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'Get well' therapy offered for gay
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-07 16:41 "This is a kind of suffering which has meaning for Christians, a suffering that they have to face each day," Wojdan added. "A human being is capable of knowing what's really important to him or her and thus of overcoming his or her feelings. When you want a sweet, for example, you are completely able to resist the urge," she said. Odwaga's standard programmes are lengthy. For the first year, participants must devote one weekend a month to support-group sessions. For the following two years, they devote 20 hours a month to group therapy sessions led by psychologists, who are often priests. They can also pray and take Communion in the centre's chapel. To shore up its programmes, Odwaga also runs groups for participants' parents or others close to them. Its methods have been adopted by psychologists and other Odwaga-type support groups across Poland. "Today I feel free because I no longer need to live out my homosexuality actively," a woman who took an individual programme five years ago said. "I no longer feel I'm a lesbian and I have even started to discover men," she said in a telephone interview, speaking on condition of anonymity. For gay rights campaigners, the programmes of Odwaga and its ilk are an aberration and can even threaten participants' mental health. "When a homosexual goes to see these psychologists, he or she is told: 'You'll get over it.' But you don't 'get over it'," said Marta Abramowicz, a psychologist who works for the Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish-based gay rights group. "As a result, the person slides into depression. I've even known people who committed suicide," she said. |
