Real Hope, True Freedom covers a wide variety of topics on sex addiction and the process of recovery. It addresses the different manifestations of sex addiction, how sex addiction impacts the brain, sex addiction risk factors, when sex addiction co-occurs with other mental health disorders, barriers to getting help/treatment, information and resources specific to the needs of the partners of sex addicts, the process of treatment, the process of recovery for both individuals and couples, relationship rebuilding, re-establishing intimacy, healthy sexuality, and relapse prevention tools and strategies. Milton Magness, D. Min., MA, LPC, CSAT, is the founder and director of Hope & Freedom Counseling Services. A Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, he served five terms as the president of the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH), the international professional organization for sexual addiction therapists. Prior to becoming a therapist he was a pastor for twenty years. He has a Doctor of Ministry from Luther Rice Seminary, a Master of Arts in Psychology from Houston Baptist University, and Master of Arts in Religious Education from Southwestern Seminary. Dr. Magness is the author of Stop Sex Addiction: Real Hope, True Freedom for Sex Addicts and Partners, and Thirty Days to Hope & Freedom for Sexual Addicts: the Essential Guide for Daily Recovery and Relapse Prevention. Marsha Means, MA, a trained Marriage and Family Therapist, as well as the founder and director of A Circle of Joy Ministries, an organization designed to help women impacted by sexual addiction and address the needs created by this growing problem. In 2000, she gained international recognition through Prodigals International, an organization she and her husband founded in the Seattle area to train and equip therapists, churches, and lay people in providing help, hope, and healing to those touched by the pain and shame of sex addiction. Ms. Means is the author of Living With Your Husband’s Secret Wars, and the co-author of Your Sexually Addicted Spouse: How Partners Can Cope and Heal.
Sexual addiction and compulsive sexual behavior often steal a person's ability to achieve emotional or sexual intimacy. Both addicts and their partners may suffer in isolation, ashamed and afraid, not knowing where to turn for help. Your Sexually Addicted Spouse shatters that stigma and shame and provides understanding and empathy for the addict and his or her spouse. Barbara Steffens' groundbreaking research was the first to show that partners are not codependents but post-traumatic stress victims, while Marsha Means' personal experience provides insights, strategies, and critical steps to recognize, deal with, and heal partners of sexually addicted relationships. Firsthand accounts and stories reveal the impact of this addiction on survivors' lives. Chapters end with "On a Personal Note" questions and propose new paths that lead from trauma to empowerment, health, and hope. Useful appendices list health and mental health care providers and clergy. Barbara Steffens, PhD, LPCC, CCPS, CPC specializes in helping women recover from sexual betrayal and is a sought-after speaker and presenter on special issues related to partners of sexual addicts. She was the founding President of the Association for Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialists, an organization that provides training and certification of Clinical Partner Specialists and Partner Trauma Coaches. She has counseled and coached betrayed spouses/partners for over twenty years and her research on trauma after betrayal has changed the field. Barbara also consults with other professionals and provides training for those who want to help partners heal. Marsha Means, MA, founder and director of A Circle of Joy Ministries, is trained as a Marriage and Family Therapist, and writes and speaks on the topic of betrayal trauma and sex addiction. Her work is based on both her personal and professional experience. She has written several books on the topic. Marsha and her team of coaches offer individual and group support for partners of sex addicts. In addition, Marsha facilitates couple's groups to help them learn to heal the damage done by betrayal trauma.
Meg is a lantern guiding women through the twists and turns along this pain-filled path. --Lynn Marie Cherry, speaker and author of Keep Walking: 40 Days to Hope and Freedom After Betrayal Meg Wilson watched her world fall apart when her husband confessed to years of sexual addiction. She has intimate knowledge of the devastation that follows--and she has come through the other side. In her groundbreaking Hope After Betrayal, Meg provides reassuring counsel, compassionate insight, and wise direction. By sharing her story, talking to other women who've been in a similar situation, and turning to Scripture, Wilson has helped countless readers through the steps to recovery--and shows how you can follow that same path out of the darkness. This newly revised and expanded edition includes new lessons Meg has learned over the last decade. A compelling final chapter by Meg's husband sheds further light on the difficult road to healing from sexual addiction, and a thoughtful new appendix addresses the effect sexual addiction has on children in the home. Hope After Betrayal is a strong and sure lifeline that thousands of women will reach for in a drowning moment. Meg offers careful, clear direction and encouragement in each chapter while unveiling the truth about sexual addiction...This valuable tool should be required reading for every wife and every mother of sons." --Robin Jones Gunn, best-selling author of the Sisterchicks Series
Hope--real hope--for recovery is within reach. This book goes beyond cliché answers and offers meaningful, spiritual, and practical steps to healing and freedom from sexual addiction--or any addiction. With today's rampant availability of Internet pornography, sexual addiction has become a national epidemic that affects an increasing number of Christians, even pastors and priests. As devastating as any drug habit, it brings heartbreak and despair to those it entangles. But there is help for men and women caught in sexual addiction's downward spiral. This book offers a path that leads beyond compulsive thoughts and behaviors to healing and transformation. Speaking from his own experience with sexual addiction and recovery, Dr. Mark Laaser is sensitive to the shame of sexual addiction without minimizing its sinfulness. He traces the roots of the problem, discusses its patterns and impact, and maps out a biblical approach to self-control and sexual integrity. Whether you know someone with a sexual addiction or struggle yourself, Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction points the way to understanding, wholeness, and holiness. Spanish edition also available; previously titled Faithful and True.
Sex addiction is a growing menace that threatens all strata of our society, destroying millions of marriages, damaging reputations, contributing to suicides and in come cases prison sentences, and wasting mind-boggling amounts of money. But there is hope. Sex addiction is treatable. Through a rigorous recovery program detailed in these pages, it is possible for sex addicts to stop all of their destructive behaviors--forever. The recovery road is long and difficult, but also very rewarding. Marriages have not only been restored, but enriched. by following the Steps described in Stop Sex Addiction, addicts and their partners have found the path to freedom from sex addiction. You have taken the first step by reading this summary. The wisdom in this book will lead to real hope and true freedom.
Pastor T. C. Ryan narrates the unsettling story of his lifelong struggle with sexual addiction, one that predated and pervaded his pastoral ministry--one that went on for years in secrecy and isolation. In light of his full experience of exile and healing, Ryan calls the church to a ministry of unsettling grace that is the worthy of the gospel.
Did one or both of your parents: Become emotionally distant and unloving to their spouse? Talk about sex or sexuality in an inappropriate way? Spend a lot of time away from home or form unusually close platonic relationships? Continue their destructive behavior, even when confronted by the damage it was causing? If so, you are an adult child of a sex addict. Sex addiction is not about parents who cheat on each other or have multiple partners, although it does manifest itself that way. It is about any sexual dysfunction between people in a long-term relationship: sexual withholding, emotional detachment, bullying or demeaning behavior, etc. These relationship problems form subconscious impressions on children and lead to unfulfilling relationships in later life. This book, for the first time, identifies 'sexual addiction' as a root cause of many of the dysfunctions in relationships. It helps readers analyze their parents' relationships. It then shows them the possible dysfunctions these problems caused in their own relationships, giving both general guidance and personal anecdotes from a select group of children of sex addicts. Finally, it gives readers several specific exercises to help free them from their past, heal their relationship with your parents (especially the 'victim partner'—often the wife—who is subconsciously blamed for not stopping the spouse's disruptive behavior), and repair any damage in their current relationships. This book is not just about cheating or abuse. It is about finding the way back to the loving relationships you want...and that those around you deserve.