APA Past President Nicholas Cummings supports sexual identity therapy guidelines
Dr. Nicholas Cummings wrote in an email earlier today he believes the guidelines are worthy of support. Here is his statement about the sexual identity guidelines:
Drs. Throckmorton and Yarhouse have brilliantly resolved contention in psychotherapy by providing the field with unbiased guidelines that are responsive to scientific evidence, are sensitive to professional practice, and which restore patient determination in choosing his/her goals in psychotherapy.
Dr. Nicholas Cummings, PhD, ScD is Distinguished Chair in Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Cummings is the President of the Foundation for Behavioral Health and Chairman of the Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Foundation, Inc. He was the founding CEO of American Biodyne (MedCo/Merck, then Merit, now Magellan Behavioral Care). He is also the former President of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Cummings was the founder of the four campuses of the California School of Professional Psychology, the National Academies of Practice, the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association, and the National Council of Professional Schools of Psychology. He was also the Chief Psychologist (Retired) at Kaiser Permanente. He was the former Executive Director of the Mental Research Institute. Dr. Cummings is the author of: The Essence of Psychotherapy; Integrated Behavioral Healthcare;
Clinical Strategies for Becoming a Master Psychotherapist; Evidence-Based Adjunctive Treatments and co-editor with Rogers Wright of Destructive Trends in Mental Health.
This is a good start on getting around the political “blackout” that the professional organizations seek to impose on those treating clients with unwanted SSA.
Psychotherapists have a responsibility to behave ethically with their clients, even when their professional associations abdicate their roles as guides for these therapist.
Throckmorton and Yarhouse show that ethical integrity first starts with the clinician, eventually the professional organization has to adopt them. I think that is the way it has always been.
Good job W and M.
David Blakeslee