Treatment for Sex Addiction
What is Sex and Porn Addiction - self-assessment
How do I know if I am an addict - self-assessment?
- Have the sexual behaviours been a key part of your life for many years?
- Are you drawn towards porn and other sexual activities at every opportunity ie being alone?
- Are you wasting a lot of time, energy and money on porn or other sexual activities which could be used for more rewarding things?
- Do you have a wish to control or reduce the behaviours but find it difficult to do so?
- Have the repetitive sexual behaviours negatively affected one or more aspects of your life such as relationships, couple sex, work, health, finances, mental health and friendships?
How do I stop?
We will help you understand and address what might be the root cause of your sex addiction or porn addiction and then give you techniques and strategies to free yourself from the addictive behaviours and compulsions and build a healthy lifestyle. How long recovery takes will depend on your commitment to change – you have already taken the first step by reading this – but people can, and do, overcome sex addiction and take back control of their lives within a relatively short space of time. Our service is non-judgemental and completely confidential.
Related content: Watch video of Steve’s presentation on the Causes of Sex and Porn Addiction and How to Stop here
What happens in the therapy?
Therapeutic discussion and some written tasks depending on your preferred learning style. If required, work will be done on addressing key issues that may be triggering the behaviours such as stress, trauma, low self-esteem and low confidence. A recovery plan with goals and activities will be agreed. Through sex addiction counselling you will be helped to gain new insights into the roots of your sex addiction or porn addiction and develop new perspectives on life and your values.
Sex Addiction Counselling Yorkshire
We focus on helping you to make permanent changes in areas of your life that are leading to addiction by enabling you to overcome resistance to change, implement trigger and relapse control strategies, and build and maintain motivation.
What Esteem can help with
Esteem Therapy Yorkshire is a specialist sex and porn addiction counselling service in West Yorkshire and the majority of our clients are receiving assessment, support and treatment for this. Sex and porn addiction can include excessively indulging in one or a combination of some of the following:
- Porn – on/off-line images and film - he-she porn, yourporn sex, power porn, pornbug etc
- On-line dating and chatting
- On-line use of sex workers
- Sexual encounters with strangers – physical and by phone/texting
- Multiple relationships/partners
- Affairs – brief and over-time
- Excessive/compulsive masturbation
- Using workers in the sex industry
- Sex clubs and parties
- Group sex and swinging
- Unwanted pattern of sexual demands on a partner
- sexual offending
- intrusive fetishes
Our Approach To Sex Addiction and Porn Addiction Treatment
Assessment
we look at: frequency and type of behaviours, impact of the behaviours on your health, relationships, work and life goals, levels of escalation of the behaviours, and your ability to manage any cravings and triggers.
Behaviour management
sex addiction and porn addiction take time and commitment to manage but initially we can agree a plan to reduce and control the most damaging aspects of your behaviours to keep you and important aspects of your life such as family and work as safe as possible.
Develop understanding of the roots of the addiction
if sex addiction or porn addiction is your problem we will explore different aspects of your experiences past and present to develop insights into what purpose the addiction is serving.
Personal skills and strategies
at this stage we will help you develop ways to manage the addiction such as cognitive skills and identifying triggers and techniques for avoiding relapses into addictive behaviours.
Personal skills and strategies
at this stage we will help you develop ways to manage the addiction such as cognitive skills and identifying triggers and techniques for avoiding relapses into addictive behaviours.
Making changes that last
finally we will focus on helping you to make permanent changes in areas of your life that are leading to addiction by enabling you to overcome resistance and build motivation.
Influences on sexual addictive behaviour - the Esteem framework for treating clients.
Don’t be afraid to call us on 07711 887391 to simply find out if our sex addiciton counselling in Yorkshire can meet your needs before committing.
Your Background
- Childhood
- parent/family history,
- upbringing.
- parental messages,
- education,
- cultural issues,
- health,
- physiology,
- gender & sexuality.
- education,
- cultural issues,
- health,
- physiology,
- gender & sexuality.
Present Context
- Addictive behaviours - where/when/how,
- managing emotions and set-backs,
- cravings and triggers,
- lack of achievement and life goals/values,
- motivation and ability to change.
Life Experience
- Traumas,
- loss,
- forced change,
- relationships,
- family/children,
- work and performance,
- finance,
- health and sex.
Environmental Factors
- Culture,
- Education,
- Race,
- Religion,
- Economics,
- Age.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to the most commonly asked questions about treatment for sex and porn addiction.
Confidentiality is of the utmost importance to the counselling relationship. We guarantee confidentiality so that you can speak freely about your behaviours so we can plan treatment options accurately. We do not disclose any of your details or information to any other persons or authorities unless in very rare cases we are worried about your welfare or that of others. We cannot guarantee 100% the security of data when completing online sessions and clients have to weigh up the risks of this mode of contact.
We provide a free 15-30 minute initial screening consultation to check that our services match your needs – call us to arrange your free call for this assessment. The first 2 sessions are a thorough assessment of your case and will confirm whether or not you will benefit from our services and if so indicate the best treatment options. At all times the decision-making about treatment is in your hands. We do not tie you in to a fixed number of sessions but you can buy blocks of sessions to help reduce the overall cost of treatment.
Your disclosures will be heard and taken seriously and treated absolutely non-judgementally I have heard most things so what you tell me is unlikely to be totally unique. Discussing your behaviours and breaking down the secrecy is an important step in the therapy and treatment process. Shame, guilt and embarassment are deeply wired into us and they serve a purpose of telling us something. We can work with this as it probably means there is something about your behaviors that are harmful to you or others in some way and they need control and extinction.
Fees are displayed on our about Esteem Therapy Yorkshire page. Sesssions start from 41.00 depending on the format you select. Once assessment is complete you can choose to pay for multiple sessions reducing the overall cost. Standard hourly sessions cost 60.00. If you are serious about getting help but finances are an issue please call us to discuss your situation so we can find a way to work together.
This varies from person to person and the assessment will give us a clearer picture of what you would benefit from most. Some of our clients feel confident to cope alone after 8 sessions (approx 4 months) whilst others choose to continue up to 20 sessions over a 18 months period to work on the deeper roots of the sex and porn addiction. At all times you can choose to close sessions or reduce the frequency of sessions and this is normally done after a discussion about your progress and any outstanding areas of the treatment plan.
Initially, we advise weekly perhaps reducing down to fortnightly after 3 or 4 sessions depending on your finances or other commitments.
We will agree the most convenient day/evening slot for you but there is flexibility from one session to the next and options to alter sessions with 48 hour notice. Sessions can also be completed by telephone, video link or text chat.
I advise but do not insist that all partners attend for an information session so that they can learn about how the treatment works in general and to discuss their support needs and options. I will not discuss with partners any details about your case.
It is not a requirement to tell your partner you are having treatment for sex or porn addictive behaviours. You alone have to make the judgement whilst considering the following questions; will your partner be understanding and supportive or will they find it too difficult to manage? Is your relationship strong and secure enough to handle disclosures of this sort? What would happen if you kept this all a secret and your partner found out?
No, absolutely not as this may be counter-productive in the long-term. We will work with you to arrive at the most appropriate recovery plan to suit your needs.
The term treatment covers a range of interventions from counselling and therapeutic discussions to coaching and practical ‘homework’ tasks. As the treatment is about changing your behaviours it is very experiential, that is, we help you change by giving you things to try out and monitor improvements and the impact on your well-being and quality of life. Treatment is unique to each client and is based on the thorough assessment and your learning style, for example some clients prefer writing and thinking tasks whilst others benefit more from experimenting with new behaviours.
Life Without Porn – Is It Possible and How?
Our clients learn how to switch from a porn-dominated, unhealthy life-style to one which is healthy, rewarding and in tune with their inner values. Like our clients you can learn techniques and strategies to control any cravings and lead a dependency-free life without a need to turn to porn whenever things go wrong or you are left on your own with time on your hands. Importantly, by getting help you can discover and manage the things that have limited your self-esteem and learn new personal insights and skills to give you the confidence to enjoy life and relationships to the full.
Don’t be afraid to contact us on 07539 952864 to simply find out if our Porn addiciton counselling in Yorkshire can meet your needs before committing.
What the treatment and therapy for sex and porn addiction look like
There is a long list of underlying reasons, or causal factors, and these include:
- childhood trauma such as parental separation, emotional or physical neglect, physical, sexual or psychological abuse
- disruptions to normal childhood development such as frequent house move
- anxiety
- depression
- relationship difficulties
- bereavement and loss
- being bullied at school or in the neighbourhood
- rejection and humiliation by peers for being different (clever, disabled, taller, shorter, red hair, different accent etc)
- strong religious upbringing
- separation from parents – such as absent working parents or being sent to boarding school
- low self-esteem and / or self-worth
- work stress, perfectionist tendencies or feelings of failure in life or work
- experiencing prejudice due to sexual orientation
- sexual offending behaviours
