I have worked with addiction for over 16 years beginning with substance abuse, including running a substance abuse program for MICA adolescents. I have been working with sex addiction for over six years and I am in the process of becoming a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist.
The majority of my clients in private practice over the last eight years have been from the spectrum of the Orthodox community.
I believe that sex addiction is a reaction to issues around early childhood attachement issues that leave an addict with core beliefs about him or herself that they learn how to medicate at generally an early age with some form of sexual behavior. Some of these core beliefs are around issues of self esteem, believing that they are unlovable, unworthy, that other people will not care enough about the addict to meet their needs, and that acting out sexually is the only way to get their needs met.
My work with sex addicts and their spouses is a task based approach, both in individual and in group therapy. The task based approach is based on Patrick Carnes' work such as Facing The Shadows and Facing The Heartbreak for partners. My experience has been that a task based approach works in steps with a client to understand addiction, work on decreasing and eliminating acting out behaviors, looking at the addict's core beliefs and getting in touch with their history of shame, fear, and attachment issues. A client will work on becomming in touch with their feelings, learn new coping skills, learn boundaries in their relationships with their spouses and others, begin to learn and work on healthy sexuality as an individual and a couple. In addiction, the task based approach works on abstinence, disclosure, and repairing the couple.