Sex Addiction
All addiction is an ineffective attempt at self-care through using an outside substance or process to regulate a dysregulated and often traumatized nervous system.
Sex addiction, compulsive sexual behavior, hyper-sexuality, problematic sexual behavior. While there is debate about what to call this problem, there is wide agreement that a percentage of individuals struggle with sexual behavior that escalates over time, creates negative consequences, and feels out of their control.
Sex Addiction is not limited to a certain gender or about specific sexual behaviors or practices but is the compulsive pursuit and use of sex. Sex becomes separated from intimacy, relationship, pleasure, and enjoyment. Instead, sex becomes focused on the high of arousal, the medication of feelings, an attempt to meet unconscious needs, or the acting out of unresolved issues.
Treatment is designed to not just arrest compulsive behaviors but to heal and transform the wounds and traumas underneath.
System Focused
At the Relational Recovery Institute, treatment is designed with a healing pathway for the addicted individual, the betrayed partner, and the couple. Working with the entire relational system allows us to explore the emotional and attachment-based dynamics that interweave and impact the relationship. This method allows couples to progress quickly, as the en)re system is held and worked with simultaneously.
Treatment Elements
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Workshops
Workshops are designed to speed up treatment by giving you education regarding certain areas of focus that you can then work with in therapy.
Individual Therapy
Individual Therapy is where clients do a deep dive into the dynamics underlying the addiction and trauma issues, work on establishing long-term sobriety, and create new healthy coping strategies and relational patterns.
Couple’s Therapy
Couple’s Therapy is where the couple learns to manage the crisis created by betrayal, develop new healthy communication patterns, and, when the time is right, dives into the deep healing and repair work needed around the emotional, relational, and sexual injuries.
Disclosure Process
Disclosure is a facilitated, carefully prepared, and supported process where the unfaithful individual provides their partner with a fully honest account of their history of acting behaviors.
Foundations for Recovery Class
Foundations for Recovery 12-Week Online Class is designed to walk clients in early sex addiction recovery through the following tasks: break through denial, map the addiction cycle, define sobriety, plan relapse prevention, identify arousal template, limit unmanageability and more.
Group Therapy
Group therapy provides a forum for growth that is distinct from individual therapy. Group is a laboratory for practicing new relational skills and behaviors. Members learn to better understand themselves and others through practicing vulnerability, empty, and attunement.
Treatment Phases
Six Phases