Sexual Addiction:Strength/Hope/Recovery

Today, Carol will be interviewing Stevie Hall and Lindsey Stanley who have felt that couples needed a guide to navigate reasons a therapeutic seperation could benefit the coupleship. They have a book pending release: Therapeutic Separation: A Guide for Couples Facing Addiction that will help identify the pros and cons for taking a time out. Their website for the book is: www.therapeuticseparations.com. They want to inspire couples to learn about the so that the couple can make informed decisions that acturally benefit the healing for both spouses.  They want to provide information that can provide safety for couples to explore why taking a break might just be the right thing to do.

Today, Carol is interviewing Chayse Fayle, a Master Certified Professional Coach, APSATS trainee, and Certified Help Her Heal Group Leader. Chase is no stranger to the complexities of life's challenges, particularly in the realm of addiction and relationship dynamics. As the guiding force behind Resilient Mind's addiction and couple's coaching, Chase specializes in helping men and couples navigate the often-turbulent waters of overcoming addiction, sexual addiction, and betrayal trauma. He believes that men desiring to walk in sexual integrity and who are desiring to build intimacy with their partners cannot do this alone. A key success factor is men’s small groups that center around the subject of sexual addiction and betrayal trauma. Specifically for this discussion is utilizing the Help.Her.Heal Workbook to guide, focus and build accountability for healing and recovery. The primary tools and exercises are Formal Disclosures, emotional check-ins using the Feelings Wheel, practicing AVR, regulating shame during Triggers, understanding Assertive Communication, and developing a sense of camaraderie and connection with other men. Groups benefit men with ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ sharing, accountability to be authentic, and are beneficial with open and encouraging feedback allowed. Lastly, this fosters the growth and progression of couple centered recovery as the stages of discovery, grief and restoration take place.

Tonight's episode is about the gay culture. Jeff Aldeson is facilitating  a Sex and Intimacy Group for Gay Men and Gary Katz is a LCSW, CSAT-S, EMDR who is a Certified Partner Trauma Therapist for Center for Intimacy Recovery. Together they answer questions that Carol has about men, sex, relationships and growing up gay. Carol the Coach wanted to do the show because she realized that she might need more education about working with gay men. She knew that her experience other than with friends and family, was fairly limited, so she reached out to the specialists and asked them to enlighten both herself and the listening community as to what the specialized needs might be for the gay community. Listen as she discusses the nuances of how the heterosexual populaion may be different from the gay population or perhaps the same. As Jeff points out despite the difference in upbringing and social norms, he believes there are more similiarities than differences!

Today, Carol the Coach interviews Kirsten D. Samuel, Coach, Author, and Speaker who wants to inspire woman to know that they can survive the devestation that has caused them. She explains that after 25 years of marriage, my husband revealed his addiction. He was caught looking at inappropriate images at work. Like most women who face this discovery, I immediately went into shock and disbelief followed quickly by anger and panic. I wondered what was wrong with me, became overwhelmed by a sense of failure, and felt like I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t believe in divorce but didn’t know how I could live with this man I no longer trusted. The journey to recovery was long, painful, and life changing. End of the story (my favorite part): I have a brand-new marriage with the same man. I want women who face a similar discovery to know that addiction doesn’t have to be fatal to their marriage. However, changes must happen within the relationship and within yourself to move beyond this betrayal and build a healthy relationship. Listen as Kristen shares the keys to regaining her life again!

Carol the Coach interviews sex, love, and porn addiction specialist Carol the Coach, as they discuss the collaborative book project 'Going Deeper for Women'. The episode explores the impact of the inner child on love and sex addiction in women, emphasizing the importance of trust, self-compassion, and understanding in overcoming addiction. The conversation delves into gender differences in addiction, addressing trauma, attachment, and the significance of therapy and self-empowerment for recovery.

Today Carol the Coach will be talking to Josh and Charlene Lewis who are co-founders of programing for both the partner and the addict that have foundations in the works of Patrick Carnes.They have an intensive that is remote and they believe in making it easy for their clients. On this podcast they will be sharing their own hope, strength and wisdom that built their programing to get you the right tools to manage recovery and betrayal.

