Book list

Most of these books are available through Amazon or other online stores. Click on a title.

Battle for Normality: A Guide for (Self-) Therapy for Homosexuality, The

Gerard J.M. Van Den Aardweg, Ph.D., 1997, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA
This book is intended for “homosexually inclined persons who want to do something about their ‘condition’ themselves but do not have the opportunity to visit a therapist with healthy ideas on the matter.” His “practical rules for (self-) therapy” including knowing oneself (e.g., working through childhood and adolescence), hope, self-discipline, “fighting neurotic self-pity,” humor, patience and humility, “fighting the infantile ego,” “mending the sex role, changing one’s views of and relationships with others, and changing relations with the opposite sex. Van Den Aardweg is a renowned therapist in the field of sexology in The Netherlands with decades of experience in helping motivated clients. The Dutch radical gay-lib association (COC) has never managed to refute his scientific contributions, at least not on scientific grounds.

Beyond Gay

David Morrison, 1999, Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington IN, 800-348-2440.
A gay rights activist for seven years, David Morrison describes his spiritual conversion followed by his initial attempt to live as a “gay Christian,” in a sexual relationship with a lover but sincerely seeking to grow as a Christian. His continuing yearning for spiritual enlightenment ultimately led him to reject homosexuality completely, convert to Catholicism and embrace celibacy as a way of life. Although he never expected celibacy to “cure” him of homosexuality, over time he found that it did lead almost inadvertently to romantic interest in women. David Morrison’s personal experience is covered in the first several chapters in the book, and the remainder is an explanation and defense of the Roman Catholic position on homosexuality, marriage and chastity.

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself

By Melody Beattie

Is someone else’s problem your problem? If, like so many others, you’ve lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to someone else’s, you may be codependent–and you may find yourself in this book–Codependent No More.

Coming out of Homosexuality: New Freedom for Men and Women

Bob Davies and Lori Rentzel, 1993, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL
A practical guide for people struggling with same-sex desires, this book answers questions about what it means to be a man or a woman, how your past relates to your present tensions, how biblical principles apply to your daily life, and how you can form healthy relationships. It is interwoven with stories of recovery.

Coming Out Straight: Understanding and Healing Homosexuality

Richard Cohen, 2000, Oakhill Press, Winchester, Virginia
After a long struggle with unwanted homosexuality that finally led to emotional and spiritual healing, Richard Cohen earned a master’s in psychology from Antioch University and has been counseling individuals and families and instructing groups for more than a decade. Interspersed with his own recovery story and those of five of his clients, he presents a four-stage model of recovery:

  • transitioning (cutting off sexual behavior, establishing a support network and building self-worth)
  • grounding (inner-child healing and skill-building, such as assertiveness and communication)
  • healing homo-emotional wounds (discovering the root causes of wounds, grieving, forgiving and taking responsibility
  • and developing healthy, healing same-sex relationships) and healing hetero-emotional wounds (discovering root causes, learning about the opposite sex and developing healthy, healing, opposite-sex relationships).

 

Craving for Love

Briar Whitehead, 1993, Monarch Press, UK
The book examines the causes of homosexuality and the process of change from homosexual to heterosexual. It is based on research initiated when the author met a heterosexual married man named Noel Mosen in 1987 who told her that he had previously been a promiscuous gay man for more than 20 years, 10 of them as a gay political activist.

Desires in Conflict: Answering the Struggle for Sexual Identity

Joe Dallas, 1991, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR
Practical help for restoring sexual wholeness and moving ahead in a Christian lifestyle. Directed both to those who struggle with their sexual identity and to family and friends of strugglers. Written by a former struggler who overcame homosexuality.

Don’t Call It Love: Recovery from Sexual Addiction

Patrick J. Carnes, 1991, Bantam Books, New York

Female Homosexuality: Choice Without Volition

Elaine V. Siegel, 1988, Analytic Press, Hillsdale, NJ
Presents a psychoanalytic approach to helping women change sexual orientation.

Final Freedom, The

Doug Weiss, Ph.D.
In addition to informing sex addicts and their partners about sex addiction, this book gives hope for recovery from all types of sexual addiction. Also see other Doug Weiss tapes and resources.

Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan for Family Healing

Richard Cohen, 2007, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL

Growth Into Manhood: Resuming the Journey

Alan Medinger, 2000, Shaw Books, WaterBrook Press, (a division of Random House, Inc.), Colorado Springs, CO.
After a dramatic spiritual conversion more than 25 years ago eliminated his sexual desire for men and caused him to fall in love with his wife, Alan Medinger soon found that he still had a lot of growing up to do around his masculine identity. (“I was an eight year-old boy in a thirty-eight-year-old man’s body.”) Based on his own experience and his many years of experience in ex-gay ministry, Medinger describes the process that every young man goes through on his journey to male bonding and mature heterosexual masculinity. Chapters cover: understanding the masculine, learning to do the things that men do, building positive man-to-man relationships with men, relating to women as the opposite sex, etc.

Handbook of Therapy for Unwanted Homosexual Attraction

Julie Harren Hamilton, Ph.D. (Editor), Philip J. Henry, Ph.D. (Editor), 2009
The inspiration for this book comes primarily form the many people who have confided in me about their struggle to find appropriate professional assistance for decreasing their unwanted homosexual attractions. Many were told that change is impossible, while others were offered well-meaning but ineffective assistance by therapists or clergy who were not adequately trained to deal with this issue. Although I have heard many such stories, the one that stands out the most in my mind is that of Bart Allen, told to me by his parents, Joe and Marion Allen…

Healing Homosexuality: Case Studies of Reparative Therapy

Joseph Nicolosi, 1993, Jason Aronson Inc, Northvale, NJ
Psychologist Nicolosi presents eight cases studies, written in a highly readable narrative style, of men in psychotherapy for unwanted homosexuality. The book offers insights both to therapists and clients into how reparative therapy works at a very practical level to effect sexual identity and reorientation. The author is president and co-founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

The Heart of Female Same-Sex Attraction: A Comprehensive Counseling Resource

Janelle Hallman, 2008, IVP Books, Downers Grove, IL
The fruit of years of training, research and counseling experience, Janelle Hallman has drawn together a comprehensive resource for those who are interested in understanding and counseling women in conflict with same sex attraction. In this ground-breaking work, Hallman sets forth the unique dimensions of struggle that women experience through the presentation of research, interviews and clinical experience. This is an indispensable guide for understanding and a manual for counseling adult women seeking to “mature in giving and receiving love in all of [their] relationships, and no longer be restricted by destructive relational patterns.”

Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic

Elizabeth R. Moberly, 1983, Attic Press, Greenwood, SC
A short, scholarly book on the root causes of homosexuality. The author, a clinician, discusses the homosexual condition as being an emotional and social problem as well as a sexual problem. She explains how the homosexual condition is a misguided attempt to fulfill normal developmental needs. This ground-breaking book heavily influenced later psychological professionals and writers who built on her theories.

Homosexuality & Hope

Gerald Van Den Aardweg, 1985, Servant Publications, Ann Arbor, MI
The author asserts that homosexuality is not genetically determined but is a psychological problem that can be successfully treated by helping the client to overcome such root causes as self-centeredness, feelings of inferiority, and self-pity. Van Den Aardweg is a therapist who has treated many dissatisfied homosexuals.

Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis

Ronald Bayer, 1987, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Ronald Bayer presents the definitive case study of how the American Psychiatric Association Board of Trustees in 1973 removed homosexuality from its official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental diseases, after years of hostile and disruptive lobbying tactics of gay rights demonstrators.

Homosexuality and American Public Life

Edited by Christopher Wolfe, 1999, copyright American Public Philosophy Institute, Spence Publishing Co., Dallas, TX
This book is based on papers delivered at a conference sponsored by the American Public Philosophy Institute at Georgetown University in June 1997. Twelve experts — scientists, psychologists, philosophers and lawyers — investigate the causes of homosexuality, the morality of homosexual acts, and the appropriate social and political response to the effort to legitimize homosexuality. The contributes address the homosexual movement’s most compelling arguments with compassion and a commitment to truth. The first of two volumes (see Same-Sex Matters: The Challenge of Homosexuality).

Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth

Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., 1996, Hamewith Books, Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, MI
A psychiatrist formerly with Yale University, educated at M.I.T. and Harvard, Dr. Satinover critiques “gay science” and presents the “brute facts” in response to the question, “Is homosexuality desirable?” He presents psychological, Christian and Jewish arguments for change and outlines models for secular, Christian and Jewish treatment.

Homosexuality: Symptoms and Free Agency

Scott and Kae Anderson
Scott and Kae tell their own experience of Scott’s healing from homosexuality and healing their marriage as they offer counsel on how to understand homosexual problems and help those who struggle. Written primarily for a Latter-day Saint audience.

A Light in the Closet

Arthur Goldberg, 2009, Dr. Goldberg’s widely acclaimed book, Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change, Los Angeles: Red Heifer Press, 2nd printing, 2009 is the only one of its kind in that it uniquely and compassionately synthesized Torah principle with transformational healing processes. 

My Genes Made Me Do It! A Scientific Look at Sexual Orientation

Neil and Briar Whitehead, 1999, Huntington House Publishers, Lafayette, Louisiana
A New Zealand research scientist with a Ph.D. in biochemistry and his journalist wife examine the research literature on genetic causes of homosexuality and find that, taking a mainstream scientific position, the scientific evidence does not support the popular idea that homosexuality is genetic, intrinsic or fixed. Also see authors Web site http://www.mygenes.co.nz/.

NARTH Survey on Change

1997, National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, Encino, CA, 818-789-4440, www.narth.com
This is a 34-page spiral-bound summary of the results of a 1997 survey of 882 men and women who participated in therapeutic or pastoral counseling or a self-help program to alter unwanted homosexuality.

  • More than 45% of respondents reported a shift toward increased heterosexuality, including 18% who said they now consider themselves exclusively heterosexual and 17% almost exclusively heterosexual. Another 11% said they now feel more heterosexual than homosexual.
  • The average length of time since the experience of sexual orientation change was 6.7 years.
  • Only 7% of those who had received conversion therapy reported that they were doing worse than before the therapy on three or more of 17 measures of psychological well-being.
  • The overwhelming majority of survey participants who had undertaken counseling felt that conversion therapy was beneficial to their mental health and helped them cope with and reduce their homosexual attractions. This is an empirical rebuff to those who say attempting to change sexual orientation is psychologically damaging.

No More Mr Nice Guy by Robert A. Glover, jan 2003

With the “Nice Guy Syndrome” you find yourself trying too hard to please others while neglecting your own needs, thus causing unhappiness and resentfulness. Learn how to stop seeking approval and start getting what you want in life, learn to get your needs met, to express your emotions, to have a satisfying sex life, to embrace masculinity and form meaningful relationships with other men, and to live up to your creative potential.

A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality

In this groundbreaking book Joseph and Linda Ames Nicolosi uncover the most significant factors that contribute to a child’s healthy sense of self as male or female.  The Nicolosis provide clear insight for identifying potential developmental roadblocks and give practical advice to parents for helping their children securely identify with their gender. Replete with personal stories from parents, children and ex-homosexual strugglers, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality offers compassion and hope for all those parents who seek to lay a foundation for a healthy heterosexual identity in their children.

Portraits of Freedom: 14 People Who Came Out of Homosexuality

Bob Davies with Lela Gilbert, 2001 by Exodus International, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL
The authors write the personal stories of 14 men and women who overcame homosexuality and changed their lives.

Practical Exercises for Men in Recovery

James E. Phelan, PhD. This practical workbook is designed to be used to accompany a person or group in their recovery of same-sex attraction. It is also recommended for counselors, clergy, mentors, or anyone else serious about helping them. Containing 80 practical exercises, this workbook provides the user a medium for which to uncover and work through the unique issues encountered while in recovery of same-sex attraction.

Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach

Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., 1991, Jason Aronson Inc., Northvale, NJ
A ground-breaking book for therapists, the non-technical writing style also makes this a popular book among men seeking to change from a homosexual orientation. The author lays out the personality characteristics and development influences most common among homosexual men seeking to change, such as “defensive detachment” from fathers, peers and maleness generally, and presents psychotherapeutic models for recovery. The author is president and one of three co-founders of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

Resolving Homosexual Problems: A Guide for LDS Men

Jason Park, 1997, Century Publishing, Salt Lake City, UT
A practical guide to overcoming the problems that create homosexual desires to begin with, tailored to the needs and circumstances of men who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapters focus on personal choice and responsibility, support groups, therapy, behavior modification, self-perception, masculine development, emotional maturity, spirituality, etc. Jason Park writes from the perspective of a man who once struggled with unwanted homosexuality himself.

