Ben is a New Jersey State Licensed Social Worker with a Master’s degree in Social Work from Rutgers School of Social Work. Additionally, Ben has advanced certification in Sexual Addiction Treatment through the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals led by Dr. Patrick Carnes. Ben’s work focuses on assessing and treating childhood trauma, abuse and neglect which are the leading underlying catalyst for developing an addiction or co-addiction. He has worked with these issues in both professional and volunteer settings. His career development has provided him exposure and experience in variety of mental health settings ranging from an acute inpatient hospital setting with both adults and children to an outpatient clinic that focused on the treatment of addictions. Ben has met with considerable success in direct clinical practice working with the trauma and addiction populations by effectively integrating his working knowledge of 12-step recovery with his professional training. He is directly supervised in his work with treating compulsive sexual behaviors, sexual addiction, and the families affected by sexual addiction by John Leadem, LCSW, CSAT-S. John is the leading Certified Sex Addiction Therapists Supervisor in this region and has co-authored various meditation books and step study guides for individuals and couples who are in 12 step recovery.
Ben is a licensed therapist who is a well known member of the Orthodox community in Lakewood, New Jersey. He is also one of six addiction counselors on staff with Leadem Counseling & Consulting services located in Toms River, New Jersey. As a practice, Leadem Counseling has been directly treating members of the Orthodox Jewish community and their families who struggle with all forms of compulsive sexual behaviors and addictions. Since treating their first Orthodox Jewish client for recovery from sex addiction in September of 2007, hundreds of Orthodox Jews and their spouses have been treated with great positive results in maintaining sexual abstinence and rebuilding their standing with their family, the community and most importantly – with themselves. As an experienced member of the Leadem Counseling staff, Ben has worked with and treated numerous religious clients with great efficiency in both individual and couples therapy.
Ben’s primary specialty in is assisting clients and couples in recovery from compulsive sexual behaviors and sexual addiction. Sex addiction is an area of expertise which is exceptionally delicate and the therapeutic needs of the recovering family vary greatly from individual to individual, perhaps more so than any other addiction or compulsive behavior.
When working with an individual client, a personalized psychotherapy plan is created after a thorough personal history which includes a comprehensive screening to assess for addiction and/or co-addiction.
Both the individual and couples counseling sessions will include strong emphasis on the psychodramatic approach to treating the underlying traumas feeding both addiction and co-addiction. Relapse prevention is always part of the treatment plan for any client in 12 step recovery.
When working with both partners of a relationship in a joint couple’s session, a shared program of recovery combined with the 12 steps is crucial for sustained emotional and romantic recovery. The importance of complete honesty from both partners in a relationship is absolutely necessary if a family is going to heal from sexual betrayal. Not only is secret keeping unwise - it will actually prove to be a detriment to a relationship in the long run. Using an innovative integration of the 12 steps individually tailored to the client’s therapeutic needs in his or her individual or couples therapy session has met with incomparable results for Ben’s clients on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.