Families: support to stay connected to the young person and to avoid change-oriented services (4.11) [synthesis].
  • Reporting duties: child-protection routes for minors (4.12); professional-body complaints where a registered practitioner offers change efforts (4.15) [source: MoU v2; APA Ethics Code] [synthesis for routes].
  • Legal routes: in England and Wales a criminal offence and protection orders are proposed in the June 2026 draft bill (enactment [uncertain]) [source: CP 1604]; existing criminal law (assault, coercion, threats) and equality law may apply; the UN Independent Expert calls for prompt investigation of specific claims and, where relevant, prosecution [source: A/HRC/44/53 para 65]; refer clients to independent legal advice [synthesis].

Sources

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