By: Katie Whiting

Hope Therapy specializes in treating sexual addicts and their betrayed partners. We utilize psychological education, trauma work, and real-life application to help clients with compulsive sexual behavior. We integrate 12-step addiction work with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment protocols and other therapeutic interventions to guide clients toward living a life of recovery and healing their relationships.

Psychological education: The more knowledge and understanding clients have, the more capable they are to heal and change their lives. Spending time learning about the addiction cycle, their personal triggers, and relapse-prevention plans will equip clients with tools to add to their toolboxes. When they are able to apply the knowledge gained, they aid themselves in successful lifelong recovery.

Trauma work: Addiction recovery focuses on trauma. Clients sexually act out to escape current and historic points of pain and shame. Completing a full disclosure, addressing experiences from childhood, and working through shame is the next phase of therapy work after psychoeducation. Utilizing the knowledge gained, clients heal from the traumas that have kept the addiction alive.

Real-life application: It is vital that clients leave therapy with life skills and resources they can lean on to live a life of recovery. Personal boundaries are vital to an addict’s recovery as well as knowing how to honor the boundaries of those around them. Clients are highly encouraged to attend a 12-step group outside of therapy and work the steps alongside what they experience in session. The most important tool and skill clients walk away from therapy with is the stronger ability to empathize with those around them and have healthy connections that are not based in sexuality.

The sexual addiction work we offer is thorough. Often for the client, it can feel like a second job, requiring lots of time outside of therapy to accomplish goals established. When clients fully apply themselves to the process, lasting change can be experienced. Ultimately, it is up to the client and how much they invest. We feel honored to be a part of clients’ healing journeys and know it is possible to live a life of recovery, constantly striving one day at a time to experience change and wholeness.