Hypno make me gay

Christian Pastor Peresvetov claims religion can cure gay "perversion". Controversial "treatments" by psychotherapists and preachers are being offered to gay people in Russia. BBC Russian heard accounts of so-called cures, after it emerged that gay men were being persecuted in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic in southern Russia.

On Tuesday German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had asked President Vladimir Putin to "use his influence to protect the rights of minorities", referring to the reports from Chechnya. Homosexuality is not officially considered a mental disorder in Russia. But homophobia is common - not only in Chechnya.

Russia removed homosexuality from its list of recognised psychiatric conditions in - after the US had done so in and the World Health Organization in Globally, scientists do not recognise any "treatment" of homosexuality as effective or required. Psychotherapist Yan Goland, from the city of Nizhny Novgorod, says he has "cured" 78 gay and eight transsexual people using a method developed in the Soviet Union by his teacher, Nikolai Ivanov.

He told the BBC that the "treatment" lasted between eight and 18 months, and longer for transsexuals.

Am I trans? Sissy hypno ruined me

The patient is filled with hope that we can help, and understands they need to be treated," he said. In the first stage, he aims to "extinguish" the individual's same-sex attraction. The hypnotherapy sessions can last up to eight hours. He also uses a mixture of psychoanalysis and identity therapy as a way of influencing a person's dreams.

The second stage is meant hypno forge an attraction to the make sex. He prompts his male patients to sexually objectify the women around them. Step three, Mr Goland says, involves sex with members of the opposite sex. Yuri, 40, says he underwent the psychotherapist's "treatment" in the early s, wanting to "wake up and be on the right path", but ended up with his sex drive in tatters.

It was catastrophic, if I'm honest. Mr Goland is now 80 and says he is still "treating" people. Chechen police 'torturing gay men'. Russia's mixed messages on LGBT. Anti-gay drive evicts Russian teacher. There are claims that hypnosis can help some people struggling with their sexuality.

A Russian web search on "how to cure homosexuality" brings up various websites offering online consultations with doctors. The Nikitenko brothers describe themselves as "psycho-hypnologists" and offer a two-month course of audio-hypnosis. Nikolai Nikitenko believes homosexuality is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD.

A guy from Vladivostok called me: he's 18 and said he was gay for nine hours a day about becoming gay.