Thirty-seven-year-old Elena Joy Thurston was a married mother of four living in Gilbert, Arizona. She was also Mormon, choosing to join the religion when she was sixteen. She loved all the checkboxes she could check off that would make her good in the eyes of God, and the promise of an eternal family. She was a model mom involved in school, church and community activities. Until she had to take care of a personal problem — she loved a woman.

Elena Joy voluntarily went to conversion therapy, four days a week for months on end, to try to solve her problem. Find out how a Mormon woman struggles to integrate who she is into her heart and psyche. Learn about the dangers of conversion therapy. Discover what saved her from taking her own life and hear about the documentary movie she’s in — Conversion.

Bio

Featured in the award-winning documentary, CONVERSION, Elena Joy Thurston is an inspirational Diversity & Allyship speaker, trainer, and author through a lens of LGBTQ+ inclusion. Elena Joy inspires her audiences to learn how Inclusive Leadership can improve company morale and productivity, changing members' lives in a practical way. A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian, her viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has been viewed more than 45,000 times and landed her media and speaking opportunities with ABC, CBS, FOX, Penn State, University of North Texas, Michael’s, Logitech, and more.

Guest Info.

http://www.elenajoyexperience.com

https://www.instagram.com/elenajoyspeaks/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenajoythurston/

http://www.tedxcos.org/elena

Julie’s Info.

https://linkedin.com/in/julie-browne-courage-ignite

https://instagram.com/juliebrownecourageignite

https://facebook.com/juliebrownecourageignite

Podcast — Bold Becoming

Book — Masters of Change

Website

Email — [email protected]

Music — Happy African Village by John Bartmann