Confronting “Conversion Therapy” Claims: My Minnesota Testimony

I testified against SF 4706 and SF 4707 on April 8, 2026

In response to the landmark SCOTUS decision in Chiles V. Salazar, which held in an 8–1 ruling that restricting exploratory therapy for individuals struggling with gender and identity issues constitutes viewpoint discrimination, Minnesota lawmakers are advancing two bills, SF 4706 and SF 4707. SF 4706 would make it easier for patients and families to file complaints against therapists who do not immediately affirm a client’s stated sexual or gender identity, while SF 4707 would limit therapists’ ability to bill health insurance for providing such exploratory services. I testified in opposition to both bills.

In my testimony against SF 4706, I focused on how the term “conversion therapy” has been conflated and weaponized:

My name is Pamela Garfield-Jaeger. I’m a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of therapy experience as both a practitioner and a supervisor and I oppose SF 4706.

I am not Christian nor am I particularly religious. My beliefs come from years of training and experience as a mental health professional. Therapy is supposed to be about exploring issues, however, it is impossible for a therapist help an individual figure out their identity if the therapist is only allowed to affirm.

Lets get to the crux of it. The term conversion therapy has been conflated and weaponized. We aren’t talking about electric-shock treatments or shipping people away to a camp full of radical lunatics like in the film “But I’m a Cheerleader”.

Now, if a therapist recognizes that their patient is a victim of sexual trauma and they help that person admit that their trans identity is related to trauma, this is considered conversion therapy. If a therapist knows that a medication has a common side effect of low libido and advises that patient to discuss this with their doctor, this is considered conversion therapy. If a therapist observes a young person with severe social deficits suddenly find a new sense of belonging as a trans person and mentions that they may not benefit from life-long hormones and surgeries, that therapist is now a conversion therapist. Plus, no reasonable person can say that a patient with active psychotic symptoms has the judgment to know that they need to take permanent hormones and and get healthy body parts removed, and if a therapist states this obvious fact, they are considered a conversion therapist.

It is clear that this is NOT truly about patient welfare, it’s about a certain ideological persuasion, because if it were about patients, this bill would also allow for those with regret and poor outcomes to sue their therapists for unnecessarily sending them onto a path of lifelong harm.

In my testimony against SF 4707, I focused on the “transition or die” manipulation:

My name is Pamela Garfield-Jaeger. I am a licensed therapist and come to you today with 25 years of experience. As I said before, I am not religious. My views come from my professional experience and I oppose SF 4707. Therapy is rendered useless if a person can not openly explore feelings and identity.

By restricting exploratory therapy, and mandating affirmation only, Minnesota will be depriving the most vulnerable people from getting help with their underlying issues such as trauma, autism, family turmoil, porn addiction, and more.

I know they say there is a big risk of suicide if a trans identified person is not affirmed. That is a lie and anyone with any critical thinking can see right through it. Every study quoted to prove this assertion has poor methods including small sample sizes, short follow up periods, and leading questionnaires for data collection. In fact, there is no study in existence with a control group. That is, a study that comparers the outcomes of two groups of patients with gender distress, using both affirmation vs. exploratory treatments. Plus, most studies just measure if people have suicidal thoughts vs, actually carrying out the act. There is a big difference.

Meanwhile, we are ignoring robust data from Europe that shows people who transition end up with more suicidal tendencies.

Data aside, when vulnerable people are told they must transition or die on repeat, suicidal thoughts are a natural outcome. Saying this is irresponsible. We are talking about a population with many mental health comorbidities.

The opposition, which included representatives from The Trevor Project, who promote instant transgender affirmation for all circumstances, made a number of misleading claims. These included assertions about suicide rates, the alleged harms of exploring gender and sexuality in therapy, and the existence of thousands of so-called “conversion therapists” profiting from “harmful” practices.

Senator Jim Abeler was the only lawmaker to raise practical questions, such as how the state would define a “conversion therapist” and why these bills are necessary given that licensed mental health professionals are already overseen by established ethical and regulatory boards.

Committee members recommended SF 4706 to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and SF 4707 to the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee. You can watch the full hearing here.

Pamela Garfield-Jaeger is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of clinical experience with adults and teens. Pamela authored the book “A Practical Response to Gender Distress”, available on Amazon and children’s book, Froggy Girl, available on all online book retailers via www.froggygirlbook.com.

Pamela has also created two CEU classes for therapists to learn how to address gender issues without affirmation on lisamustard.com: Introduction to Gender Distress and Supporting Families with Adult Children in Gender Distress: Clinical Tools for Connection, Compassion, and Communication. (5 CEU credits total)

She has made appearances on Fox News, Newsmax, The Daily Signal, The Christian Post, The Epoch Times, PragerU, The Tomi Lahren Show, The Tony Kinnett Show, The Michael Berry Show, and more. She is active on Instagram as @the.truthfultherapist, twitter/x as @pgarfieldjaeger, and her YouTube channel is @thetruthfultherapist. You can book a consultation with Pamela through her website, www.thetruthfultherapist.org. more links on linktree.