It depends which manual you're looking at. The DSM-5, used in the United States, doesn't include sex addiction as a standalone diagnosis. The World Health Organization's ICD-11 does, under the name Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (code 6C72), classified as an impulse control disorder. Clinicians still debate whether the right framework is addiction, compulsion, or impulse control. What's not up for debate is the pattern, which is compulsive sexual behavior that escalates over time and causes real harm in your life. Whatever we call it, it's treatable. That's the part that matters.

A high sex drive isn't a problem on its own. The difference comes down to control and consequence. If you keep returning to the behavior even though it's costing you, your relationships, your work, your sense of who you are, and you can't stop on your own, that's the pattern we treat.

Yes, absolutely. It's an emotional regulation problem, and most often it's rooted in trauma. Both respond well to therapy. I work with a structured approach that combines EMDR, cognitive behavioral therapy, and group support, because treating only the behavior without treating what's underneath is how people end up cycling back.

No. Recovery from sex addiction isn't about complete abstinence from sex. It's about ending the compulsive pattern that's harming you and building a healthier relationship with intimacy. There's a difference, and we work it out together. Depending on your circumstances, I may recommend a temporary pause on specific behaviors while we get the cycle under control.

Yes. Research on compulsive sexual behavior shows online therapy works as well as in-person, and for something this private, the privacy of doing it from home is often what makes people willing to start in the first place.

Therapy is confidential, with a few narrow legal exceptions I'll walk you through before we start. For most people, knowing the room is private is exactly what makes it possible to finally be honest about what's going on.

Yes. Every day. Compulsive pornography use is one of the most common forms of sex addiction I work with. We address the secrecy, the emotional distance it creates in your relationships, and the underlying patterns driving it, while rebuilding trust and real intimacy.

It varies, and anyone giving you a fixed number is selling you something. What I can tell you is the work moves through three phases. First, stabilizing the behavior and getting some space from the cycle. Second, the deeper work on the trauma and patterns underneath. Third, rebuilding, which means relationships, intimacy, and a relationship with yourself that doesn't require the behavior to manage. Most people are in active work for a year or more. Some shorter, some longer. We'll talk about what your timeline looks like as we go.

Caring is mutual and leaves room for you. Codependency is when caring for someone else consistently comes at the cost of your own needs, your boundaries, and your sense of self. If you're constantly tracking how they feel and rarely tracking how you feel, that's the line.

Codependency isn't a formal diagnosis. It's a relational pattern, usually rooted in early experiences, and it responds well to therapy. The lack of a DSM code doesn't mean it isn't real, and it doesn't mean you can't treat it.

Yes. Codependency is learned, which means it can be unlearned. The work is about building boundaries, developing a secure sense of who you are, and learning to have a relationship with yourself that doesn't depend on rescuing or fixing anyone else.

It usually starts in childhood. Dysfunctional early relationships, unmet needs, trauma, or growing up around addiction can keep a secure sense of self from ever fully forming. As an adult, you end up looking to other people to give you what should have been built inside you.

Boundaries feel unsafe at first because codependency taught you that other people's comfort comes before yours. The work isn't about getting better at saying no on the first try. It's about giving you a place to practice, and learning to tolerate the discomfort that comes up, until it stops feeling like danger and starts feeling like freedom.

Yes. Codependency work is talk-based and skills-based, which translates well to virtual sessions. The privacy of doing this work from your own space often makes it easier to be honest about patterns you've spent a long time hiding.

Trauma is the overwhelming experience itself. PTSD is the lasting condition that can follow it, with ongoing distress, flashbacks, and hypervigilance that keep interfering with daily life long after the event is over. Not everyone who experiences trauma develops PTSD, but when the nervous system can't fully process what happened, the body keeps responding as if the danger is still here.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps the brain reprocess a memory that got stuck, so it loses its emotional charge. It's an evidence-based approach, and it often reaches trauma that talk therapy alone can't, because trauma lives in the nervous system, not just in the story you tell about it.

Yes. Chronic childhood trauma, including neglect, abuse, and ongoing verbal or emotional harm, is exactly what trauma-informed therapy and EMDR are built to treat, even decades later. The brain's capacity to reprocess doesn't expire.

Not in the way many people fear. EMDR in particular doesn't require retelling every detail out loud. We work at a pace that keeps you regulated, not overwhelmed, and you stay in control of what you share and when.

Yes. Unresolved trauma frequently fuels anxiety, depression, and compulsive or addictive behavior. The behavior is usually the body's attempt to manage what the nervous system never got to finish processing. That's why treating the trauma underneath often relieves the symptoms on top of it.

Yes. EMDR works well in online sessions. I provide trauma and PTSD therapy virtually across all six states where I'm licensed: Washington, Oregon, Georgia, Vermont, Virginia, and South Carolina.