Richard A. Cohen

For other people named Richard Cohen, see Richard Cohen (disambiguation).

Richard Cohen (born 1952) is a writer and conversion therapist who works with men and women who do not want to experience sexual attraction to members of the same sex. He has been called one of America's leading practitioners of conversion therapy. Cohen gives lectures and runs seminars and workshops where he sells his books. Cohen's theories differ from mainstream medical views of sexual orientation.

Cohen lives in Washington, D.C. with his family. His foundation offers commercial teleconferencing classes on topics such as the causes of same-sex attractions and the process of healing. He also travels on a lecture circuit discussing similar topics.

Biography

A family friend repeatedly molested Cohen when he was 6 years old. Cohen said that this provided the affection he craved from his father, and that he repressed the memories of molestation until he was 30 and in therapy. He was openly gay and had a boyfriend while attending Boston University as an undergraduate, but spent years in intensive psychiatric treatment trying to change his sexual orientation, beginning psychotherapy twice weekly with a traditional Freudian psychoanalyst.

For 20 years Cohen was a member of the Unification Church, which has very negative views on homosexual behavior: Cohen married a woman of the same religion in 1982. He left the Unification Church in 1995.

He has said, "If someone wants to live a gay life, that needs to be respected. If someone wants to change and come out straight, that too needs to be respected. Let us practice true tolerance, real diversity, and equality for all."

After two of his three children were born, Cohen began an affair with a man in New York whom he described as his "boyfriend" and whom he frequently traveled to see. The affair lasted three years. Cohen describes this time as a period of turmoil that led him to pursue healing from his past.

Education

Cohen received a counseling psychology master's degree from a satellite campus of Antioch University.

Work

Before practicing conversion therapy, Cohen worked in child abuse treatment services, family reconciliation services, and as an HIV/AIDS educator for the American Red Cross.

According to Cohen he works under the auspices of the International Healing Foundation, a nonprofit and tax-exempt organization founded by him in 1990 to "treat" same-sex attraction.

He is not licensed as a therapist, because he said he "didn't want to jump through the hoops and deal with the heterophobia and anti-ex-gay attitudes." Cohen avoids State licensing requirements by asking for donations to his foundations instead of payment.

Permanent expulsion from the American Counseling Association

In 2002 Cohen was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association for six violations of its ethics code, which bars members from actions which "seek to meet their personal needs at the expense of clients, those that exploit the trust and dependency of clients, and for soliciting testimonials or promoting products in a deceptive manner."

Cohen said he believes the expulsion was for his efforts in the ex-gay movement, specifically for the book Coming Out Straight, and for one complaint. He did not appeal, calling the ACA "a biased organization" and "gay-affirming club."

Media appearances

Cohen debated Wayne Besen, a gay rights advocate, on television in 2005. Cohen later advanced his theories on Penn and Teller's show Bullshit!, on shock jock Howard Stern's radio program, and on Paula Zahn's CNN program.

Cohen was then interviewed by Jason Jones on the March 19, 2007 episode of The Daily Show. Cohen was, for a time, the president of PFOX.

Beliefs about sexual orientation

Cohen's 2001 book Coming Out Straight calls homosexuality a "same-sex attachment disorder" and details his methods of sexual reorientation therapy, including his theory of the causes of same-sex attraction, his methods of changing sexual orientation, and stories of people who have undergone his therapies.

Cohen describes the "hidden meanings" of same-sex attraction as:

1. need for same-sex parent's love
2. need for gender identification
3. fear of intimacy with the opposite sex

Cohen uses a technique called bioenergetics. He demonstrated this by smashing a tennis racket into a pillow while shouting the name of a person eliciting painful childhood memories. Cohen also uses holding therapy, which involves cuddling and repeating affirming words to attempt to establish healthy, non-sexual bonding that may have been absent during childhood. The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) states that holding therapy by a therapist is potentially dangerous and strongly opposes its use. In Cohen's Counselor training program manual he states that only opposite-sex attracted mentors or same-gender parents should give holding therapy, and quoting from his 2000 book Coming Out Straight that the mentor should not be the same person as the therapist.

Books written

• Cohen, Richard A; Elizabeth Sherman. Alfie's Home (1993) ISBN 0-9637058-0-6, self-published.
• Cohen, Richard A; Laura Schlessinger. Coming Out Straight (2000) ISBN 1-886939-41-1, Oakhill Press, equity publisher.
• Cohen, Richard. Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan for Family Healing (2007) ISBN 978-0830834372, Inter-Varsity Press.

Further reading

Besen, W. Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies behind the Ex-Gay Myth, Harrington Park Press. ISBN 1-56023-445-8

External links

• International Healing Foundation - An organization Richard Cohen founded

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