Do No Harm: Why Conversion Therapy Needs to be Outlawed in all 50 States with Guest: Heather

Sage in Time: The Podcast

TW: Child Abuse, Medical Trauma

In this episode of the Sage in Time Podcast, Derek is joined by Heather Mandel, who shares her powerfully redeeming story of how she realized and accepted her her own gender dysphoria, after nearly an entire decade of systematic psychological torture through the very real dangers of Childhood Conversion Therapy*.

*Conversion therapy professes to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to change or overcome their sexual orientation or gender identity. But this family of therapies has the opposite effect: reinforcing depression, low self-esteem, shame, addictive and compulsive behavior, loss of religious faith, self-harm, and suicidal tendencies. Conversion therapy also tears families apart, as it demands that youths erroneously blame their parents for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, as of this recording, Conversion Therapy is banned in 22 states and the District of Columbia, for a total of 115 jurisdictions (Bornperfect.org, retrieved 2024).

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If you live in New York or Pennsylvania, or know someone who does, and might be interested in learning more about working with me in the context of mental health therapy, check out my profile on PsychologyToday.com or at the Sage in Time website. Unfortunately, I am not able to accept any Managed Medicare or Medicaid, regardless of the branding.
I am a sex-positive mental health counselor who specializes in griefwork and working within the space of non-traditional lifestyles, offering services to individuals, couples, families, other systems of multiple individuals.
A special thank you to Melissa Reagan for providing the voice talent over the episode theme music.
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