Learn more about effective treatment for sex addiction, sexual dysfunction, and couples sex therapy.
Childhood Trauma and Masturbation
… These emotions do not go away. Rather, they create an inner turmoil that demands self-medication, and without access to therapy or support, the wounded child may turn to addictive behaviors or substances to control the feelings. Of course, when you are a child, there is a limit to the ways in which you can self-medicate. Masturbation is one of the most accessible and available forms of numbing out, because you rely only on your own body to produce the intoxicating chemicals that soothe the pain. In that sense, it is a unique kind of high that money can’t buy. For many sex and love addicts, masturbation was their first drug. … Read the full article at PsychologyToday.com.
Partners of Sex Addicts: The Forgotten Ones
A major paradigm shift has occurred in treating the partners of sex addicts. We as therapists now recognize the extreme vulnerability of this population, and we are moving towards a model that places empathy, compassion, and the rebuilding of trust as its greatest goals. Rather than pathologizing the partner, we are learning first and foremost to tolerate and validate their pain and grief, while also helping them to process the momentous emotional, social, financial, and spiritual losses. Read the full article from Counselor Magazine.
6 Common Sex Addiction Myths Debunked by the Experts
From movies like “Shame” and reality TV shows like “Bad Sex,” to the Tiger Woods cheating scandal, sex addiction has been a hot topic for decades, but do we really know what sex addiction is? To answer this question and separate fact from fiction, we’ve gathered the top experts in the field to debunk the six most common myths about sex addiction. Read what Alexandra Katehakis has to say at DatingAdvice.com.
Recovery for Partners of Sex Addicts
Do partner’s of sex addicts need help too? Responses to discovering one’s partner is a sex addict and has been acting out can include anything from violent anger to extreme despair. The moment when a partner becomes aware of the addicts’ behavior is nothing short of traumatic. Yet because of the shameful nature of sex addiction, finding support often does not seem a realistic or necessary possibility for the partner. As a result, many times they experience this crisis in isolation. Read more about recovery for partners of sex addicts at Alex’s blog on PsychologyToday.com.
Effects of Porn on Adolescent Boys
Alexandra Katehakis writes about when porn becomes an adolescent boy’s mode of sex. Read More on Alexandra Katehakis’ Blog at PsychologyToday.com.
Sex and Love Addicts: How to Find the Right 12-Step Group for You
Every fellowship has its own personality and culture. 12-step fellowships for sex addiction encompass a broad spectrum, and in Alex’s most recent blog she outlines the profiles of the distinct fellowships that address a person’s sexual behavior. Learn more about the 12-step groups for sex addiction.
Weiner Exposes Himself In More Ways Than One
In her most recent blog post on PsychologyToday.com, Alexandra Katehakis writes about how Rep. Anthony Wiener’s sexual high came from fantasy, not from actual liaisons. Read More at Alexandra Katehakis’ Blog on PsychologyToday.com.
Arousal Templates in Sex Addiction: What Happens when Our Love Map Goes South?
I see a male client-let’s call him “James”–who is shy, polite, and has a dark secret: he can only achieve sexual gratification by masturbating in public. Since his early teens he has sought sex in covert, furtive ways that typically violate the rights of others: exposing himself in his car while cruising, or eventually masturbating in plain view in crowded buildings. Read More at Alexandra Katehakis’ Blog on PsychologyToday.com.
The Cycle of Addiction
Sexual acting out in an addictive way typically starts with a need for control. When a person has a set of strong feelings he or she usually has a need for something, and those struggling with sexual compulsivity typically have a long history of unmet needs and suffering. Read More at Alexandra Katehakis’ Blog on PsychologyToday.com.
Sexual Compulsivity: 6 Signs and Consequences
I have a client I will call Daniel, a religious man and married father of two, who regularly hires prostitutes, has sex with hitchhikers, and downloads porn in his home office while his wife and children are asleep down the hall. And yet Daniel is not convinced that his sexual behaviors are out of control. Read More at Alexandra Katehakis’ Blog on PsychologyToday.com.
Sexual Addiction or Destructive Sexual Behaviors: What’s the Difference
Joe’s a 45-year-old father of three, who agreed to marry after he and his wife struggled with their on-again-off-again relationship for five years prior to marrying. Like most red-blooded American males, Joe began using pornography to masturbate when he was a teenager. He started out looking at print pornography, masturbating to images of fairly wholesome young women. Read More at Alexandra Katehakis’ Blog on PsychologyToday.com.
5 Tips to Survive Your Partner’s Sexually Compulsive Behavior
You thought you had the perfect Kodak-moment life: a handsome husband, a couple of apple-cheeked kids, a plump nest egg hatching in a 401 k. You were the envy of your friends, whom you entertained often in your impeccably restored bungalow on a lovely tree-lined street. Read More at Alex’s Blog on PsychologyToday.com.
Are You a Sex Addict?
By Liz Welch
Men aren’t the only ones who can’t control their sex compulsion. An investigation of female addicts by Liz Welch an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Life, and Inc. Magazine.
To Read Click Here.
Erotic Intelligence for Recovering Sex Addicts
By Alexandra Katehakis, MFT, CSAT
Alexandra Katehakis discusses how to recover from sex addiction and build a healthy relationship in her recent article, “Erotic Intelligence for Recovering Sex Addicts” published in Counselor Magazine‘s July/August 2010 issue.
Click here to read more.
Understanding Sexual Anorexia
By Caroline Frost, MFT & Alexandra Katehakis, MFT, CSAT
Published on GoodTherapy.org, “Understanding Sexual Anorexia” draws attention to Sexual Anorexia. Also known as sexual “acting in,” sexual anorexia is characterized by a severe aversion to sexual contact and the obsessive avoidance of sex.
Click here to read more.
Addicted to Sex
Case Study Published in Psychotherapy Networker Magazine March/April 2010.
Effective work with sex addicts must address deep-seated attachment wounds. With Commentary by Joe Kort.
Supervision of the Treatment of Sexual Addiction: Attending to Counter-Transference Issues
By Alexandra Katehakis, MFT, CSAT-S, CST
Published in Family Therapy Magazine Jan/Feb 2010.
A discussion about the importance of transference and countertransference issues that might arise between supervisee and client, and even between supervisee and supervisor, in the context of sex addiction treatment.
Depriving Ourselves of Pleasure
By Samantha Smithstein, PsyD.
Center for Healthy Sex is proud to host this article by our guest blogger, Samantha Smithstein, PsyD., Director of Pathways Institute for Impulse Control. Pathways Institute is based in San Francisco, Ca, providing help for people suffering from out-of-control behaviors such as compulsive stealing, sex addiction and love addiction, and their partners and families.
Sex Addiction Discovery: 7 things you can tell your partner when the secrets are out
By Jeff Schultz, LPC, CSAT
Center for Healthy Sex is proud to host this article by our guest blogger, Jeff Schultz, LPC, CSAT, a counselor in private practice with The Sonoran Healing Center in Phoenix, Az.
Affective Neuroscience and the Treatment of Sexual Addiction
By Alexandra Katehakis, MFT, CSAT-S, CST-S
Groundbreaking article for professionals on the application of brain research for treating sexual addiction. Published March 2009.
