The Masters and Johnson treatment program for dissatisfied homosexual men

Certain individuals who want to change their homosexual preference can be helped by a short-term intensive intervention adapted from the Masters and Johnson model for treating heterosexual disorders. Pretreatment counseling aims at improving the patient's dating, sexual, and intimacy skills; creative problem solving; and stress management. Then for 2 weeks the patient and an opposite-sex partner, living in social isolation, meet daily with a therapy team to address fears and anxieties about intimacy as they arise. The directive psychotherapy format alternates between confrontation of maladaptive belief systems and patterns of relating and support for finding new ways of coping that foster a positive self-image.