Richard A. Cohen

Cohen lived a gay life in his undergraduate years at Boston University. His dream was to marry a woman and create a loving family. He sought professional help to resolve his unwanted same-sex attractions and fulfill that dream. Cohen discovered that most therapists either didn’t have a clue how to help him, or simply told him he was born that way and to embrace a gay life.

In March, 2019, Cohen published Healing Heterosexuality: Time, Touch and Talk (TTT), a blueprint for the healing of humanity. In the TIME section, Cohen provides helpful exercises for personal, family, and community healing. He lays out a clear plan to resolve childhood wounds. In the TOUCH section, Cohen teaches about the science of healthy touch, how we have sexualized our core needs for bonding, belonging, and connection, then provides skills to both give and receive healthy touch to foster great intimacy in one’s life, and in the life of our families. In the TALK section, Cohen provides practical communication skills for both sharing and listening.

Cohen has given numerous interviews in newspapers, on radio shows, and on television shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live, Rachel Maddow, 20/20, Larry King Live, and Paula Zahn Now. In 2014, Cohen appeared in a documentary by Blackstone Films entitled "The Third Way: Homosexuality and the Catholic Church."

Cohen was interviewed by Jason Jones on the March 19, 2007, episode of The Daily Show. Cohen was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on June 28, 2006, was interviewed on The Rachel Maddow Show on December 8, 2009, and was on The Michelangelo Signorile Show on the Sirius radio network on April 17, 2010.

In 2002, Cohen was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association (ACA), after it accused him of six violations of its ethics code, which bars members from actions which "seek to meet their personal needs at the expense of clients, those that exploit the trust and dependency of clients, and for soliciting testimonials or promoting products in a deceptive manner."

Cohen founded the International Healing Foundation (IHF) in 1990, a nonprofit organization, to assist those who experience unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA) through Sexual Orientation Therapy. IHF was dissolved in 2015. In 2003, Cohen co-founded Positive Approaches to Healthy Sexuality (PATH), which promotes "the individual's right of self-determination, and equality, tolerance and diversity for all views of sexuality and gender identity." Cohen has said, "If someone wants to live a gay life, that needs to be respected. If someone wants to resolve unwanted same-sex attraction, that too needs to be respected. Let us practice true tolerance, real diversity, and equality for all."

Cohen hails from a Jewish family and was both Bar Mitzvahed and Confirmed at a Jewish synagogue in Philadelphia. While attending Boston University, he became an evangelical Christian, and later joined the Unification Church. In 1980, Cohen married Jae Sook, a South Korean woman, and in 1995, Cohen and his family left the Unification Church and returned to their Christian roots.

Richard A. Cohen, M.A. (born 1952) is a psychotherapist, educator, and author of five books including his latest release, Healing Heterosexuality: Time, Touch and Talk. He is the director of Positive Approaches to Healthy Sexuality (PATH, founded in 2003), and the past director of the International Healing Foundation. Cohen offers his newest book as “a blueprint for the healing of humanity.” In it he presents the principles of emotional healing, healthy attachment, and unconditional love that he discovered in his personal healing journey and applied to helping thousands of others in his career as a therapist, coach, and facilitator.