Core Issues Trust and IFTCC

Domain XVI · Historical, discredited & harmful · Michael Davidson · Northern Ireland

What it is

This guide covers two organisations, not a single therapy. Core Issues Trust is described by the Court of Appeal as a Christian, non-profit company limited by guarantee and registered charity that supports people with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek a change in sexual preference; the court…

Format

• Session number and format: set by the client's needs; individual work is the default, with family or couple sessions by agreement.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Historical phases of the organisations, in outline:
• 2020: Barclays closed the account used by Core Issues Trust and the IFTCC; in 2021 the Northern Ireland charity regulator kept the Trust on the register, stating that a charity's purpose must be "beneficial not harmful" and that conversion therapy is not among the charity's registered purposes, and that legislation would give it a definitive steer on benefit and harm.
• Repair, integration and follow-up: relationships, faith or community repair or grief, legal and complaint routes if wanted, advocacy, and planning for renewed contact with the organisations.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• The professional and international position: UK signatory bodies agree that conversion therapy, for sexual orientation or gender identity, is unethical and potentially harmful; the APA states there is "no evidence of sexual orientation change" and that change efforts may be harmful; the UN…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• complicated grief, isolation, return to the group from loneliness.
• advocacy overriding a particular client's own wishes; moralising tone.
• pressure to pursue or drop action; law changing (recheck before stating it).
• notes that pathologise orientation or identity, contrary to the MoU position.
• endings that feel like abandonment, mirroring losses from the faith community.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.