Individual Therapy
At Full Heart Recovery, we offer therapy for partners of sex addicts. Our approach to therapy with partners of sex addicts starts with an individual assessment and interview that includes taking a biological, psychological and social history. In the assessment we specifically screen for trauma symptoms that may have been triggered from the client’s past and recent history. In the early stages of therapy, much of the focus will center on helping the partner feel safe within the context of their relationship, provide education about sex addiction, and develop health coping tools. Concurrently with the trauma-focused interventions the therapist will help the client establish boundaries that she/he can implement with regard to how the sex addict interacts with him/her. We find that partners of sex addicts need to feel safe with their homes, finances, and family lives before they can begin to heal. Throughout therapy, the client and therapist will develop goals so that the partner can begin to make choices from an empowered position rather than a place of crisis. In many cases if the sex addict continues to grow and mature in their recovery, the relational dynamic between the couple moves towards deeper intimacy and reestablishing trust. In this case, the couple may decide to begin marriage and couple’s therapy with one of our trained couple’s therapists.
Trauma Therapy
For partners of sex addicts to heal and work towards either relationship repair, forgiveness, separation or even divorce, it is essential that they begin to address the traumatic injury they have experienced as a result of the sex addict’s behavior. At Full Heart Recovery, our therapists are trained in numerous trauma interventions such as Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Schema Therapy, neurofeedback and biofeedback.
Group Therapy
Full Heart Recovery holds weekly group therapy sessions for partners of sex addicts to support each other as they heal and process their shared experiences and as they work towards empowerment and recovery. Many of our clients describe group therapy as a safe and a non-judgmental space where they can share honestly without feeling pressure to repeatedly explain their circumstances to well intentioned friends and family who may not understand their experience.
Couple’s Therapy
Many couples who have been impacted by sex addiction choose to engage in couple’s therapy with one of our Certified Sex Addiction Therapists. Couples impacted by sex addiction present with a number of different issues that are unique to their circumstances. Sex addicts naturally struggle with intimacy and often separate the essential components of intimacy such as vulnerable communication, empathy, sensuality, and honesty from sex with their spouses.
Discernment Counseling
This type of counseling helps the couple decide if they want to work on repairing their marriage or move towards divorce. If a couple decides that they want to divorce, the therapist will help the couple terminate their marriage in a respectful, amicable fashion that aims to honor each individuals needs. If a couple with children decides to divorce, Full Heart Recovery offers consultation session with our licensed child psychologist who can provide guidance in helping the couple develop a communication.