International
Healing Foundation
Our Vision:
Coming Out . . . Loved
1.
Healthy
Families – Embracing and Supporting
2.
Healthy
Churches – Compassion and Understanding
3.
Healthy
Individuals – Restored and Healed
How we get there. In
its 25-year apostolate, International Healing Foundation (IHF) has worked in
dozens of countries around the world sharing a message of hope and healing for
same-sex attracted (SSA) individuals and their families. While many
organizations provide information and knowledge, IHF has created three
groundbreaking successful protocols to: (1) help SSA individuals fulfill their
heterosexual potential, (2) instruct families how to help their SSA loved ones
heal, and (3) train therapists, clergy, and ministry leaders how to assist
those who experience SSA and their loved ones.
At its core, IHF
believes in three essential truths.
1) No one is essentially born with SSA.
There is no conclusive scientific data that proves
there is a simple genetic or biological cause for homosexuality. Scientific
research indicates that although biological and genetic factors may play a
part, homosexual desires stem from a complex interaction of psychological,
environmental, and temperamental influences.
2) No one simply chooses to experience SSA.
These desires are very
often the result of unresolved childhood wounds and unmet love needs. Choice is
clearly involved in the decision whether or not to act on the desires. In 25
years of clinical experience, we have discovered a number of potential causes
of SSA in men and women, including: heredity, temperament, family wounds, body
image wounds, sexual abuse, peer wounds, and cultural influences.
3)
People
can be hopeful in their choice to change from a homosexual to a heterosexual
orientation.
Research clearly demonstrates
that change is possible. With strong motivation, effective treatment, proper
support, and the love of God, some people can and do change. The path to healing
is fourfold: (1) understand the root causes of SSA, (2) gain support from
others, (3) heal the wounds of the past, and (4) fulfill unmet love needs in
healthy, nonsexual relationships with those of the same gender. With over two and a half
decades of success, IHF has helped thousands of SSA men and women worldwide
fulfill their heterosexual dreams.
IHF
Offers Three Programs that Facilitate
Healing
1) Individual Counseling and Healing Seminars:
Changing lives, one individual at a time.
For
twenty-five years, IHF has offered one-to-one counseling for individuals
struggling with unwanted SSA. Our four-stage protocol addresses the
developmental, familial, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of healing.
Throughout the course of therapy, clients are taught the meaning of their
same-sex desires while the therapist helps him/her heal wounds, all the while
coaching the client to receive unmet love needs in healthy, non-sexual
relationships with same-gender friends. Many clients that have successfully
completed our therapeutic process have gone onto form loving, committed
marriages with an opposite-sex spouse.
IHF also
offers group counseling in the form of healing seminars to assist in the
process:
¨
Our most
well known retreat, called the Tender Loving
Care (TLC) healing seminar, is held in many different countries annually.
At this seminar, men, women, and entire families struggling with a variety of
issues (including SSA) learn the basic causes of wounding in a safe atmosphere
where they can process hurt and pain. Throughout this two-day experiential
seminar, participants learn real and practical
solutions to work through personal and relational conflicts.
¨ Our Breakthrough Healing
Weekend for Men with Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction is
a group experiential retreat of men who are immersed in 48 hours of
experiential healing, processing, reflecting, and sharing their lives with each
other. Participants
work through unhealthy relational patterns and behaviors, while helping them
learn to connect with men on a deeper level and move to a new place of healing
in their journey. Each man leaves with concrete
action steps to assist him in his continued growth into manhood.
2)
Family Healing:
Changing
hearts and minds, one family at a time.
When a child comes out to the family, parents go into shock and seek answers.
They go to their place of worship or online seeking resources and answers.
Through IHF’s individual consultations, teleconferencing classes, and
resources, parents learn new skills and effective ways to help their child
fulfill his or her innate heterosexual potential. All this is accomplished by
setting love in order within the family.
To facilitate family healing, we
offer intensive therapeutic experiences to further growth and family healing:
¨ When
an emotional wound goes unrecognized, the hurt within a child develops into a
number of symptoms (including SSA) in order to cope with the underlying pain. Our Family Healing Sessions
connect the wounded adult-child to his or her parents and family. Family Healing Sessions are
especially helpful to remove blocks that prevent healthy communication and
connection within the family, creating more harmonious and loving
relationships. They also support the resolution of longstanding conflicts between
parents and children. In Family
Healing Sessions, parents and children express their
emotions and work through these wounds. As a result, they experience a
wonderful bonding and reattachment!
¨ Our
Key to Your Child’s Heart weekend
healing retreat for mothers and fathers of SSA loved
ones connect parents with a supportive network to facilitate growth and family
healing. The goal is for each mother and father to grow personally,
learning how to better love and understand their struggling child, and to
uncover how their own unresolved issues may be blocking their family’s path to
healing.
3) Changing churches, one member at a time.
Give a
man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. People
who attend churches are not immune to SSA. In fact, sometimes it’s harder for
SSA individuals who attend churches because many of them leaders do not know
how to help those in their congregation with SSA. When a member is struggling,
the church may provide a referral therapist to such individuals. However, it is
more important to train church leaders how to transform their congregation from
one of judgment and condemnation to understanding and compassion.
¨ Our Counselor
Training Program is the first of its kind in the world, detailing a
comprehensive approach for helping men and women who experience unwanted SSA or
question their sexuality, and assisting family and friends of gay-identified
loved ones. After three intensive days of training, counselors, ministers, and
therapists leave with a detailed treatment protocol to help facilitate healing
for individuals, families, and church communities.
¨
Our Educational Seminars for church members
teach the basic development and science of homosexuality while educating
parishioners with valuable principles for family and community healing. They
leave the seminar with answers to their common questions on homosexuality,
enlightened with new ways of understanding complex situations, and armed with
an action plan on how to bring about healing to their church body and
community.
