Sex, Lies & Trauma

Straight Talk about Sexual Compulsivity

Alexandra Katehakis Ph.D., MFT

The Seeds of Cultural Change

What can we learn about masculinity from the sexual harassment scandals dominating the media world?

The Power of Preying

Harvey Weinstein is just one of many.

Millennial Men, Women and Casual Sex

Millennial men may not be hooking up as much as we think they are, but their attitudes towards women suggest a deeper problem

USA vs Norway: The One Night Stand

Are Americans more likely to have one night stands? A recent study suggests otherwise.

The Demisexual Phenomenon

When sexual attraction comes only after establishing an emotional connection over time...

The 2016 Best and Worst Sex List

National politics came close to displacing sexual politics this year as the most talked-about topic on therapist couches.

Sexual Fantasy as a Form of Play

How do you distinguish between which fantasies deepen sexual expression with healthy play, and which ones prey on others by repeating old traumas?

White Lies, Black Sheep

The rape victims of Brian Banks and Brock Turner suffered gravely because white privilege often trumps the truth.

10 Tips to Protect Yourself From Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is a quickly escalating problem that’s more likely to occur in an addictive personality. It's important to be careful with how you conduct your romantic life online.

2015 Best and Worst Sex List

It was a wild year for sex! Here are 25 of the most intriguing, perplexing, and stunning sex stories this year.

The Sexpert Chronicles: Profile of an Infidelity Expert

Alex sits down with Dr. Tammy Nelson to discuss "the new monogamy", erotic integrity and treating infidelity in sex therapy.

What Dating Looks Like for a Recovering Sex Addict

Compulsive sex is the fast food of relationships, and developing a taste for the slow-cooked meal may take some time.

Infidelity: Looking Beyond the Ashley Madison Scandal

Although it’s difficult to know where to draw the line between addiction, ‘high sex drive’ and plain old dishonesty, there are some basic patterns that one can identify in an effort to make sense of a betrayal.

Steps to Heal Sex Addiction: The Building Blocks of Intimacy

What's needed is an understanding of the building blocks of intimacy, which when worked on individually and as a whole, will gradually allow the addict to learn a new style of relating to others.

Why We Fall for Unavailable Partners (and How to Stop)

The love avoidant is terrified of intimacy and cannot tolerate it. He or she may crave love, but when it comes knocking, the love avoidant runs like hell.

What is a 'Clean' Breakup? (And How to Achieve One)

Letting go can be so painful that it's easier to create drama and/or necessitate a fight rather than part ways on amicable terms.

The New Sexual Revolution Is the Sexual Healing Movement

The entire sexual recovery movement and growing number of therapists and centers devoted to sexual healing is at the forefront of a new wave of sexual liberation.

Cyberstalking: The Fastest Growing Crime

The shift to living virtually has happened so quickly and so pervasively that we have hardly had time to adjust to all the implications. Cyberstalking is a compulsion. It aims to humiliate, control, frighten, manipulate, embarrass, get revenge at, or otherwise harm the victim.

Childhood Trauma and Masturbation

Often when a child undergoes abuse or trauma there are not sufficient outlets for all the rage, despair and grief that results from the betrayal. Masturbation is one of the most accessible and available forms of numbing out, because you rely only on your own body to produce the intoxicating chemicals that soothe the pain.

The 2014 Best & Worst Sex List

These are the 25 most inspiring, incredible, disturbing, and admirable news stories about sex and sexuality in 2014, as selected by Alexandra Katehakis and Center for Healthy Sex in Los Angeles for their annual Best & Worst Sex List. Each story is accompanied by in-depth commentary from a therapeutic perspective addressing why all this matters at this time in our culture.

Sexism Affects Female Sex Addiction

Although women are still widely underrepresented in studies on addiction, we are gradually moving towards a culture that not only acknowledges their legitimate struggles with alcoholism, sex and love addiction and compulsive eating and/or spending, but also acknowledges the unique ways in which their behaviors and recovery patterns differ from those of men.

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Sex Addiction as a Sex-Positive Concept

The sex addiction recovery movement not only complements the progress made toward a sex-positive culture, it reinforces it. Sharing and exploring not just our greatest sexual joys and discoveries, but our struggles and pain as well, is the path to an integrated and holistic model of sexuality.

When Sex Addicts Reveal Everything to Spouses

When it's time to confess sexually addictive behaviors to a spouse, a therapeutic disclosure process serves as a healthy container for the truths and feelings of both parties.

The Devastating Pain of 'Sexual Anorexics'

While the concept of sexual addiction is well-known, the compulsive avoidance of sexual and relational intimacy can be equally devastating.

Porn Comes of Age

A recent study from University of Cambridge reports that porn may trigger compulsion in the brain of a sex addict much in the way drug paraphernalia triggers a drug addict.

The 2013 Best & Worst Sex List

These are the 25 most inspiring, incredible, disturbing, and admirable news stories about sex and sexuality in 2013, as selected by Alexandra Katehakis and Center for Healthy Sex in Los Angeles for their annual Best & Worst Sex List. Each story is accompanied by in-depth commentary from a therapeutic perspective addressing why all this matters at this time in our culture.

Monthly Meditations to Invite Eroticism (December)

Invite erotic intimacy into your love life with these meditations excerpted from "Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence"—the upcoming companion book to "Erotic Intelligence."

Monthly Meditations to Invite Eroticism (November)

Invite erotic intimacy into your love life with these meditations excerpted from "Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence"—the upcoming companion book to "Erotic Intelligence: Igniting Hot, Healthy Sex While in Recovery from Sex Addiction."

Monthly Meditations to Invite Eroticism (October)

Invite erotic intimacy into your love life with these meditations excerpted from "Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence" -- the upcoming companion book to "Erotic Intelligence: Igniting Hot, Healthy Sex While in Recovery from Sex Addiction."

Monthly Meditations to Invite Eroticism (September)

Contemplate core beliefs, rewire neural pathways, and invite erotic intimacy into your love life with these meditations excerpted from the upcoming companion book to "Erotic Intelligence".

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