Commenting on the BBC documentary on aversion therapy broadcast on 5 December, Dr Stirling Moorey, President of the British Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) said: “BABCP fully acknowledges that using aversion therapy or any techniques to attempt to change someone’s sexuality, gender identity or expression is abusive. We sincerely regret historical practices and research, systemic failings and individual actions which led to these harms. While at the time, same-sex attraction and gender expression outside social norms and context were labelled as ‘deviant’ or symptoms of mental illness, this does not excuse the impact on people who received these interventions and indeed exacerbated the stigmatisation of them.
“As an organisation, BABCP is committed to ensuring that our values, mission, policies and culture protect the public and support our members; and to prevent similar abuses occurring in future. Using any form of intervention with the aim of ‘conversion’ therapy is in breach of our Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics.”
You can read BABCP’s full statement on aversion therapy at https://babcp.com/statement-on-aversion-therapy/
