Outlawing gay conversion therapy has been tipped to save lives after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews pledged to criminalise the “bigoted quackery masquerading as healthcare”.

The practice includes anything that tries to change or suppress a person’s sexuality or gender identity using interventions like counselling, prayer, hypnosis, isolation or exorcism.

“We know that it has been responsible for and caused countless suicides,” survivor Chris Csabs told The New Daily.

There is no evidence to support the harmful practices, which have been linked to trauma and mental health issues.

Often, a person will be told their sexuality has been caused by childhood sexual abuse, an overpowering mother or absent father.

Mr Andrews on Sunday announced the state government would consult with LGBTI and religious communities to draft the bill, and table it to Victorian parliament within the year.

Advocates hope the Australian-first could prompt other jurisdictions to pursue the same changes.

The government will also consider education and community engagement, which Mr Csabs welcomed as a “big deal”.

He was subjected to conversion therapy from age 16 to 23 and struggles 10 years later.

“I still find myself affected by that messaging that I was subjected to throughout my childhood and teenage years,” Mr Csabs said.

“You can’t listen to gay conversion ideology growing up in a church, listening to sermons and how people talk about how gay people can change, how it’s a choice and it’s evil and these people are perverted and abominations and all these things. You can’t listen to that without it affecting how you see yourself.”

He said he knows it’s “all rubbish” and that homosexuality is not an abomination, but that it was “so ingrained in me”.

“Those ideas and ideology were so deeply planted in me that I still find that it affects me now, even though I’m now 33 and happily in a relationship.”

A Change.org petition launched by Mr Csabs last year to outlaw conversion therapy has amassed 56,000 signatures, and he is a co-signer of the SOCE Survivor Statement.

Ex-Baptist minister turned accredited counsellor Matt Glover, who works with the LGBTI community, agreed a change in the law would save lives.

“The thing that I’m most pleased about is that the announcement today will help save lives. I’ve been to and taken too many funerals of LGBTI people that had a faith background – that thought God hated them, that their churches hated them, that their families hated them because of what they had been told through therapies just like this,” Mr Glover told The New Daily.

He and Mr Csabs agreed the reform wouldn’t completely stamp out the practice, but that it would go a long way to curtailing it.

“There will be people that hold that quite tightly as part of their faith belief. We can’t change that because of the law,” Mr Glover said.

He said some religious groups had doubled down since the legalisation of same-sex marriage, leading to a spike in conversion therapies and the number of LGBTI Australians seeking help.

Equality Minister Martin Foley acknowledged there was a risk that outlawing the practices could push it further underground.

“We want to make sure we don’t push those practices to the fringe of society and underground, so getting this right is actually quite the complex process,” he said on Sunday, announcing the reforms alongside Mr Andrews at the Midsumma Pride March in St Kilda.

The announcement comes after Health Complaints Commissioner Karen Cusack led an inquiry into conversion therapy.

A landmark report by La Trobe University, alongside the Human Rights Law Centre and Gay & Lesbian Health Victoria, last year found up to 10 per cent of LGBTI Australians were vulnerable to conversion therapy.

At least 10 organisations in Australia and New Zealand were advertising conversion therapy.

The report recommended banning conversion therapy by health practitioners, but allowing adults to seek out informal conversion practices despite the risk of harm. It called for greater intervention for children.

The practice has been condemned by rights groups and medical bodies such as Australian Medical Association, Australian Psychological Society, Royal Australian College of Physicians, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and World Health Organisation.

If you need help, contact beyondblue on 1300 22 46 35 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Contact the SANE Australia helpline on 1800 18 7263.