I am a UKCP Accredited Sexual and Relationship Psychotherapist who specialises in helping people affected by sex addiction and porn addiction. Since my work in this field began, almost 20 years ago, I have become increasingly passionate about developing national and international services to meet the ever growing problem and also campaigning for better education and social responsibility to protect others from falling into the sexual addiction trap (see my TEDx talk). I believe overcoming sex and porn addiction requires compassion, commitment and courage and I adopt these principles personally in my therapeutic approach.
I started my career as a therapist 30 years ago when I joined a local drug addiction agency as a volunteer. Two years later I began my formal training with Relate and went on to become qualified as a couple counsellor, psychosexual therapist, young people’s counsellor and family counsellor. In 2002, a few years after starting in private practice, I began to see a growing number of clients struggling with compulsive sexual behaviours and sought further training in the field. I completed two modules of the Patrick Carnes CSAT training, but felt the model didn’t fit the UK market or my experience as a sex therapist, so I went on to develop my own recovery model. These models are now internationally recognised since their publication in my first book, Understanding & Treating Sex Addiction and the development of the Accredited Diploma in Sex Addiction Counselling.
My latest endeavour has been founding Pivotal Recovery – a not-for-profit community interest company that provides affordable, accessible and anonymous self help for people who are unable to afford traditional therapy. The programme consists of 60 podcasts that guide you through the CHOICE Recovery Model and an interactive workbook where you can personalise your journey and monitor your progress. We’ve just completed our pilot study and look forward to publishing the results soon.
