We believe that the solution to sex addiction must include counseling.
Why? Because the real problem is not the addiction to sex . Rather, sex addiction was a false “solution” that eventually became a problem. The real problem is past unresolved emotional trauma that continues to cause problems and pain in the addicts life. In order to cope and deal with the pain caused by past trauma, the sex addict has “turned off” his real emotions because those emotions are too overwhelming. He uses the sex as a way to suppress and medicate the past emotional abuse and the memories associated with the abuse. Often, the sex addict can’t see how his family system that he grew up with was destructive or abusive. A specialized trained sex addiction counselor can slowly guide you through what can be a painful and bewildering process.
Counseling addresses the root cause of sex addiction, which is unresolved emotional trauma that kept you from connecting with other people. And it is this trauma that needs to be healed in order for you to regain your freedom from sex addiction. Our counseling focuses on helping you learn how to cope with life and relationships without fleeing into the imaginary world of sex. By healing your emotional wounds and acknowledging your needs, you will re-learn to tell fact from fiction and will never be tricked into accepting false love again.
Finding a therapist who is knowledgeable about sexual addiction is critical. Because of the relative newness of the field, locating an informed counselor may be difficult. A counselor trained in sex addiction is the ideal choice, but unfortunately, such professionals are quite rare. Look first for a counselor who understands sexual addiction. Someone who doesn’t understand sexual addiction can do more harm than good.
If married, nearly all wives of sex addicts are traumatized by the lies, deceptions, and-out-of-bounds sex behavior, and need treatment, too. The wife’s wounding has to be addressed as well as have both parties participate in marital therapy. We nearly always attempt to have the wife join with the husband in our therapy sessions. This usually predicts a successful outcome if both stay in the healing program. This program works best if both parties stay with it.
Stephen Anthony’s goal is to create a safe environment that is confidential and allows you to feel comfortable talking about your struggle to free yourself from porn. Stephen believes that the keys to recovery include education, trauma resolution, connecting to other recovering porn addicts, accountability, and learning to establish balance in all areas of your life.
The good news is that it will take less time to resolve the problem of sex addiction than it took to create it. Still, commitment to the process of healing from sex addiction is required. Without commitment results may be temporary and a relapse into the life of obsession with porn is very likely. Your commitment to the process of healing from sex addiction will be rewarded by the continually lessening urge to act out. It will become easier and easier to find other ways to deal with the stresses of life.
If you are wanting to meet with Stephen Anthony, there are two ways to setup an appointment with him: 1) Fill out the Contact Form and he will call you with 24-hours; 2) Call our offices at (970) 640-2428.