Summer 2025 Newsletter

The Alliance exists to encourage human flourishing by promoting a more complete truth, informed by Judeo-Christian values and natural law, about the science of sexual orientation and biological sex through education, advocacy, clinical training, and therapy.

As the new Alliance president this year, I want to inform you that this year’s conference will be unique and wonderful. This year we have an emphasis on the transgender issue in terms of theory, treatment, and current legal actions. 

The US Supreme Court is considering a landmark case being held on free speech and religious rights in relationship to counseling for transgender dysphoria. 

I encourage all of you to attend and learn about…

• The demonstrated effectiveness of empirically sound psychotherapy.
• New research and forms of therapy that are like therapy on steroids. 
• The transgender/same-sex attraction issues as faced by clients, family members, friends, pastors & faith mentors. 
• You, reading this, are also encouraged to submit a proposal for a participation workshop. I also encourage all of you to be a sponsor by securing a vendor/mission booth at the conference. Space is limited, so you need to react now.

USE DISCOUNT CODE EARLYBIRD25 to save 10% OFF TICKET PRICE!

Partners - Login first to get your 20% or more discount on tickets!

Become a Partner today!

A CALL FOR WORKSHOP SPEAKERS!

The Theme of the conference is “The Transformative Power of Truth.” We would be happy for you to submit a request to be a workshop speaker. Please see the form below where you can submit your workshop idea to us. The deadline for submission is midnight July 29th, 2025. Also, we encourage you to review the preferred categories of workshop proposals. These are the categories that will be given the highest consideration for approval. Let us know if you have any questions. We hope to see all of you in Houston for the conference! Themes for the conference workshops are:

• Transgender Issues (History, Methods, Harms)
• Homosexual Issues (History, Methods, Harms)
• Faith Connects To Mental Health
• Real Change Evidence
• Mendacity of Legacy Psychological Institutions
• Client Rights
• Parents (Truth, Forgiveness, Expertise)
• History of Psychology (Past 20 years)
• Legal Issues
• Predictions of the future of Psychology
• Client Testimonials of Successful Change / Progress
• Examples of Combating Lies & Misinformation (Political, Educational, Mass Media, Spiritual, Psychological))

David Pickup LMFT-S Alliance President david.pickup@therapeuticchoice.com

On June 14th, 2025, area pastors, members of the faith community, and Christian counselors gathered together to "Bridge the Divide" in Twin Falls, Idaho. The mission of Bridge the Divide is to create healing faith communities where Christian counselors and pastoral mentors work together, offering the hope of transformation through the power of Jesus Christ for those who suffer with distress about same-sex attraction, gender incongruence, and sexual addiction. The event was a joint effort of the Ethics, Family & Faith Committee of the Alliance, the Eastside Baptist Church, and the Believer's Church of Twin Falls. Board members of the Alliance provided keynote addresses and workshops, along with Former Idaho State Representative, Julianne Young, a founding Board Member of Idaho Family Strong, an organization which uses technology to help busy citizens to actively fight for pro-family legislation. In 2024, Julianne championed the first conscience rights bill for counselors and therapists, protecting the right of clients to have therapy that aligns with their Christian values--an important goal of the Alliance.

Alliance Past President, Andy Visser and his beautiful wife, Jolene, made the trek from South Dakota, to provide a workshop to help families bridge the divide with loved ones who suffer.

Pastor Daren Mehl, Alliance Operations Manager, traveled from Minnesota to share his testimony of transformation from same sex attraction and pornography addiction in an inspiring keynote address. Pastor Mehl also provided a workshop for 20 area pastors who were eager to bridge the divide with members of their ministry who struggle.

A CEU class for Christian Counselors was provided by Alliance Board Member Peggy McFarland. Peggy encouraged counselors to build their counselor identities firmly on their Judeo-Christian values and on objective empirical science.

Peggy McFarland LCPC, CACLC, is the anchor EFF Division member for the BRIDGE THE DIVIDE conference. She developed the Bridge the Divide programming. Thank you Peggy for your excellent work! Twin Falls Idaho event was a great success!

