Sexual Addiction:Strength/Hope/Recovery

Arrest is one of the most terrifying moment of your life.  Family members may be shocked, numb, or in denial.  It is  difficult to come to terms with and when the arrest is for a sexual crime, there is additional shame and stigma.  This experience can lead us to isolation and loneliness. Prison CONversation was created to deal with the shame and isolation of criminal charges and imprisoment. Tonight Carol the Coach interviews Jim Prager who created this program to provide information to help people process what is going on and what needs to happen next as attorneys are ill equiped to deal with the emotional trauma, the individual and the family is going to experience.

Carol the Coach is interviewing Rebecca Maestas, LMSW, CCPS-c who uses a Couple Centered Recovery Model with her "2 Connect " groups. She has developed two groups that provide a Help. Her. Heal foundation including having the partners attend sessions at the end of the group for relational repair. The partners can seperately atttend a group to promote their healing and prepare them for the 2 Connect Group. She also offers a "2 Freedom" group focuses on faith based mindfulness, self-compassion and shame resiliency to increase empathy for the partner.

Boundaries in Sex Addiction Recovery are essential to preventing relapse. Dr. Crystal Hollenbeck is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, an APSATS Certified Clinical Partner Specialist, and a Certified EMDR Therapist. She is going to define what boundaries are and the important role they play in Sex Addiction Recovery for the addict. She will discuss 15 Boundaries that every man in Sex Addiction Recovery should establish and maintain.

Tonight, Carol the Carol, will be interviewing Judy Kelly, who is a CSAT, and has found it extremely helpful to use the Help. Her. Heal. book to assist addicts in helping their partners heal. She has made the techniques her own and has the  men do additional activities to reinforce the need for on-going partner sensitive activites and shame resilience.  She even has added a 5th type of communication  style that she feels helps the addict stay strong and keeps them out of the shame spiral which ultimately helps the couple heal.

Carol will be speaking with Tim Kiernon who will be speaking about the importance of intensive treatment of sexual addiction and compulsivity for both the addict and the spouse/ partner. It is widely known that the more treatment the addict receives, the higher likelihood of sustained recovery. Tim runs A Better Lifetime Center for Hope and Healing. The Center is beginning a hybrid therapy and coaching program in December that will offer the person struggling with problematic sexual behaviors.  His focus is  not only on the problem but also on strategies for becoming and remaining sexually abstinent while finding rand pursuing good ecovery.

Tonight Carol the Coach interviews Patrick Hentsch who developed the Holistic Recovery Model which addresses the fact that living in recovery must mean much more than being abstinent (not doing certain behaviors) or being sober (having clear thoughts andemotions). It is about how we respond to our clear thoughts and emotions and allow them to guide us towards our authentic and integrated existence. It looks at the unified underlying cause that drives the great diversity of addictions with their correspondingly varied behaviors: the inability or unwillingness to fully embrace the rawness of being alive.  Patrick explains that it distinguishes between mood-alteration, self-medication, and addiction, and clarifies their functions in relation to holistic recovery. Listen to this fascinating model and how you might use it in your life.

Tonight, Carol the Coach, will Debra L. Kaplan who is an expert on sex, money, and power in relationships. Debra is a CSAT who also had a history of working on Wall Street. It is no surprise that she sees many couples who have had sex addiction and still battle being in a controlling relationhip that results in feeling exploitive. Battle of the Titans is a book about power and how to masterfully balance the complex forces of sex, money and power in relationships. Power differentials are a constant across all realms and studies have shown that conflicts about money are the greatest predictor for divorce or relationship dissolution. Battle of the Titans delves deep into power dynamics of a relationship and provides tools for couples to establish sexual and financial balance in relationships.

Happy Labor Day! This is a repeat of a 1012 show on abandonment.

Tonight, Carol the Coach interviews Steve Devlin, EdM. PhD, who explains that most of his professional career (1984-2007) was spent as a university-based researcher examining trends in aging, higher education, and deinstitutionalization.  By all measures his career was on a successful path.  Yet, throughout most of his adult life, he was accompanied by an addictive personality.  In July 2007 he hit bottom and began his recovery journey.  He reports that on Sunday, August 30 he will mark 4,800 one-days-at-a-time of sobriety from all emotional, physical, and spiritual bottom lines. Rebuilding these three areas has become the foundation of his sobriety and serves as the focus of his work since 2009 as a recovery coach and an advocate for people with addictions. His goal with all clients is to help them find hope and new meaning to life. He is heavily influenced by the work of Victor Frankl.  Listen as Carol the Coach finds out what Steve's secret is to recovery and how you might utilize his recovery principles.

Sometimes, couples seem to be at an impasse as to how to heal from sexual betrayal. Tonight, Carol the Coach will talk to Allana Pratt, Intimacy Coach about the work that she advocates to get couples to move beyond the anger by raising their vibrational energy to increase their sense of intimacy and compassion.