The Mind Embodied Blog is a resource for you to find answers about my counseling services and policies (FAQ), read articles related to our work together, and discover links to other resources that might be helpful and inform our work together.
Working with insurance companies requires that I make a diagnosis and provide them with access to audit your file (which includes session notes), which often means a breech in confidentiality. While I celebrate sexuality, I also understand that many, if not most, of my clients value strict confidentiality above all else when working through relationship and sexuality issues. Because being reimbursed by insurance companies as a provider often compromises aspects of what I believe creates a safe, and trusting client-therapist relationship, this process does not feel right to me, especially given the kind of work I do.
I believe it is important for an individual suffering from compulsive sexual behavior and those supporting them, to hold the social views of sexuality with open-mindedness and non-judgement. There may be aspects of an individual's sexual behavior that they feel needs attention and want to change, but there is a beautiful richness in the spectrum of sexual expression that social views and morals needlessly limit and restrict. Perhaps the conversation needs to shift to better understanding principles of sexual health, promoting sexual education, and empowering individuals to cultivate and express their sexuality by engaging in sexual behavior that is meaningful and nourishing to them rather than judge and impose subjective beliefs of sexuality and sex.
What the Out of Control Sexual Behavior model allows for in the Individual and Group Psychotherapy phase, and what the Sex Addiction model fails to address, is healing focused on identifying and attending to the underlying causes of compulsive sexual behavior. I have experienced how addressing the trauma rather than only attacking the related compulsive sexual behavior or related symptoms can be a more effective approach.