Same Sex Matters: The Challenge of Homosexuality

Edited by Christopher Wolfe, 2000, copyright American Public Philosophy Institute, Spence Publishing Co., Dallas, TX
This book is the second of two volumes based on papers delivered at a conference sponsored by the American Public Philosophy Institute at Georgetown University in June 1997 to examine how the American people should understand and respond to the public issue of homosexuality. Sixteen contributors write on:

  • how the case against legitimizing active homosexuality can be made in public discourse;
  • public policy on such matters as nondiscrimination, adoption, and HIV/AIDS;
  • the homosexual culture war; effects on religion, especially Judaism and Catholicism;
  • and the homosexual experience, from the perspective of two people — a woman who describes being “freed from lesbianism” and Father John Harvey, founder of the Catholic support group Courage. (See also Homosexuality and American Public Life.

Shame and Attachment Loss

Joseph Nicolosi, PhD. Bringing together a Judeo-Christian anthropology with biological and psychodynamic theories of human development and sexuality, psychologist Joseph Nicolosi details the therapeutic techniques of reparative therapy he has developed over the past twenty years. Written in three parts, the book first describes the nature of the psychodynamics of same-sex attraction as understood in the reparative therapy approach. The second part describes the various phases of treatment. The final part deals with walking clients through the process of grieving and the healing of their wounding. Endorsed by numerous notable leaders in psychotherapy, Nicolosi offers practical guidance for counselors and therapists who want to offer reparative therapy to those seeking change.

Someone I Love Is Gay

Bob Davies and Anita Worthen
The director of Exodus International, a man who overcame homosexuality himself, offers hope and guidance for family and friends dealing with a loved one’s homosexuality.

Straight & Narrow? Compassion & Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate

Thomas E. Schmidt, 1995, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove
A Ph.D. from Cambridge University who specializes in ancient texts and New Testament ethics, Schmidt attempts to bring together science and religion in an honest and compassionate discussion of a volatile issue. Among other things, he examines biblical teachings on homosexuality, the health effects of homosexual behavior, and the origins of homosexuality (“the great nature-nurture debate”).

 

The Drama of the Gifted Child, the search for the true self by Alice Miller

Miller’s wide and profound book about childhood trauma has provided thousands of readers with guidance and hope, and is essential reading for those interested in psychology, psychotherapy, and more.

 

What Research Shows: NARTH’s Response to the APA Claims on Homosexuality. 2009

When Homosexuality Hits Home

Joe Dallas, 2004, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR

Willpower is Not Enough

Dean Byrd and Mark Chamberlain
This book is written by two therapists with experience in treating clients struggling with addictions and unwanted homosexuality. They examine how using willpower alone against intense desires and addictions sets one up for failure, and how the solution therefore is “heart power,” a focus on changing the desires of one’s heart. They write from a theological perspective as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the bulk touches only lightly on spiritual perspectives, focusing more on emotional and psychological healing change.

You Don’t Have to be Gay: Hope and Freedom for Males Struggling with Homosexuality or for Those Who Know of Someone Who Is

Jeff A. Konrad, 1992, Pacific Publishing House, Hilo, HI
A series of letters from the author, who relates his experience overcoming homosexuality, to a young friend struggling to change.

Straight: an ExGay Prodigal Story

Matthew Karchner, May 2020

Matthew’s tells with honest transparency of his downward spiral into drug and alcohol addiction which led to full participation in the gay lifestyle over a period of years. Without going into salacious detail, Matthew provides the reader with a view of what eventually became a “deathstyle” of bleak desperation – seeking happiness, but never finding it. In fact, with his search, Matthew found the exact opposite. But even during the worst times there were providential encounters that stuck with him, a word here, an encounter there. A compelling story of victory through deciding to follow Christ, Matthew is now a missionary and happily married.

The scientific understanding of Same-sex Attractions

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