Douglas Braun-Harvey on Out of Control Sexual Behaviors & Sex Addiction – Smart Sex, Smart Love with Dr. Joe Kort

Sexual health author, trainer and psychotherapist Douglas Braun-Harvey bridges sexual and mental health. A certified group Therapist, Certified Sex Therapy Supervisor and Certified Sex Therapist, Doug chats to Joe about Out of Control Sexual Behaviors, (OCSB) versus “Sex Addiction” on this week’s Smart Sex, Smart Love podcast. Doug is all about reconsidering the popular notions of addictive sex. His USP is ‘Re-thinking Sex Addiction.’ Doug’s collaborative client/therapist treatment relationship is founded on the principle of men taking responsibility for defining and integrating their personal sexual health vision. So, Joe asks, ‘Do you think “sex addiction” really exists and if not what about his model of OCSB works more effectively?’

Dr. Joe Kort:                       Welcome to Smart Sex, Smart Love, where talking about sex goes beyond the taboos, and talking about love goes beyond the honeymoon. I'm Dr. Joe Kort. Thanks for tuning in.

Welcome to Smart Sex, Smart Love. I'm Dr. Joe Kort, and today I have the honor and privilege of having Doug Braun-Harvey. Doug Braun-Harvey is a sexual health author, trainer and psychotherapist, and bridges sexual and mental health and facilitates organizational change. In 2013, Doug Braun-Harvey and Al Killen-Harvey co founded the Harvey Institute, an international education, training, consulting and supervision service for improving healthcare through integration of sexual health.

Since 1993 he's been developing and implementing a sexual health based model treatment approach for men with out of control sexual behavior. His new book Treating Out Of Control Sexual Behavior: Rethinking Sex Addiction, written with coauthor Michael Vigorito, was published in 2015. Mr. Braun-Harvey is licensed marriage and family therapist, certified sex therapy supervisor, and certified sex therapist. He's adjunct assistant professor in the Center For Human Sexuality Studies at Widener University, and faculty for the University of Michigan certificate program in human sexuality. Welcome Doug Braun-Harvey.

Doug B.:                               Well thank you Joe for having me. It's a delight to be asked to be on conversation with you.

Dr. Joe Kort:                       Same here. I mean, I want people to know you've been a good friend, you've been a colleague, you've been a mentor. Your work is, in my opinion, very, very important about rethinking sex addiction. I thought that I would first just say, I remember my comment to you when I reconnected, because I don't really know that we, we had sort of a long period where I didn't talk to you or see you, I didn't see you around, and then I did. I went to your training and I said, "I really think you're cleaning up the mess that sex addiction is making in our culture." That seemed to resonate for you. Do you remember that?

Doug B.:                               Boy, Joe I remember that moment like it was yesterday, and I really respected it coming from you, somebody who had immersed himself completely in providing the sex addiction treatment method to many, many clients and then having sort of some rethinking on your part and actually coming to our training. When you said that, it actually galvanized my motivation even more that there was the need for alternative models, there was a need for alternative discussion out there, for how do we understand dysregulated sexual behavior, and that particularly the sex addiction model, not being as sexualogically informed as the other models that were out there did create messes because of lack of sexological information. So, I do remember that, and here we are having this conversation all these years.

Dr. Joe Kort:                       I know. I remember you early on, at the early, early conferences, because you know I've been in sex addiction as a certified and therapist for many years,