The ATCSI has submitted an amicus brief in support of Haley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado, who is challenging the state law forbidding any counseling that might engage a minor’s desire to explore change in unwanted same-sex attractions or behavior as well as gender feelings that do not line up with one’s biological sex.

 Should the Supreme Court rule in Chiles favor, state and local bans on professional therapeutic speech dating back to Pickup v. Brown in 2012 (yes, the same David Pickup who is the current ATCSI President!) could all be overturned. At the request of attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom, the ATCSI’s brief focused on the ideological monoculture of professional mental health associations and the negative downstream effects such an echo chamber creates for the development of research and policy that reflects the experiences and aspirations of individuals who do not identify as LGBT+. The full brief can be found here: ATSCI Amicus Brief, and ALL OTHER information related to the Supreme Court case.

I recall an initial counseling interview in the 1980’s, with a very sad 34 year old woman. She was tearful and presented many serious depressive symptoms. She had recently moved back to the rural community where she was born and raised. She acknowledged being extremely depressed, intensely lonely and then she dropped the bombshell! She had returned to her childhood home in a small, conservative, mid-western town after a very difficult and hostile break up of a 12-year relationship with a lesbian partner. In an after-hours voicemail, she thanked me for listening to her sad tale, indicated she had again ‘left home,’ and therefore was cancelling the follow-up counseling appointment she had made earlier. I never heard from her again.

A very different story unfolds below, as a father shares a family story with a daughter who also had embarked on an SSA life journey… 

The Old Testament in Gen. 21:9-19 tells the story of a mother (Hagar) with an immature son kicked out of her home, away from support and left alone in the desert. As a parent, I felt like this when a daughter announced her affair with a woman whom she intended to marry. I felt like I was separated from my normal community of support who could not possibly understand how I felt, or what I needed. It seemed like I had only two choices, abandon my daughter and her partner and let her go her own way, or fully embrace everything they were doing together and join them in it.

Hagar faced the same tough choices: abandon her young son or face an uncertain future with him. Fortunately, with the Alliance’s help, I found a wise counselor who showed me a third way of dealing with the situation. He also pointed me to a parent support group who could understand what I was going through. My counselor informed me that my daughter’s condition was temporary, and that abandoning her was not an option, but that it was possible to love her without affirming what she was doing. It was also possible to love her partner as well.

People in my support group were a great encouragement, some telling stories of success with their children and others like me, still waiting and wondering what that would look like. My period of waiting lasted eight years, but during it I found new ways to show love to both my daughter and her partner without condoning and affirming their poor choices. My counselor’s advice was wise, because indeed, after 8 years their relationship ended badly. Because I remained in connection with both, I was able to continue to be in a good relationship with my daughter and watch her transition into a relationship with a man whom she ultimately married! They are now parents of my granddaughter. My thanks to the Alliance for providing wise council and support in what otherwise would have seemed an impossible situation. Oh, by the way, Hagar, was successful with wise counsel in making good choices as well.

What can we conclude from the above? Without support, openness and the graciousness of this father’s experience, happy endings will be rare. Many observers, both within and outside the faith community, conclude that same sex attraction changes or optimism for those experiencing disliked birth gender for the better will not occur. Cultivating openness to the truth about God’s plan for family intimacy nurtured with consistent, gracious, and unswerving hospitality... Yes, sexual attraction is fluid, however change may take more time and consistency than most of us might ever imagine!

Andy Visser MA LPC, Alliance Ethics, Family and Faith Division

The Alliance is now sharing content from The Journal of Human Sexuality on X. Come follow our account and re-post, quote, and interact with our posts. Help us get the truth out there! Follow our account here: https://x.com/ATCSI_Official

Daren Mehl, Operations Manager, The Alliance

Have you been helped by the Alliance? Let us know! We’d like to share your story in our next newsletter.

David Pickup

President, The Alliance

David.Pickup@TherapeuticChoice.com

Daren Mehl

Operations Manager, The Alliance

contactus@TherapeuticChoice.com