The Mormon Church sent followers to an anti-porn sex therapist—even after one client accused him of physical abuse. 'He'd come over to me to exorcize the demon. He’d cover my mouth and nose until I felt like I couldn’t breathe,' alleges the former patient
Chard began meeting with Harker on a weekly basis, which after a few years increased to multiple times a week, and then daily, because, she says, Harker told her she was not improving with treatment. They spoke about her depression and anxiety and her history of suicidal thoughts, and Chard says Harker began telling her that all of her negative thoughts could be attributed to a demonic influence.
Chard is Harker’s only patient to come forward with allegations of physical abuse. But others say they have experienced what they describe as deep psychological harm under his and his organization’s care, later having intense feelings of shame and self-loathing as a result of Harker and his groups’ religiously infused teachings about porn, sex, and masturbation specifically.
“I didn’t know what to do,” the man says, adding the “degree of dissociation was so beyond what I’d ever experienced.”A few minutes later, she asks him if he remembers giving her a black eye; he responds, “I do now.” In the recording, he also owns up to more general boundary violations while treating Chard: “I’m mortified. I’m embarrassed. I’m angry and sad at myself. I’m horrified by making your life worse.
The church has also been instrumental to Life Changing Services’ success, at one point fully or partially funding therapeutic services for at least half of Harker’s clientele, according to three former employees.
“We’d talk very explicitly about what we’re we doing when we watched pornography, what happened when you were tempted,” says Bryan, 32, who joined Sons of Helaman in 2007, when he was 16. “I was so innocent and sheltered. I was trained to defer to authority. If this person wanted to talk about sexually explicit things, I’d be like, then yeah, that’s his calling for us.”
In January, Chard was put in touch with Justin Starr, a lawyer for the church, and the two began exchanging emails. At first, she says, she was encouraged by Starr’s response. After she reported Harker to the DOPL, Starr assured Chard the church’s relationship with Harker was still under review.
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