| #GivingTuesday December 3, 2019 |
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| Fighting for Client’s Rights, Healing the Family, and Restoring Relationships
Karen looked down at the floor in anguish. With swelling eyes and flowing tears, she sobbed while her husband Mark held her hand. Just days prior to our meeting, their daughter revealed her struggle with gender identity. In between tears (and the growing mountain of tissues building on my therapy couch), Karen lamented: “How could I not know? How did I not see this?”
I felt a growing pit of sadness in my stomach. Even though I have counseled hundreds of families dealing with the same exact issue over the last ten years, I thought to myself: “I will never get used to a heartbroken parent falling to pieces in front of me.” Their grief is immeasurable. Their pain: palpable. In that moment, there is literally nothing I can say to make it better. Nothing. In times like these, all I can do is stay silent, let emotion take its course, and allow the Lord to comfort. |
| Fortunately, God’s timing is perfect! A couple of weeks later, Karen and Mark were able to secure the last spot in our online class for parents, where families from across the United States (and internationally) journey together for one year to learn how to unconditionally love their LGBT-identified children and begin to take steps towards family healing.
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| A few months later, I traveled to their home for a weekend-long family intensive with their three children, where their daughter revealed her fear of being thrown out of the home because of her transgender feelings. Mark and Karen held their daughter’s hands as tears of fear, sadness, and relief poured out, reassuring her of their love. In the fall, Karen and Mark both attended IHF’s Key to Your Child’s Heart weekends for moms and dads. During these weekends, they better understood how their family’s dynamics and lack of emotional health influenced their daughter’s gender dysphoria. These retreats helped them develop empathy for their daughter’s struggle and learn how to create a safe place in their home for the family to grow closer together and heal their relationships. A week after the mother’s retreat, I received this note in the mail:
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| I can’t thank you enough for the wonderful experience at the mother’s healing retreat last weekend. Your work has transformed our family and helped us learn to love our daughter in ways we didn’t even know existed! Thank you! |
| | 2019 Year-In-Review. In 2019, the work of IHF came under attack from political forces like never before! Shortly after a law was passed by the Maryland state legislature (in 2018) to ban “conversion therapy” for minors distressed by sexual/gender identity conflicts, I partnered with Liberty Counsel – a non-profit religious liberty law firm – to sue the state. In March, I underwent a day-long deposition in Baltimore, Maryland with the help of Liberty Counsel (see photo above/left). As the case made its way through Federal court, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Board of Counseling passed a regulation that went into effect on June 30, essentially banning minors in Virginia from receiving the same type of therapy (as in Maryland) for unwanted same-sex attractions and gender identity conflicts. Shortly thereafter, Liberty Counsel filed another Federal lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia on behalf of me and several IHF clients and families that are affected by this unjust restriction of free speech and religious liberty! However, these attacks on our values were not surprising. |
| Groundbreaking New Book Published! After seven long years of research – and just months before the 50th anniversary of the 1969 riots at The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York – I published The War on Psychotherapy: When Sexual Politics, Gender Ideology, and Mental Health Collide. In the book, I describe the takeover of a new ideology of sex and gender in our culture and how LGBT activists have successfully convinced nearly 20 states and over 45 cities to ban licensed therapy for minors distressed by unwanted sexual and gender identity conflicts.
In The War on Psychotherapy, I provide a map of this unprecedented assault on personal freedom and religious liberty and discuss how we are now embroiled in a war of ethics and morality over sexuality and gender. The battle is being waged in our courts, our college campuses, our counseling offices, and even our churches! Throughout the summer of 2019, I appeared on a dozen radio shows and was interviewed by many conservative and Christian media outlets to promote the book. In September, I gave the keynote address at the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity conference in Phoenix, Arizona. In October, I was blessed to present my work at the American Association of Christian Counselors World Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, and then present a lecture on my new book at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. (see photo below/left). |
| We Need Your Help To Fight For Client’s Rights And Family Healing! Unfortunately, the Clinton-appointee Federal judge in the district court of Maryland ruled against our lawsuit in October. While it was very disappointing, our legal team promised to take our case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and we are prepared to petition all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States if necessary! But we can’t do it without your help!
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| | | Please Partner With Us To Help Fulfill Our Mission: Restoring Hope in the Hurting Home!
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Christopher Doyle, MA, LPC, LCPC
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