International Healing Foundation

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.