When Help Hurts - Understanding the harm of conversion therapy

As social workers, our work begins and ends with one simple principle — do no harm. Every person who walks through a counselor’s door deserves to be met with dignity, respect, and unconditional positive regard.

Conversion therapy — sometimes called “reparative” therapy — violates this most basic ethic. It rests on the false premise that sexual orientation or gender identity is something broken to be “fixed.” For decades, major professional organizations — including the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and the American Academy of Pediatrics — have denounced these practices as ineffective, unethical, and profoundly damaging.

The Cost of Rejection

For those who have endured conversion efforts, the emotional cost is often lifelong. Shame, depression, anxiety, and loss of trust in the therapeutic relationship are common. Instead of experiencing the healing that therapy can offer, many individuals internalize the message that who they are is unacceptable. That harm ripples outward — into families, faith communities, and generations.

What Real Support Looks Like

Affirming care doesn’t mean pushing an agenda; it means listening deeply, honoring self-understanding, and walking beside people as they define what wholeness looks like for them. It means helping families cultivate love and acceptance rather than fear. It means holding space for complex identities — religious, cultural, and personal — without coercion or judgment.

OUR COMMITMENT

At Caravelle Care, our counselors stand in alignment with social work’s core values: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, and the importance of human relationships. Advocacy isn’t always loud; sometimes it’s simply choosing compassion over control, truth over fear, and care over conversion.

During Mental Health Awareness Month, we renew our commitment to creating safe, affirming, and inclusive spaces where every person can experience therapy as it was meant to be — a place of healing, not harm.