"Sex and Love Addiction": Attachment Trauma

Center For Healthy Sex, 12/2/13; Ashley Wells, Crystal Q., Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


"Sex AND Love Addiction" excerpt: Brain Science of Early Attachment Trauma

Center for Healthy Sex presents a lecture by Jessica Levith: "Complex Secrets: Dispelling the Shame of Sex AND Love Addiction."

 

"The Sex Experts" is a monthly professional lectures series for sex therapists and specialists to workshop and refine new material that they've been working with in an informal setting before their peers. Any particular statements expressed herein represent the views of the presenter(s) only, not necessarily the perspective of Center for Healthy Sex (CHS). With this lecture series, CHS intends to explore important issues and encourage conversation within the therapeutic community, as well as provide a platform to emerging voices.

Lecture Description: Have you "had the talk" with your client? Do they become sexually or emotionally fixated on others without knowing them? Do they feel empty without a partner or the thought of having one?

 

Clients might be struggling with Sexual and Emotional Dependency, an insidious negative attachment battle. THERE'S HELP! Join Jessica Levith, MA as she discusses her personal struggle and RECOVERY with Sexual and Emotional Dependency and how she began to help her clients.

 

Levith's lecture will cover the following:

• A timeline of Sexual and Emotional Dependency recognition and research
• How Sexual and Emotional Dependency differs from Substance Dependency in detection and treatment
• How sexual and emotional behaviors are constantly interplaying, deepening a client's dependence
• Sexual and Emotional Dependency's physiological underpinnings and the power of psychological addiction. NORMALIZING a client's experience
• DISPELLING the shame of Sexual and Emotional Dependency, the secrecy preventing clients from admitting they need help.

Jessica Levith, MA is a registered MFT intern working in Oakland, California. She has been involved with recovery from sex and love addiction for nine and a half years. In her private practice, she sees individual adult and young adult clients struggling with sex and love addiction and runs a weekly Women's Sex And Love Addiction group. She hosts a blog on sex and love addiction at east-baytherapy.com. 

 

The Center for Healthy Sex (CHS) is a community therapy center in Los Angeles that specializes in the treatment of sexual dysfunction, sexual anorexia, porn addiction, sex addiction, and love addiction. Clients participate in the diverse programs, online courses and social services offered at CHS -- ranging from weekly support groups, couples sex therapy, and the 11-day Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) to online classes, free lectures, and podcasts.

 

CHS was co-founded by Alexandra Katehakis, MFT, CST-S, CSAT-S, and Douglas Evans in 2005. Their stated mission is to offer men, women, and couples a safe place to receive professional psychotherapy to resolve shame, guilt, deception, or other barriers to healthy eroticism. CALL (310) 843-9902 for a free phone consultation or visit centerforhealthysex.com