A licensed therapist can decline to provide conversion therapy when a parent asks for it, and the ethics codes that govern the profession point toward that refusal rather than away from it.

Trauma-informed support is an approach built on safety, trust, and a child's own voice. It starts by asking what a child has lived through, not by deciding what needs to be fixed in them.

Healing starts with honesty. Naming the harm a child went through, without minimizing it, is the first step most families describe.

Many parents who placed a child in “conversion therapy” acted out of love and never knew the practice had a name or a long record of harm.

The largest studies point the same way. Kids who go through so-called conversion therapy carry higher rates of depression, anxiety, and shame into adulthood.

No leading medical or psychological body has found credible evidence that these efforts change a child, and each has warned of real risks.