When a counselor meets with a client, who sets the agenda? What are the goals of the meeting? Who gets to decide what topics are discussed?
Those personal decisions, of course, ought to be made by the clients. After all, they are the ones seeking assistance. The counselor’s job is to help clients meet their goals.
But what if the government banned counselors from having certain conversations with their clients, because the government didn’t approve of the client’s goals? What if some private conversations were banned?
Unfortunately, those aren’t hypothetical questions. They’re a reality in the state of Missouri, where Kansas City and Jackson County have chosen to censor certain speech between counselors and some of their clients. So Alliance Defending Freedom is taking action to protect the First Amendment rights of counselors in the city and county.
Two counselors following their Christian faith
Wyatt Bury is a Christian who provides counseling for children, adults, couples, and families through his business, Wyatt Bury, LLC. He helps clients through a variety of issues including depression, anxiety, relationships, trauma, and others.
Wyatt also uses his expertise, paired with his religious beliefs, to provide integrated Christian counseling (which combines scientific observation and research with biblical principles) and Christian Life Coaching.
The other Christian counselor represented by ADF is Pamela Eisenreich. Like Wyatt, Pamela seeks to help minors, adults, and couples navigate various issues including grief and loss, anger management, addictions, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and more.
Both Wyatt and Pamela work with Christian and non-Christian clients, and they always approach their counseling in the same way. The counselors meet with clients and let them voluntarily set their own goals, and they allow their clients to choose whether to integrate faith with their counseling. Neither Wyatt nor Pamela would ever impose their views on clients.
Some clients who share their counselor’s faith may ask their counselor to work with them to help them conform their identity, sexuality, and sense of self to their religious beliefs. For example, Pamela has worked directly with clients who have asked her to help them reduce unwanted attraction to members of the same sex or to become more comfortable with their sex in accordance with their goals.
But two ordinances in Kansas City and Jackson County are threatening the ability of these counselors to help their clients.
Ordinances violate counselors’ First Amendment rights
In 2019, Kansas City passed an ordinance that requires counselors to provide same-sex marital and relationship counseling contrary to their religious beliefs if they offer relationship counseling. It also requires that counselors provide counseling that encourages clients to speak, act, and identify contrary to their sex, and further requires the counselors to refer to the clients using their self-selected pronouns, even when inconsistent with their sex.
In addition, the Kansas City ordinance prohibits counselors from publishing any materials explaining their reasons for only providing counseling related to sexual orientation and “gender identity” consistent with their religious beliefs.
Similarly, Jackson County passed an ordinance in 2023 that prohibits counselors from having conversations with their minor clients about “gender identity” and sexual orientation consistent with certain religious beliefs. The ordinance prohibits any counseling of minors that seeks “to change sexual orientation or gender identity,” even if a client has asked their counselor to help them reduce unwanted same-sex attraction or become more comfortable with their sex.
But Jackson County’s ordinance does allow counseling that “provides support and assistance to a person undergoing gender transition, or counseling that provides acceptance, support and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support, and development.”
In other words, counselors in Jackson County are only allowed to discuss the government’s preferred view of sexual orientation and “gender identity”—a view that can lead children to undergo irreparable surgeries or take harmful drugs.
ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit challenging the two unconstitutional ordinances on behalf of Wyatt and Pamela. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey also joined the suit as a co-plaintiff to protect the freedoms of Missourians affected by these ordinances.
Children need to be able to talk about their struggles with people who want to help them, not be pushed toward life-altering drugs and surgeries. These ordinances not only violate the First Amendment rights of counselors but also harm children who simply want to become more comfortable with their sex.
Wyatt Bury, LLC v. City of Kansas City
- February 2025: ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kansas City counselors Wyatt Bury and Pamela Eisenreich challenging two ordinances that violate their First Amendment freedoms. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey joined the suit as a co-plaintiff.
