Skip to main content
ABCT 2025 59th Annual Convention Main banner
Psychology Tools Ad
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Evaluation ViewAttendees 16

Spotlight Research Presentations

LGBTQ+

State of the Science of “Conversion Therapy” (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Change Efforts)

Spotlight Research 4 - State of the Science of “conversion Therapy” (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Change Efforts)

Sunday, November 23, 2025
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM CST
Location: Bolden 5, Level 2
Earn 1 Credit
Keywords: LGBTQ+, Treatment,
Recommended Readings: Salway, T., Kinitz, D. J., Kia, H., Ashley, F., Giustini, D., Tiwana, A., ... & Abramovich, A. (2023). A systematic review of the prevalence of lifetime experience with ‘conversion’ practices among sexual and gender minority populations., e0291768.,   Forsythe, A., Pick, C., Tremblay, G., Malaviya, S., Green, A., & Sandman, K. (2022). Humanistic and economic burden of conversion therapy among LGBTQ youths in the United States. JAMA Pediatrics 176(5), 493-501.,   Bharat, B., Dopp, A., Last, B., Howell, G., Nadeem, E., Johnson, C., & Stirman, S. W. (2023). Deimplementation strategies to end sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts: Undoing a harmful legacy of behavior therapy. The Behavior Therapist
46(7), 261-270.,   ,  
Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts (SOGIECE)—so-called “conversion therapies”—are heterogenous interventions aimed at making people conform to heterosexual and cisgender norms. Although most mental health professional associations have denounced SOGIECE, 2-34% of LGBTQ+ people globally have received SOGIECE (Salway et al., 2023). There is no recent published review that documents the harms associated with these practices.

We systematically searched 12 bibliographic databases. Empirical SOGIECE articles were eligible if they included at least one quantitative outcome measuring either: (1) a harm associated with SOGIECE; or (2) whether sexual orientation or gender identity/expression change occurred. There was no restriction on publication date or language. At least two team members independently coded each article using content coding to identify the harms associated with SOGIECE.

Our review is ongoing; coding will be complete by September 2025. Thus far, we have identified and coded 135 articles (1941-2024) that met our eligibility criteria. We have extracted the study characteristics of each article. We have also documented the following harms in each article: (1) SOGIECE sometimes coerce participants or do not obtain informed consent from recipients; and (2) some SOGIECE deploy aversive techniques. We have also observed other harms associated with SOGIECE, which our review will describe.

Our review will examine the SOGIECE literature (across time and the globe) and identify the harms associated with these practices. We will discuss implications of our findings for clinical practice, scientific research, and policy.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Describe sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts (SOGIECE).
  2. Explain the historical and global scope of SOGIECE.
  3. Report on the scientific rigor of SOGIECE studies published in the scientific literature.
  4. List the harms associated with SOGIECE found across studies.
  5. Identify the implications of the review for clinical practice, scientific research, and policy.