"Conversion therapy appears differently now"
14 August 2026
Ireland
Ireland is actively developing conversion therapy legislation, and this episode asks a question every Irish therapist and parent should be considering: could a broadly written ban prevent psychotherapists from offering exploratory, evidence-based care to gender-questioning young people? Stella O'Malley examines how the meaning of 'conversion therapy' has shifted in recent years, what that shift means for clinical practice in Ireland, and why the precise drafting of any such law matters enormously for children's long-term wellbeing.
The term 'conversion therapy' was coined to describe a category of discredited, often brutal practices aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation. That history is real and the harm was real. But in this episode, the hosts examine how the label has migrated — how it is now increasingly applied to any therapeutic approach that does not immediately and uncritically affirm a young person's stated gender identity, regardless of the clinical picture or the complexity of what that young person is experiencing. For Irish psychotherapists, this is not an abstract argument. Ireland is in the process of developing legislation in this area, and the question of how 'conversion therapy' is defined in that legislation will have direct consequences for what is and is not permissible in the consulting room. A broadly drawn ban could, in effect, require therapists to affirm rather than explore — to bypass the very process of open-ended psychological inquiry that evidence-based care depends on. Stella O'Malley, who has worked with gender-questioning young people and their families in Ireland, understands that pressure at a professional and personal level. The episode makes the case that the problem is not with protecting people from genuine harm — it is with the elasticity of the concept as it is now being deployed. When exploratory questions, measured watchful waiting, or attention to co-occurring mental health difficulties can be characterised as attempts to 'convert' a young person, therapists face a stark choice: affirm or risk professional and legal consequences. This chilling effect has already been documented in other jurisdictions, and Ireland is not immune to the same dynamic. For Irish parents, the stakes are equally high. If the therapeutic space is legally narrowed to a single permissible response, families who want their child to receive thorough, unhurried psychological support may find that option simply unavailable within the health system. Ireland's child and adolescent mental health services are already stretched beyond capacity. The prospect of legislative constraints on therapeutic approach compounds that difficulty at precisely the moment when young people most need careful, patient-centred care. What this episode ultimately argues is that good law and good therapy share a common requirement: precision. A conversion therapy ban that fails to distinguish between practices designed to harm and practices designed to help does not protect vulnerable young people — it reduces their options and potentially forecloses pathways to genuine understanding. Irish policymakers, clinicians, and educators all have a stake in getting that distinction right, and this conversation is a serious contribution to that debate.