Today Carol the Coach is interviewing Dr. David Fawcett who has written a new book called Under the Influence about the deadly effect that substances have in combination withcompulsive problematic sexual behaviors. When sex and drugs are combined repeatedly and compulsively, there is a high risk of developing what Dr. David Fawcett calls sexualized drug use. This condition is also referred to as paired substance and sex addiction or addiction interaction disorder. Unfortunately, the response from the professional community to sexualized drug use has been far from adequate. As Dr. Fawcett writes, “I have had countless clients come to me who have gone through well-known and otherwise exceptional drug addiction treatment programs that never addressed co-occurring behavioral addictions, most notably sex and addiction. Because of that shortcoming, those clients found themselves still struggling with sobriety and life in general. This book is intended to be a guide for individuals curious about their own sexualized drug use or the sexualized drug use of someone they care about, and for professional seeking more clinical information. The information contained herein provides insight, guidance, and relief to people struggling to break free from sexualized drug use, steering them toward affirming and satisfying sex and intimacy without the need for a mood-altering substances and behaviors.   Questions:

Today, Carol the Coach will be interviewing Amie Woolsey who has created a program for women who have experienced sexual betrayal and have decided to divorce to and move on to their next chapter. She teaches about the three pillars - Awareness, Acceptance, and Agency - when applied to a partner's healing journey, to enable empowerment and choice. She has offered a free workbook to get you thingking and to remember. that you have choices. She tells her partners, "Whether you're in the "Should I stay or go" mindset or the "What the heck do I do next?" mindset, this workbook is crafted to meet you where you are and provide clarity on the most crucial aspect of any decision-making proces. She believes, your mindset is the single most important part of any decision because you are the CHOOSER in your life. This workbook serves as your trusty guide, allowing you to explore your thoughts and feelings in the safety of your own space, at your own pace. When someone in your life has made choices that stripped away your own power to choose, reclaiming that power and becoming the CHOOSER is absolutely critical. Decisions made from a place of empowerment have the amazing ability to erase the paralyzing fear of making the wrong choice. If you go to Amie's website, you can print off as many copies of her workbook as you need to fuel your curiosity. Listen as she describes her program to support partners in any way she can.

Today, Carol the Coach is interviewing Sam Louie who authored Passport to Shame From Asian Immigrant to American Addict. Sam explains that "Asian cultures are rooted in shame. They are known as shame-based societies because the lives, families, and mindsets of these cultures revolve around some aspect of avoiding shame to preserve familial and cultural honor. In Chinese culture alone, there are more than 100 different ways to describe shame. While some of them overlap with English versions of shame, such as a sense of disgrace and humiliation, many others help shed light on why and how shame is so pertinent among Asian cultures. Within the Chinese, some of the shame-related terms and references are: a nation’s humiliation/shame (i.e. bringing shame to yourself also brings shame to your family, ancestors, and community and your entire ethnic background and/or family’s country of origin); the old father-in-law carries the young daughter-in-law on his back to cross a river (in Chinese culture, it is considered inappropriate for a father-in-law to have physical contact with his daughter-in-law, thus equating how taboo it is to be associated with shame); and a person lives by face as much as a tree lives by bark and as much as a light bulb is covered with glass (i.e. stressing the importance of maintaining a positive and good-standing public image)." Listen as they discuss Asian culture and and how it is so deeply rooted in shame and why.

Today Carol the Coach will be interviewing Janice Caudill and Dan Drake, who created his and hers, step-by-step, companion workbooks for helping couples prepare for, complete and heal after a full disclosure process. Since the books came out they are now training  professionals to navigate these difficult waters with their clients, helping them to understand the infrastructure that underlies the Restoring Truth Model so that the disclosure can become the starting point for cultivating safety, trust, vulnerability and, ultimately, authenticintimacy for individual and relationship healing.