Strengthen Your Relationship
Sex Addiction
Addiction Recovery
At Glow Counseling, we recognize that addiction recovery is a profound journey, often fraught with emotional upheaval and confusion. If you’re feeling the weight of a loved one’s struggle with addiction, you’re not alone. Our dedicated therapists provide a guiding light, offering compassionate support and effective therapy tailored to your unique situation. We employ the ARISE Intervention method, empowering families to bridge the gap to treatment without waiting for a “rock bottom.” Our goal is to restore hope, rebuild trust, and foster healing connections, ensuring that both individuals and families can reclaim their lives from the shadows of addiction. Together, we can transform cycles of despair into pathways of renewal and resilience.
Love & Relationship Addiction
The feeling of LOVE, or being “high” on love, can be a powerful drug. The “fix”, however, is another person, leading to an alteration of mood and a dependency on regaining or retaining that mood. The presence of the other person is not comforting through intimacy and connection, but rather for the ways in which he/she represents or symbolizes the internally held images and expectations of love, romance, and coupling.
Love addiction also occurs when sexual attraction, desire, and arousal is confused with intimacy and closeness. Often, this may be the result of unresolved attachment losses and fears of abandonment. In a culture that continues to reinforce simplified images of love and romance, glorifies self-destructive, intense, and risky relationship behaviors, and neglects the attachment need of children and adults, many people find themselves trapped in a spiral of unhealthy relationships or risky sexual encounters to sooth internal fears and loneliness, leading to lives of unrealistic expectations, anxiety, and identity confusion.
Pornography & Cybersex Addiction
Cybersex can be both the computer generated and enhanced sexual activity, through pictures, video, and description, that accompany sexual arousal and masturbation, often leading to orgasm, and/or using the Internet to hook-up or meet sexual partners through online chat rooms, web-cams, or, in real life. Addiction to Internet pornography Is the fastest growing, addiction phenomenon in the nation. By providing immediate excitement at the touch of a button, internet porn and sex addiction takes time and energy out of real life and real relationships, impacting both heterosexual and gay relationships. Patrick Carnes says “the Internet is to sex addiction, what crack cocaine has been to drugs.” Internet porn addiction leads to failed relationships, job anxiety and instability, emotional and physical isolation and withdrawal, sexual health problems, sexual desire and intimacy issues, financial and legal consequences, and more.
Sex Addiction Therapy
Sexual addictions or compulsive behaviors can take over your life, whether it be internet pornography and cybersex, phone sex lines,strip clubs, bath houses, bookstores, cruising spots, or any other form of anonymous sex. It leaves you feeling empty and alone. It’s estimated that there are more about 20 million sex addicts in the United States, more that those suffering from alcohol or drug abuse. People risk their relationships, jobs, financial security, and their freedom to have sex with another or with themselves. Outwardly, addiction is a way to escape and self-sooth.
Inwardly it’s a searching for connection and ways to find relief from internal wounds, loneliness, and abandonment. Sex addiction sometimes feels like the only way to get this relief. That’s why it’s so difficult to stop, especially without help. Most addicted persons do not have the tools to be intimate so they turn to behaviors that gets them close to this experience, but never satisfying their desires. They repeat the behaviors, yet obtain the same empty results. We help people develop tools to become intimate and create loving and passionate relationships. Recovering sex addicts go on to have a healthy and satisfying life without the fear of disease, arrest, financial ruin,or many of the other negative consequences they have been living with.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sex Therapy
How do I know if I have a "Sex Addiction"?
Sex addiction is characterized by a loss of control. If you find yourself engaging in sexual behaviors (pornography, affairs, anonymous sex) despite serious negative consequences—like risking your marriage, job, or health—and you want to stop but cannot, you may be struggling with addiction. At GLOW, we use specific screening tools to help you understand your behaviors. We view this not as a moral failing, but as a compulsive cycle that requires professional support to find Liberation and balance.
Is pornography addiction different from sex addiction?
