Sex, Porn, Love Addiction & Toxic Relationships
Often at the core of sex or love addiction is an impaired attachment that prevents the individual from effectively bonding to a partner. Due to childhood trauma, a fear of emotional intimacy exists. Sex and/or relationships are instead used as a way to meet unconscious needs, regulate emotions, or act out unresolved trauma. Those without trauma usually report being hooked to the accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of porn. Individuals with sex, porn, and/or love addiction need to be met with deep compassion instead of shame and concurrently be held responsible for hurting self and/or others. There are also people who may not be engaging in any compulsive behavior but did not have healthy role models and/or do not know how to navigate dating in a rapidly changing environment.
Partners of Sex/Porn/Love Addicts - Betrayal Trauma
What do you do when you discover that your spouse has been having an affair or having sex with prostitutes? Who can you turn to that won’t tell you to just get over it or make you feel like you are to blame? Forty-one percent of married women have spouses who cheat and of those women seventy percent experience trauma from betrayal. That is a lot of women and a lot of pain. If your dreams of a happy life have been shattered, we are here to help you heal and help you make the best decisions for you and/or your family.
Trauma
Healing from trauma is not a one size fits all process. That is why there have been several trauma therapies that have been developed such as Cognitive Processing Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy, and Internal Family Systems Therapy.
Personality Disorders
Clients sometimes seek out treatment for abuse incurred by a parent or romantic partner with a personality disorder. What many people do not realize is that there is also effective treatment for individuals with personality disorders. In fact, most personality disorders are either treatable or at least manageable.
Anxiety and Depression
Aaron T Beck developed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) during the 1960’s when he noticed that clients’ negative thoughts often led to negative emotions which led to engaging in negative behaviors as coping mechanisms. By helping clients analyze how they evaluated events, he could help them see things from a different perspective which alleviated their negative emotions and behaviors.
