Man Says BetterHelp Referred Him to Conversion Therapy Supporter
A gay man in Tennessee said a therapist for one of the nation’s largest digital mental health companies recommended conversion therapy to help cure his depression and isolation from his family.Caleb Hill told the Wall Street Journal he had been kicked out of his home after telling his conservative Christian family he was gay.
As a practicing Christian, Hill had been taught same-sex sexual relations were a grave sin, and he struggled to reconcile his faith with his sexual identity.
Over time, Hill said he became depressed and felt alone. He had heard advertisements on various podcasts for BetterHelp which offered faith-based and LGBTQ-affirming counseling and decided to try their services.Hill, then 22, said he requested an LGBTQ+ therapist but instead was assigned a Christian therapist who did not specialize in LGBTQ+ issues.
Hill said he told the therapist, Jeffrey Lambert, he wanted to improve his relationship with his family. Rather than providing the type of supportive counseling he sought, Hill said Lambert recommended what he considered a form of conversion therapy.“He said either you sacrifice your family, or you sacrifice being gay,” Hill told WSJ. “I needed someone to tell me I was gay and that was OK.