They are often two sides of the same coin. Cybersex and pornography addiction involve the same brain chemistry—the rush of dopamine—as other compulsive sexual behaviors. If your use of pornography is escalating (needing more extreme content), isolating you from your partner, or consuming hours of your day, it is a process addiction. We treat the underlying drive to “numb out” or escape, helping you replace the digital fantasy with real-world Opportunity for connection and Well-being.
Can my relationship survive sex addiction?
Yes, but it requires work and transparency. Sex addiction often creates a “betrayal trauma” for the partner. Healing involves not just stopping the behavior, but rebuilding trust from the ground up. We work with couples to navigate this crisis. The goal is not just “staying together,” but creating a new relationship founded on honesty. We support the partner’s healing just as much as the addict’s recovery, aiming for mutual Growth and a redefined, healthy intimacy.
Does treatment mean I have to give up sex forever?
No. Unlike treatment for drugs or alcohol, where the goal is total abstinence, the goal of sex addiction therapy is sexual health. We help you define what “sobriety” looks like for you—usually eliminating the compulsive, destructive behaviors while preserving or relearning healthy, connected sexuality. We want you to move from using sex as a drug to experiencing sex as a form of intimacy and love.
Why can’t I just use willpower to stop?
Because addiction is often a coping mechanism for deeper pain. You may be using sex to manage anxiety, depression, loneliness, or past trauma. Willpower fights the behavior, but it doesn’t heal the root cause. Our approach delves into why you are self-medicating. By addressing the underlying emotional triggers—often through trauma-informed therapies—we reduce the need for the addictive outlet, making it easier to make conscious, healthy choices.
Will I be judged for the things I’ve done?
Absolutely not. Shame is the fuel that keeps addiction alive. The therapy room is a confidential, safe container where secrets lose their power. Whether your behaviors involve affairs, fetishes, or illegal activities, our role is not to judge you but to help you understand them. We meet you with empathy. Breaking the silence is the first step toward Well-being and stopping the cycle of shame and acting out.
What is "Love Addiction" and how is it different?
While sex addiction is often about the physical act or the “high,” love addiction is a dependency on the feeling of being in a relationship or the intensity of a new romance (fantasy). You might jump from relationship to relationship, tolerate abuse to avoid being alone, or obsess over an unavailable partner. Both are intimacy disorders. We help you build a stronger sense of self-worth so that your relationships are based on choice and equality, not desperation and dependency.
Sex Addiction Counseling
Sex Addiction Therapy Checklist
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Do you spend hours on the internet or seeking sex, unable to stop?
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Do you find yourself having anonymous sex, frequenting prostitutes, bookstores, strip clubs, or unsafe cruising spots?
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Have you had unsafe sex even after you promised yourself: “never again?”
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Are you worried that your spending on sex or internet porn is out-of-control?
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Are your sexual compulsions hurting your personal relationships and work?
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Are you using sex to try to manage your anxiety, stress, or anger?
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Is pornography and cybersex addiction impacting your life?
If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you may need help. We can talk about options for a healthier, more satisfying, and productive life. Sexual addictions or compulsive behaviors can take over your life, whether it be internet pornography and cybersex, phone sex lines,strip clubs, bath houses, bookstores, cruising spots, or any other form of anonymous sex. It leaves you feeling empty and alone.
It’s estimated that there are more about 20 million sex addicts in the United States, more that those suffering from alcohol or drug abuse. People risk their relationships, jobs, financial security, and their freedom to have sex with another or with themselves. Outwardly, addiction is a way to escape and self-sooth.
Inwardly it’s a searching for connection and ways to find relief from internal wounds, loneliness, and abandonment. Sex addiction sometimes feels like the only way to get this relief. That’s why it’s so difficult to stop, especially without help. Most addicted persons do not have the tools to be intimate so they turn to behaviors that gets them close to this experience, but never satisfying their desires. They repeat the behaviors, yet obtain the same empty results.
We help people develop tools to become intimate and create loving and passionate relationships. Recovering sex addicts go on to have a healthy and satisfying life without the fear of disease, arrest, financial ruin,or many of the other negative consequences they have been living with.
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