This page is currently being prepared for public release. Check back soon, or enter the access code to continue building.
A community-based research project examining the lived experiences of survivors and practitioners, mapping institutional responses to conversion therapy, and generating evidence for legislative and service reform.
Conversion therapy — practices designed to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation or gender identity — has been prohibited in Canada under the Criminal Code since January 2022. Yet prohibition alone does not erase harm. Survivors carry the weight of experiences that predated legislation, and many encounter institutional systems ill-equipped to recognize or respond to conversion-related trauma.
This project takes that gap seriously. Beginning from the standpoint of those most directly affected, it traces how conversion therapy has operated within Canadian institutional life — through religious organizations, therapeutic relationships, family systems, and legal processes — and asks what a genuinely community-responsive policy framework would require.
"Prohibition is necessary but not sufficient. The next question is what institutions are required to do — and currently fail to do — for those who have survived conversion practices."
Dr. Pedrom Nasiri, MStJ — Centre for Family Justice ResearchFollowing Chiles v. Salazar (SCOTUS, March 2026), conversion therapy bans in the United States face renewed constitutional challenge under First Amendment strict scrutiny. This research situates Canadian policy within that shifting transnational context.
The project is organized around three interlocking research objectives, each designed to generate evidence usable by legislators, service providers, and advocacy organizations.
Collect and analyze the narratives of 2SLGBTQ+ community members who have experienced conversion practices, with particular attention to the institutional contexts in which those practices occurred.
Trace how therapeutic, religious, legal, and social service institutions have responded — or failed to respond — to conversion therapy and its effects, using institutional ethnography as the primary analytic method.
Translate findings into a set of community-grounded policy recommendations for federal and provincial legislators, regulated health professions, and community-based service organizations.
This living document traces the textual coordination, social relations, and work processes that organize institutional responses to conversion therapy in Canada. The map is updated as the research progresses.
Beyond Harm seeks participants from two groups: community members with lived experience of conversion practices, and practitioners working at the intersection of mental health, faith, and 2SLGBTQ+ communities.
You have direct or indirect experience with conversion practices — whether as a survivor, as someone who witnessed it, or as a family member affected by it. Your story matters to this research.
You are a regulated health professional, counsellor, social worker, or faith leader working with 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Your professional perspective informs how institutions can do better.
Every CFJR project is designed from the outset to produce community-facing outputs — policy recommendations, practitioner guidance, and public resources — not only academic findings.