Working with the Sex Addict, Betrayed Partner and Couple
SASA invites therapists, therapy students and group facilitators to attend in person, or online, this introductory training on working with those impacted by sexual addiction/problematic sexual behaviours. For this all-day, three-part event — the first of three this year — our international experts (see below) will be attending virtually, but we still recommend you join us in Avondale so that we can network as well as learn together.
Price: $250 (includes morning and afternoon tea)
Location: The Haven, Avondale or online
Date/Time: March 19, 9:30am-4:00pm
Other upcoming events this year will be on the topic of sex addiction and domestic violence (July, 2022) and full disclosure (October 2022).
Carol Juergensen Sheets
Sexual Addiction and Partner Betrayal is a very specialized niche and requires a protocol that will help the couple heal. ERCEM, the Early Recovery Couples Empathy Model promotes the safety and stabilization that a partner needs that moves her through the 3 stages of partner betrayal. It is a model that maintains that couples’ restoration is increased if the SA can help her heal. This model takes a couple through the 3 stages of partner betrayal and teaches them how to grieve and mourn the losses the relationship has experienced because of the sexual addiction. It is the foundation for rebuilding a new relationship based on integrity.
In this presentation you will be exposed to the building blocks that promote couple restoration through the process of rebuilding trust.
Carol Juergensen Sheets LCSW, CSAT, CCPS-S, PCC better known as “Carol the Coach” has been treating individuals and couples for over 41 years. She is a certified sexual addictions counselor and certified partners of sexual addiction trauma specialist working in the US. She trains clinicians and coaches nationally and internationally and believes that her partner sensitive treatment approach enhances treating sexual addiction and partner trauma in the relationship. Her style assists couples in healing the shame and pain of sexual addiction and she uses post traumatic growth to emphasise a client’s strengths.
Carol hosts an internet podcast and has written two books specific to sex addiction and partner betrayal: Help.Her.Heal: An Empathy Workbook for Sex Addicts to Help Their Partners Heal (co-authored by Allan J. Katz) and Unleashing Your Power: Moving Through the Trauma of Partner Betrayal
Steve Stokes
This workshop will teach practitioners to identify the difference between use, abuse and dependency issues for sex and relationship addiction, and sexual betrayal. We will learn how to use the criteria of addiction with sex and relationship issues to identify how an addict might get this way: one of the most asked questions by families and the addicts themselves. We will also go through the “cycle of addiction”: looking at core beliefs, impaired thinking, preoccupation, rituals, acting out behaviours, the despair/shame cycle, and the resulting unmanageability of the cycle. We will finish with a look at the “cycle of recovery” and how to transpose from the cycle of addiction into a new way of life, so the addict themselves can identify how to heal. Steve will also show how a person's individual recovery needs dovetail into particular skills that help their family members heal.
Steve Stokes has been working in the addictions and mental health field for 33 years specialising in developmental trauma treatment and complex PTSD, and affect regulation and its relationship to all addiction treatment.
Steve is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (ITAP) and facilitates one on one, couple and family therapy to address this issue. He facilitates ongoing men’s sex and relationship therapy groups. Steve also facilitates couples through the full disclosure process and has facilitated weekend retreats focusing on recovery issues, menswork, relationships and spirituality.
Steve has appeared as a guest therapist for television (Real Talk, Sex Life Program) radio and print. He currently runs Steve Stokes Counselling and Consulting.
Sharalyn Drayton
Betrayal trauma occurs when the people we depend on and are committed to significantly violates our trust or wellbeing. The repeated experience of deceit at the hands of someone you have committed to spend your life with is profound, complex and much misunderstood.
In this workshop we will look at betrayal trauma in all its complexities. We will look at the different methods of treatment for partners experiencing betrayal trauma, and explore ways in which we can provide safety, stabilisation and support for those experiencing the devastating impact of this intimate trauma.
Sharalyn Drayton is a therapist in private practise in Sydney and a consulting therapist to a private treatment facility. She is also an author, supervisor and trainer. In her practice Sharalyn works with a wide variety of clients but specialises in working with the partners of sex addicts who experience betrayal trauma. She started ARISE Counselling Solutions in 2010 where she also runs a partners support group which meets both face to face and online.
Sharalyn holds a Masters degree in Public Theology (addiction & spirituality), is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (IITAP), and a Certified Clinical Partner Specialist (APSATS). She holds qualifications in drug & alcohol work, pastoral counselling, Interactive Drawing Therapy and Radical Exposure Therapy (Advanced).
Sharalyn is also the founder and chairperson of Women's Healing Sanctuary, a safe place of retreat for women experiencing exhaustion, trauma and distress.
Price: $250 (includes morning and afternoon tea)
Location: The Haven, Avondale or online
Date/Time: March 19, 9:30am-4:00pm