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Tool 17: Therapy

Sunday, 23 October 2011
Part 2/2 (to see other parts of the article, click on the pages at the bottom)

A good addiction therapist will be able to teach us how to start living real life instead of fantasy, how to reconnect with the world around us, how to "get out of our heads" and stop living a self-centered existence, how to admit powerlessness, and how to "surrender" the addiction and turn our lives over to our Higher Power (often using the 12-Step method). They will teach us how to let go of the need to "control", which underlies all addictions, and how to start trusting in ourselves, in the world around us and in G-d, without resorting to the escape mechanisms and the "need to control" that the addiction provided us with.

There are also techniques such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and the techniques of Patrick Carnes, which many therapists trained in treating lust addiction use.

Also, a good addiction therapist will often encourage us to join a 12-Step group, either in tandem with the therapy or as a follow up, and they may be able to help us work through the 12-Step program themselves.

Although we may be religious, it is not necessary to choose a religious therapist in order to be helped, just like the doctor who fixes our broken leg doesn't have to be religious to heal us. All that really matters is that the therapist understand the nature of addictions well, and is trained in dealing with them. As Rabbi Avraham J. Twerski answered someone on our network who wrote to him for advice about going to a non-religious therapist:

Because Freud was an atheist who was anti-religion, psychology got a bad rap years ago (which was well deserved). Modern psychology is generally not anti-religion. A good sex-addiction therapist is not going to lead anyone off-the-derech. A person who is sexually addicted is, in that area, off-the-derech already, and getting help with the addiction can actually enable him to strengthen his Yiddishkeit. Of course, I cannot vouch for all therapists. But if he has a good reputation, that should be OK.

See our therapist referral page.

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