What Therapy Shouldn't be Regulated? 

This raises an interesting question:

A national gay and lesbian group is accusing several religious organizations of harming homosexual teens by offering parents what they say are bogus therapies to keep children from becoming gay.

In a report released Thursday in Miami Beach, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute questioned whether the therapies are ethical or effective and said state and federal authorities should provide greater oversight when these programs are aimed at youth.

The report said some Christian-based gay prevention and treatment groups have used the First Amendment protection of religion to avoid sanctions by state health officials seeking to enforce regulations on counselors who offer therapy without a license.

Via Ann Althouse who adds:

Religious counseling operates in its own way and has for an awfully long time. Portraying psychotherapy as the only correct model is oppressive and not even very scientific. Have these professional psychotherapists proven the effectiveness of their approach?

So what is and what isn't therapy that can be regulated? If you go to a friend regularly for advice about your marriage, is that relationship counseling? Should that be regulated, especially if you forgo "traditional counseling" to talk to your friend instead? Is this religious counseling being pinpointed for regulation simply because the services are advertised, and not very popular with the progressive left? What is the threshold for regulation?