The good news is that, for those willing to embrace the process, hope is definitely available.
Throckmorton estimates that approximately 70 percent of the people he has worked with who were in conflict with their same-sex feelings in one way or another, and who did desire change, found healing and reverted to heterosexual lifestyles. Leach, who works almost exclusively with clients struggling with G.I.D., has seen an 80 percent success rate.
Both agree that the path toward wholeness is neither easy nor short, however.
“Healing begins with the desire to become reconciled with early, unresolved childhood emotional wounds; events in the early developmental years which threatened or undermined a person’s feelings of security, peace, warmth and comfort; and a secure sense of being deeply, unconditionally and uniquely loved,” Leach says.
However, the search for a counselor must be undertaken with great care, he emphasizes, because even within the Christian community, there can be a defeatist attitude that nothing can be done about G.I.D. – especially for those who have never witnessed dramatic change.
“You need to find a counselor who is not buying into the traditional lies,” Leach says. “Modern caregivers are trained to accept these feelings as God-given, and will tell you that it can only be corrected by surgery. Even Christian psychologists often quickly acquiesce to the modern view, which was put forward by doctors who had no luck with Freudian or psychological approaches. So there is an assumption that it was genetic, rather than taking responsibility for our own actions.
“With professional help, you must go back to your early childhood and begin to unpack the pain, and find out why you are running away from your gender, or why you envy the other gender, or who it was that gave you such a negative role model of your gender,” Leach continues. “It also means unpacking some of the sexually addictive components that cause you to act out sexually.”
There is hope, he insists. After all, Leach struggled with transgender feelings from a young age (see testimony below), even after getting married, having children and converting to Christianity.
But, after years of prayer and counseling, and through Christ’s transformative power, he now walks in complete freedom from those issues – and he helps others to do likewise.
Annabelle Robertson is an award-winning journalist who practiced law for several years before committing her life to Christ. She has a Master of Divinity from Regent College in Vancouver, B.C.
For hope and help with Gender Identity Dysphoria, please visit:
www.realityresources.com
www.exodus-international.org
www.truthcomesout.com
www.drthrockmorton.com
To read part one of this series, click here.
JERRY LEACH: A TESTIMONY OF HOPE AND HEALING
"Taking hormones of the opposite sex. Consulting with a sex-change therapist. All of it seemed so bizarre. I was a married man, the father of two children and an active church member. I had been a Christian for almost 30 years. But when the pharmacist handed me the bag containing my pills, my hands shook with excitement. At last, my body would take on female characteristics!
