Work premised on changing or suppressing orientation or gender toward a preferred outcome.
Back to the glossaryClinical literacy
Conversion practices
Interventions or practices directed at changing, suppressing or preventing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity because one outcome is presumed preferable. They may be presented as therapy, counselling, prayer, discipline or support.
Clinical literacy
In brief
Predetermined suppression or change is not neutral therapeutic exploration.
Conversion practices are rejected by major UK health and therapy bodies as unethical, ineffective and potentially harmful. They differ from open-ended, affirming exploration that does not prescribe a heterosexual, cisgender or other predetermined outcome. The UK legal position is fragmented and changing; specific conduct may already engage criminal, safeguarding, professional or civil law even without one simple UK-wide offence label.
Support that accepts identity diversity and explores wellbeing without directing the conclusion.
Open-ended reflection on feelings, identity, values or options without a predetermined identity result.
Help with specific lawful, consensual behaviour or distress without treating identity or attraction as the problem.
Forms and warning signs
Practices may include one-directional talking therapy, aversion, coercive prayer, isolation, shame, threats or attempts to enforce gender expression. The setting or religious framing does not determine whether the purpose is conversion.
Warning signs include promises to cure identity, blaming family or trauma without evidence, demanding celibacy only for one orientation, and defining success as concealment.
Evidence and harm
Professional consensus does not support reliable change of sexual orientation or gender identity through such interventions. Reported harms include shame, anxiety, depression, damaged relationships and delayed appropriate care.
Most evidence is observational and terminology varies, but those limitations do not establish effectiveness or ethical acceptability.
What legitimate care can do
Therapy can explore uncertainty, faith, relationships, sexual behaviour, dysphoria, transition options or distress while leaving identity outcomes open. A client may also choose behavioural boundaries for personal reasons.
Consent to therapy is not meaningful if risks, practitioner aims or alternatives are concealed, or if family, community, housing or spiritual threats remove freedom.
Safety, complaints and law
Check professional registration and complain through the regulator or employer when appropriate. Safeguarding services or police may be relevant where conduct includes abuse, assault, coercive control, threats or risk to a child or vulnerable adult.
Legal reforms and scope vary across UK nations and over time. Obtain current jurisdiction-specific legal advice rather than assuming every harmful practice has one identical offence.
Non-graphic examples
What the umbrella may include
- A therapist promising to make a gay client heterosexual.
- Coercive prayer intended to suppress a trans identity.
- Open-ended discussion of identity without a preferred answer.
- Supporting a client's chosen celibacy without condemning orientation.
- Reporting assault or coercion separately from the conversion label.
Reviewed 30 August 2026
Keep exploring.
This detailed field note uses the best available evidence without treating one community sample as universal. Evidence limits and UK context are stated where relevant.
Prepared by The UK Kink Guide editorial team. Read the evidence and review methodology.
Found an error or important omission? See how to report a correction.
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