Dr. Patrick Carnes – Clinical Map Defined: The Road Map to Recovery

Sex addiction as a  problem has forty decades of research to help us understand the problem. Not only has our clinical awareness growing, but the problem itself is constantly mutating in that digitalized media has increased availability and options on an unprecedented scale. A problem that used to be quite focused in an age now spans the life span from childhood to the elderly. Each presentation is designed for therapists to acquire skills and comfort when cultural change walks in the door. At the same time resources available to therapists have catalyzed a whole new level of thinking about how to approach our nation’s number one health problem: addiction. In all of the addictions, sex has been the most difficult to talk about. However, no longer can any therapist not know the basics of an illness that is changing our culture. Concrete tools, strategies, resources, and assessments will be explored to help deal with the inevitable patient.

Format:

• 2 hours per session, 6 sessions, a total of 12 CEUs
• 120-minute lecture with Dr. Carnes and video clips from existing DVDs – during some of the course sessions.
• Homework – take-home exercises or video clips to watch after each session

Objectives:

• To present concrete, validated ways to assess for sex addiction in a world that is transforming sexual behaviors through digitalized formats.
• To clarify common underlying patterns that drive the brain’s rewards centers into obsession and self-destruction.
• To present the common trajectories involved as patients work their way through profound challenges and how a therapist can anticipate what is needed including a safety net.
• Examining different models of practice management that offer addicts more support and integration of new toolsets.
• To integrate evolving development in attachment, family, and brain research with a focus on the impact of the internet and digitalized media.
• Underlining that multiple addictions are the rule rather than the exception, and it is the therapist who helps connect the dots about how they work together. The patient (and some professionals will see them as detached and separate, but they are not.
• Working with sex addiction clients and their families is extremely intense but also very rewarding. The key ability is for the therapist to remain in a comfort zone so they keep their own focus and health.

Participants working in the following fields will benefit from this training:

• Psychologists
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Professional Counselors
• Addiction Counselors
• Other Mental Health Professionals

Patrick J. Carnes, Ph.D., is the founder of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP) and Gentle Path Press. His extensive background in the field of addiction therapy led him to develop multiple cutting-edge recovery programs. Dr. Carnes’ most recent endeavor is as the Founder of Gentle Path and Senior Fellow at The Meadows, in Wickenburg, Arizona.

With more than 30 years in the field of sexual addiction treatment, Dr. Carnes is internationally recognized expert, presenter and interview subject. His assessment tools and 30-task model treatment methodology deliver an unprecedented approach to addiction recovery for practitioners of trauma, sexual addiction and co-occurring addictions.

In 1966, Dr. Carnes graduated from St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He earned his Master’s in 1969 from Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a Ph.D. in counselor education and organizational development from the University of Minnesota in 1980.

His achievements include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH), where they now award an annual “Carnes Award” to researchers and clinicians who have made exceptional contributions to the field of sexual health. He has published numerous articles and books on the subject of sexual addiction and trauma as well as contributed to Kaplan and Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry.