Tools & Resources
Counselors & Life Coaches
How do you find a qualified professional with the experience, training and wisdom to help you with the challenges of addressing your same-sex attractions in affirming ways that align with your faith, values, morals and life goals?
Below we provide a few bios on counselors and life coaches. Then we’ll give you some links to some additional referral sources that may be helpful. But first, this important disclaimer:
Disclaimer & Caution
We provide these resources for informational purposes, to assist sincere adults in furthering their personal work and doing their own research. The fact that we’ve listed an individual or resource or link here does not mean that we necessarily agree with everything they do or say. Conversely, the fact that we’ve listed a resource, group or individual does not indicate they are necessarily endorsing us or even necessarily agree with everything we do or say.
Therapists & Counselors
The following are licensed therapists and counselors in the United States and Israel.
David H. Pickup, MA, LMFT
Private practice, offices in Dallas, TX and Los Angeles, CA
www.davidpickuplmft.com
1-818-481-2745
[email protected]
David holds a master’s degree in psychology and is completing doctoral studies in psychology at CalSouthern University. He is licensed in California and Texas as a Marriage and Family Therapist. David underwent an extensive internship and training with the creator of Reparative Therapy, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi at Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic. He now operates his own private practices in Encino, Calif. and Dallas, Texas.
His practices consist almost entirely of same-sex attracted men who seek orientation change. David is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the American Psychological Association, and he holds training courses in Reparative Therapy for licensed counselors and ministers. He often speaks about Reparative Therapy on news shows and for churches and men’s groups. David holds to the belief that authentic manhood and the fulfillment of same-sex emotional needs is a marvelous and healing experience.
Matt Miller, M.Ed., LPC-S
Private practice in Houston, Texas
1-713-449-2225
[email protected]
Matt Miller is a Licensed Professional Counselor and clinical supervisor. He has been practicing since 1995 in various professional areas such as public school counselor, public mental health clinics, psychiatric hospitals, and private practice.
Matt’s practice is generalized, but he does give special attention to men with unwanted same-sex attraction, male victims of sexual abuse, and sexual addiction. Research indicates that the relationship between clinician and client is the most significant factor in treatment outcomes rather than technique, theoretical orientation, or mental health discipline. For this reason, Matt puts a great emphasis on the relationship and draws the diversity of his experiences in each individual case.
Keith Vennum, MD
Psychiatric Services and Mental Health Counseling
Psychology Today Psychiatrists
1-407-205-8833
[email protected]
Keith is a licensed physician and mental health counselor specializing in working with men who wish to reduce their unwanted same-sex attractions. He also counsels couples in mixed-orientation marriages and parents of gay-identified children. He received his Master’s degree from Liberty University and his doctorate from the University of Florida.
Dr. Vennum has received training through The Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity and its NARTH Institute and has participated in a Journey into Manhood weekend. He is a referral therapist for Focus on the Family and Restored Hope Network. He believes that experiencing authentic manhood and meeting same-sex emotional needs in healthy, affirming ways are worthy life goals for men. His own life experiences inform his empathy for clients and his counseling approach.
Robert L. Vazzo, MMFT
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Psychology Today Therapists
1-818-482-6083
[email protected]
Robert Vazzo received his master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Southern California and completed his clinical internship at the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, California, where he worked with leading sexual reorientation therapist Dr. Joseph Nicolosi. He is an active member of The Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity and its NARTH Institute. His professional interests include working with men who feel deeply conflicted over unwanted same-sex attraction, transvestic fetishism, pornography, and pedophilia. Mr. Vazzo has lived and worked in France, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey and maintains an active interest in multicultural counseling.
Shlomo-Zalman (Adam) Jessel, MA
[email protected]
972-546-720-336
Shlomo-Zalman (Adam) Jessel holds a BSc degree in Psychology and an MA in Clinical-Developmental psychology, and is fully trained in EMDR (Level II). A founding member of the Jerusalem Therapy Institute (https://jnti.org/), he works with individuals and families in Israel and abroad, often via telephone or Skype. He has published in medical and scientific journals on a wide array of subjects, and lectures to therapists and educators several times per year. He is part of Dr. Nicolosi’s supervision group, and in turn, trains other therapists in Israel and the United States.
Christopher Doyle, MA, LPC, LCPC
Executive Director, Institute for Healthy Families
www.instituteforhealthyfamilies.org
1-703-367-0894
[email protected]
Christopher Doyle is a licensed psychotherapist and the executive director of the Institute for Healthy Families, a non-profit Judeo-Christian therapeutic organization in the Washington, D.C. area. He specializes in working with men, women, and families struggling with sexual and gender identity issues. He is also the founder and clinical director of Northern Virginia Christian Counseling and a mental health therapist at Patrick Henry College, where he provides counseling for the student body.
Licensed in Virginia and Maryland, Christopher is the creator of several experiential therapeutic retreats and has authored several books on sexuality, including The War on Psychotherapy: When Sexual Politics, Gender Ideology, and Mental Health Collidge (2019), The Meaning of Sex: A New Christian Ethos (2018), and Benefits of Delaying Sexual Debut (2008, 2015).
He is also a contributing author at The Christian Post, and his work has been featured in many media outlets, including The Dr. Oz Show, NBC News, the National Catholic Register, Atlantic magazine, World magazine, and many more.
Helen Bair, MAPC
1-602-320-2233
[email protected]
Specializing in Subconscious Repairing Therapy (SRT). Repair traumatic/painful memory with ease and comfort, as if it never happened. Heal shattered/dissociated parts of the self. Come to ONEness within. And more… Watch FREE videos on the website to learn why SRT is so fast and easy.
Life Coaching
Life coaching is not therapy. A life coach does not “diagnose” or “treat.” Therapy is for those who are primarily seeking relief from emotional or psychological pain. Therapy typically focuses on healing the wounds of the past.
Coaching is different. Life coaching focuses primarily on the present and the future. Coaching is for those who are emotionally and mentally grounded but working to grow, change, and experience greater success and happiness in life, work and relationships.
To learn more about the profession of Life Coaching, visit www.coachfederation.org.
Rich Wyler, Certified Life Coach
and Founder & Director, Brothers on a Road Less Traveled
1-434-227-9346
[email protected] (Individual Life Coaching)
[email protected] (Questions related to Brothers on a Road Less Traveled or Journey Into Manhood)
Rich is a certified life coach with extensive real-world experience in helping men address internal conflicts over same-sex attractions, starting with his own healing journey in the late 1990s.
In 2000, he launched a website of personal testimonials that, over time, grew into an international non-profit organization called Brothers on a Road Less Traveled. In 2002, Wyler created and launched the powerful Journey Into Manhood experiential personal-growth weekend. He later created the Journey Continues follow-up weekend and co-created A Woman Who Loves, a weekend supporting women who have been hurt by a loved one’s same-sex attractions, sexual behaviors, or betrayal.
Rich established Higher Path Life Coaching and began coaching professionally in 2005. He has years of experience helping to facilitate deep inner-healing and personal growth work not only through his own programs but also through Adventure in Manhood, Noble Man, and Healing for the Soul, among others.
Rich received life-coaching certification through the Coach Training Alliance in 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications (public relations) from Brigham Young University. He is the father of an adult daughter and son. Widowed in 2006, he remarried in 2010 and lives with his wife in Virginia, USA. You can read about his own experience in therapy at “A Change of Heart.”
Darryl Deason, Certified Life Coach
Illuminate the Path
Co-Creator of “Together in Love” Couples Weekend
1-615-545-0903
[email protected]
Darryl is a certified life coach who began his own personal healing journey in 2012. In 2014 he and his wife, Terry, along with Bobby and Mary Jane Morgan, saw a desperate need for creating an experiential weekend for couples dealing with the husband’s sexual addiction or same-sex attraction. In 2015, they began hosting Together in Love marriage retreats. Today, they have hosted 10 weekends and offered healing to over 90 couples.
Knowing that he has had a lifelong mission of empowering others, Darryl began informally coaching men in March 2019. In two years’ time, he found himself as an individual life coach of 10 men from across the world and the creator of two coaching groups.
In November 2021, he completed his life coach certification from Life Purpose Institute and joined Terry in her life coach business, Illuminate the Path.
Darryl is currently seeing a variety of clients, including:
- Men who struggle in having authentic friendships, feeling comfortable in their masculinity and being fully known.
