Sex therapist Lisa Butterworth has long been willing to delve into sensitive sexuality questions with clients who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They seek her out to have open and frank conversations about the faith’s strict rules.

But after seeing another prominent sex therapist she considers a close friend and colleague recently kicked out of the church, Butterworth is worried fewer church members will seek help in fear of being reprimanded.

Butterworth, a church member living in Idaho, is among a contingent of mental health professionals who fear Natasha Helfer’s ouster will further embolden a culture of shame. She wrote a letter condemning the decision that’s been signed by over 800 mental health professionals.

Helfer was excommunicated and lost her appeal last month to remain in the faith known widely as the Mormon church — a move critics say reflects the church doubling down on some of its more conservative views on sexuality. The Salt Lake City-based church has cited comments she made in support of removing the stigma around pornography, masturbation and same-sex marriage, saying that contradicts church teachings. 

Such an ouster is rare and is the harshest punishment available for a member of the faith like Helfer, who had cultivated a national reputation of pushing for mental health advocacy among church members. The majority of her patients come from a Latter-day Saint background, and many are mixed-faith couples in which one person belongs to the church and another has left.

Lauren Rogers, who was raised in the church, started a petition urging the church to reverse the decision and organized a protest outside its Salt Lake City headquarters. She said she wanted to fight for Helfer after her brother was excommunicated in 2015 for sharing his experience as a gay church member online.

“I wanted to make up for not being there for (my brother) and be there for this woman who was trying to protect people like him in the church,” said Rogers, who lives in Maricopa, Arizona. “Excommunication needs to done away with. I think it’s an abusive practice … and it’s a tool the church uses to silence people.”

Helfer said she fears her case could set a precedent for removing other professionals and result in devastating consequences for church members who may no longer feel safe seeking treatment.

“Doing this to me alone is sending the message both to clinicians and, more importantly, to the public that you shouldn’t trust sex therapists,” Helfer said. “Even if it doesn’t necessarily mean that other professionals will directly be affected, it will affect the population as to who will seek out those kinds of services.”

Church officials declined to comment on Helfer losing her appeal or the criticism against them.