Healing Sols Podcast | Ep 20: The Myth of Sex Addiction (Refurbished Content)

This podcast episode was originally recorded for "Mormon Sex Info" Podcast. It's now being refurbished for your enjoyment here at the "Healing Sols Podcast."

For more from Natasha Helfer, LCMFT, CST, CSTS, please visit https://www.natashahelfer.com.

Natasha Helfer Parker interviews Dr. David Ley, author of The Myth of Sex Addiction, regarding the problems with the sex addiction treatment model and the conversations we should be having instead. He states that not only is this type of modality erroneous, but dangerous. They cover such issues as: How do shifting attitudes about sexuality force us to renegotiate how we see and define healthy sexuality? Why is sexual diversity easily pathologized? Why is it that there is not a single published study that sex addiction treatment makes a difference and yet treatment centers are growing in number at an alarming rate? Why are we abandoning people within a moral or social crisis, by focusing on things like a supposed pornography public health crisis? Are we aware that gay and bi men are three times as likely to be called “sex addicts?” Are we aware that the American Psychiatric Association has rejected the language of “sex addiction” for 40 years? Are we talking about the importance of sex education and regular dialogue? How can we help people explore morality in their sexuality as adults? How do we incorporate religious beliefs in ways that allow for normative sexuality?

Dr. David Ley is a clinical psychologist in practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Ole Miss, and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of New Mexico. Dr. Ley is the Executive Director of New Mexico Solutions, a large outpatient mental health and substance abuse program in Albuquerque, NM. Dr. Ley has been treating sexuality issues throughout his career. He first began treating perpetrators and victims of sexual abuse, but expanded his approach to include the fostering and promotion of healthy sexuality, and awareness of the wide range of normative sexual behaviors. Insatiable Wives: Women Who Stray and the Men Who Love Them is his first book and won a Silver Medal in the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year contest for 2009. Dr. Ley wrote Insatiable Wives following two years of interviews with couples around the country. His controversial second book, The Myth of Sex Addiction was released in March 2012.

Resources mentioned during the podcast:

Defining “Normophilic” and “Paraphilic” Sexual Fantasies in a Population-Based Sample: On the Importance of Considering Subgroups by Christian Joyal

Jason Winters (2010) published three studies on sex addiction, demonstrating that alleged sex addicts have as much (or as little) sexual self-control as anyone else, and that the identity of sex addict is predicated by a religious upbringing.

Grubbs, Hook, Griffin and Davis (2015) published a review of the paucity of outcome data on sex addiction treatment in Current Addiction Reports.

Work of Dr. Rory Reid

Work of Stulhofer

The Religious Institute