- Couples that desire an action-plan coaching alternative to marriage counseling.
- Women who are married to SSA men and who need a short-term coaching perspective from a male point of view.
Darryl and Terry have been married for 40 years and have two daughters and five grandchildren. He is a retired dentist of 38 years with a BS degree in chemistry and a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree.
Tera Brown, Certified Life Coach
coachtera.com
toolboxhealing.com
1-801-231-6477
[email protected]
Coach Tera helps women recover and rediscover life after betrayal and trauma. She woke up from a lifelong pattern she wasn’t even aware of…avoiding, numbing and denying her emotions, when after 16 years of marriage her husband disclosed his SSA, infidelity, and addiction struggles. Tera began her personal journey of personal growth and recovery that very day.
Since then, her personal journey has taken her on a roller coaster of learning and growing. Her passion has become to share with others the tools she has found to live life authentically and on purpose. Coach Tera teaches when you heal in the four areas of PEMS (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual), you can become whole again.
Tera co-created Daughters of Light, a division of The Toolbox, LLC to help women find healing, connection and strength. Daughters of Light hosts workshops and retreats designed to help women heal and become more in touch with emotions and patterns that keep them stuck experiencing what they don’t want.
Coach Tera has a thriving coaching practice and teaches online group coaching classes like SSA 101 for Spouses, Braving Betrayal, and Emotional Literacy.
Tera has been married to Curtis for 26 years, has 4 beautiful children and a BA in fashion design from Brigham Young University. She has used her talents to design and make custom wedding gowns for nearly 30 years.
Bruce R. Gold, Certified Professional Coach
Private practice in Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Collegeville Healing Center
1-610-489-0496
[email protected]
Bruce has trained in modalities including Gestalt Therapy, Shadow Awareness, Imago Therapy, Co-Dependency, Touch Therapy, Voice Dialogue and Shiatsu bodywork. Bruce has extensive experience leading short and long-term men’s and couple’s groups since 1993. He offers counseling on an individual basis for men, women and families addressing addiction, co-dependency, anger, shame and loss, sexual abuse and gender issues. Additionally, Bruce works with clients dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.
Bruce has been an active participant in various 12 step recovery groups since 1984. Bruce has been a certified co-leader in an intense men’s initiation weekend that invites men to forge a deep conscious connection between head and heart, and that supports men in developing lives of integrity, accountability, and connection to feeling. He has facilitated or led workshops throughout the Northern Hemisphere and Europe. Currently, Bruce maintains a full-time coaching practice in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, where he works with individuals, couples, families and groups. Bruce specializes in personal empowerment by teaching and modeling strength through vulnerability, creating safe and passionate moments of healing.
Coaching & Support Groups
Life coaching is not therapy. A life coach does not “diagnose” or “treat.” Therapy is for those who are primarily seeking relief from emotional or psychological pain. Therapy typically focuses on healing the wounds of the past.
Coaching is different. Life coaching focuses primarily on the present and the future. Coaching is for those who are emotionally and mentally grounded but working to grow, change, and experience greater success and happiness in life, work and relationships.
To learn more about the profession of Life Coaching, visit www.coachfederation.org.
Rich Wyler, Certified Life Coach
and Founder & Director, Brothers on a Road Less Traveled
1-434-227-9346
[email protected] (Individual Life Coaching)
[email protected] (Questions related to Brothers on a Road Less Traveled or Journey Into Manhood)
Rich is a certified life coach with extensive real-world experience in helping men address internal conflicts over same-sex attractions, starting with his own healing journey in the late 1990s.
In 2000, he launched a website of personal testimonials that, over time, grew into an international non-profit organization called Brothers on a Road Less Traveled. In 2002, Wyler created and launched the powerful Journey Into Manhood experiential personal-growth weekend. He later created the Journey Continues follow-up weekend and co-created A Woman Who Loves, a weekend supporting women who have been hurt by a loved one’s same-sex attractions, sexual behaviors, or betrayal.
Rich established Higher Path Life Coaching and began coaching professionally in 2005. He has years of experience helping to facilitate deep inner-healing and personal growth work not only through his own programs but also through Adventure in Manhood, Noble Man, and Healing for the Soul, among others.
