Many of you know that I've been out of town for several weeks in late March, early April for the birth of my first grandchild. But I'm back now and open for business!
I love being a therapist and watching people change and grow, mature and accept themselves and their families as they are and not try to change others. Always a losing battle!
At the foundation of the therapy I do is the concept of self-esteem and the idea that we are good people who sometime make bad choices in behaviors and the people with whom we choose to associate. But we can make new choices every day and learn to separate the person from the behavior or deed.
The man in the picture above (deleted) has been in the news a whole lot recently. He has been dealing with something called sex addiction. Is sex addiction real, you ask, or just an excuse for bad behavior? I believe that it is real because I have been treating sex addicts for almost 25 years. Often they are powerful, successful, intelligent people who began to feel "entitled" to indulging their impulses even though down deep they knew they were jeopardizing the lives of their families, they were jeopardizing their careers, and they were harming people that were involved with.
Most sex addiction starts very early as sex addicts often grow up in dysfunctional families were sex is either not talked about at all, or is talked about and acted out frequently. Many sex addicts tell me their families were either very, very religious or had no religion at all. As children they often grow up feeling scared and along. They learn to comfort themselves sexually and as they reach puberty and then adulthood, they naturally gravitate toward people who feel as they do. They often develop "double lives" as the man in the picture did.
If you or someone you know is struggling with internet pornography, repeated affairs, or visiting prostitues and strip bars, please give them my name and address. I can help and look forward to helping find solutions.
