Dr Mike Davidson Interviewed On The Fight for Counselling Freedom by The Ruth Institute
On the 27th of November 2023, Dr Mike Davidson was interviewed by Dr Jennifer Roback Morse on the ‘Dr J Show’ on behalf of her organisation ‘The Ruth Institute’, which stands to defend traditional morality with logic and love.
The interview began with the Ruth Institute President, Dr Jennifer Roback Morse, listing some common assumptions surrounding the ‘born gay’ myth and the Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) that gay activists and the sexual revolution try to force. Dr Jennifer questioned Dr Mike Davidson intending to analyse the validity of these assumptions, and to understand why Dr Mike is such a committed defender of therapeutic and counselling choice.
Dr Mike talked about his passion for protecting the rights and the autonomy of people to move away from unwanted homosexuality or gender confusion, and those helping them, giving his own personal testimony of how counselling in this area brought him into a state of flourishing. He described his motivation as one to “create an alternative to the narrative that is shutting down or cancelling people who are concerned to provide this freedom.”
Dr Jennifer made some interesting points about how the sexual revolution we are experiencing is an oppressive one, dictating to individuals on ‘how’ they should feel instead of approaching the subject from an angle which is sensitive to the individual’s desires and needs – “if you don’t feel the way that you are supposed to feel according to the sexual revolutionary narrative, you don’t count! You are socially invisible.”
To back this up, Dr Mike raised a point about how autonomy is highly valued in every part of life… until the topic of sexual identity is brought up – where politicians and therapists decide what you can and cannot do. He considers this a fundamental attack on personal autonomy. He talked about the stresses that someone with unwanted same-sex attraction faces, as they are “often marginalised, underconfident, and very vulnerable” due to the circumstances that they find themselves in, not being able to talk to anyone, and being made even more anxious by the debate, further isolating themselves.
Dr Mike also gave an insight into how counsellors dealing with those experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction and gender confusion do a lot of work listening to and understanding how the individuals describe themselves, working with them in a gentle yet critical way to encourage discernment over whether their imposed label or identity is helping them in terms of their personal goals. These individuals would have previously experienced incongruency in terms of their values being contrary to what they are being told to believe about the impulses that they experience – it is beneficial to help them resolve their own inner conflict. They are often empowered, learning that they are not victims and that there are choices around their circumstances.
Change-exploring therapies take individuals on a transformative pathway, presenting them with the opportunity to go in a direction which they may discover for themselves to be the right way forward identity-wise. Many learn to replace an illegitimate need for connection with someone of the same sex with a legitimate connection, such as comradery, belonging, and brotherhood. Once this is fulfilled, they then begin to discover the mystery of the differences between themselves and the opposite sex, healthily satisfying the previously damaging hunger for attachment.
Dr Mike discussed the problems presented by normalising ‘same-sex attraction’ as an orientation for Christians, who say that there is no need to change, just to commit to the Lord through celibacy without ‘acting out’ their homosexual desires, which is problematic due to how the New Testament positions the gift of celibacy, which in context is geared towards those with the capacity to be in opposite-sex relationships and not towards the emotional and mental wellbeing of the individual.
You can watch Dr Mike’s interview with the Ruth Institute below.