Rich received life-coaching certification through the Coach Training Alliance in 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications (public relations) from Brigham Young University. He is the father of an adult daughter and son. Widowed in 2006, he remarried in 2010 and lives with his wife in Virginia, USA. You can read about his own experience in therapy at “A Change of Heart.”
Darryl Deason, Certified Life Coach
Illuminate the Path
Co-Creator of “Together in Love” Couples Weekend
1-615-545-0903
[email protected]
Darryl is a certified life coach who began his own personal healing journey in 2012. In 2014 he and his wife, Terry, along with Bobby and Mary Jane Morgan, saw a desperate need for creating an experiential weekend for couples dealing with the husband’s sexual addiction or same-sex attraction. In 2015, they began hosting Together in Love marriage retreats. Today, they have hosted 10 weekends and offered healing to over 90 couples.
Knowing that he has had a lifelong mission of empowering others, Darryl began informally coaching men in March 2019. In two years’ time, he found himself as an individual life coach of 10 men from across the world and the creator of two coaching groups.
In November 2021, he completed his life coach certification from Life Purpose Institute and joined Terry in her life coach business, Illuminate the Path.
Darryl is currently seeing a variety of clients, including:
- Men who struggle in having authentic friendships, feeling comfortable in their masculinity and being fully known.
- Couples that desire an action-plan coaching alternative to marriage counseling.
- Women who are married to SSA men and who need a short-term coaching perspective from a male point of view.
Darryl and Terry have been married for 40 years and have two daughters and five grandchildren. He is a retired dentist of 38 years with a BS degree in chemistry and a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree.
Tera Brown, Certified Life Coach
coachtera.com
toolboxhealing.com
1-801-231-6477
[email protected]
Coach Tera helps women recover and rediscover life after betrayal and trauma. She woke up from a lifelong pattern she wasn’t even aware of…avoiding, numbing and denying her emotions, when after 16 years of marriage her husband disclosed his SSA, infidelity, and addiction struggles. Tera began her personal journey of personal growth and recovery that very day.
Since then, her personal journey has taken her on a roller coaster of learning and growing. Her passion has become to share with others the tools she has found to live life authentically and on purpose. Coach Tera teaches when you heal in the four areas of PEMS (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual), you can become whole again.
Tera co-created Daughters of Light, a division of The Toolbox, LLC to help women find healing, connection and strength. Daughters of Light hosts workshops and retreats designed to help women heal and become more in touch with emotions and patterns that keep them stuck experiencing what they don’t want.
Coach Tera has a thriving coaching practice and teaches online group coaching classes like SSA 101 for Spouses, Braving Betrayal, and Emotional Literacy.
Tera has been married to Curtis for 26 years, has 4 beautiful children and a BA in fashion design from Brigham Young University. She has used her talents to design and make custom wedding gowns for nearly 30 years.
Bruce R. Gold, Certified Professional Coach
Private practice in Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Collegeville Healing Center
1-610-489-0496
[email protected]
Bruce has trained in modalities including Gestalt Therapy, Shadow Awareness, Imago Therapy, Co-Dependency, Touch Therapy, Voice Dialogue and Shiatsu bodywork. Bruce has extensive experience leading short and long-term men’s and couple’s groups since 1993. He offers counseling on an individual basis for men, women and families addressing addiction, co-dependency, anger, shame and loss, sexual abuse and gender issues. Additionally, Bruce works with clients dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.
Bruce has been an active participant in various 12 step recovery groups since 1984. Bruce has been a certified co-leader in an intense men’s initiation weekend that invites men to forge a deep conscious connection between head and heart, and that supports men in developing lives of integrity, accountability, and connection to feeling. He has facilitated or led workshops throughout the Northern Hemisphere and Europe. Currently, Bruce maintains a full-time coaching practice in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, where he works with individuals, couples, families and groups. Bruce specializes in personal empowerment by teaching and modeling strength through vulnerability, creating safe and passionate moments of healing.
Other Referral Networks and Resources
- Find a same-sex attraction specialist through the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice & Scientific Integrity.
- Find a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist through IITAP: Interational Institute for Trauma & Addiction Professionals.
- Find a Christian counselor through:
- Read about the Reconciliation and Growth Project and its publications: