International Healing Foundation

Richard A. Cohen (born 1952) is an author and a proponent of conversion therapy. Cohen founded Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays and was its president, and founded the International Healing Foundation, through which he promotes his theories on sexual orientation change efforts for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Cohen, who was gay in his youth, underwent years of psychotherapy in an attempt to heal childhood issues which he felt had led to his homosexuality. He says that his therapy and personal growth helped him to understand his same-sex attractions, and to eventually transition to heterosexuality.

Cohen lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and has three adult children. His foundation, the International Healing Foundation, offers psychotherapy, coaching, teleconferencing classes, and healing seminars for members of the LGBT community and those with unwanted same-sex attraction.

Cohen has described a troubled childhood that he regards as the cause of his homosexuality later in life.

He belongs to a Jewish family which attended a Reform Judaism synagogue. He became a bar mitzvah and was confirmed in that synagogue. While attending Boston University, he became an evangelical Christian, and he later joined the Unification Church (which disapproves of homosexual behavior), where he says he remained celibate for long periods. In 1982, Cohen married Jae Sook, a South Korean woman suggested to him by church leader Sun Myung Moon. Cohen says that, during the first three years of his marriage, he underwent psychotherapy but was unable to find the help he needed, and therefore he found some healing with a boyfriend in New York City. Cohen describes this as a tumultuous period that led him to pursue healing from his past.

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