Ep:12 Insights from A Sex Addictions Therapist with Kim Saltzman
Treating sex addiction or other sexual issues can be very difficult. Not only are these issues often shrouded in shame but it is extremely hard for patients to open up to their therapist about them. As a therapist who formerly specialized in treating eating disorders, Kim Saltzman, our guest today, has applied her skill set to a new specialty: sex addiction. She is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, dealing with a spectrum of sexual issues. In this episode, Kim sheds light on what it’s like being in this unique specialty. She talks about the types of issues that she commonly sees. Her passion is not confined to her practice alone. Kim hopes to become more involved in child and teen sex education by working with the church and parents. She believes that in providing parents with tools to answer questions about sex, it will normalize children’s natural curiosity on the topic. By doing it through the church, she hopes to illustrate that sexuality itself is not bad because it is God’s creation. Kim’s approach to sex addiction and sex education is open and refreshing. Don’t miss out on today’s show!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Kim’s background and the motivation for choosing her specialty.
- The links between eating disorders and sex addiction and how Kim became involved in it.
- Learn about what APSATS is.
- How a patient would know to go a CSAT over an LPC.
- Sexual anorexia: A look into an often-neglected aspect of disordered sexuality.
- More on the work Kim hopes to do in the church and community around child sex education.
- Curiosity is normal and questions around sex should be normalized.
- Without context, learning about sexuality from the internet can lead to skewed conclusions.
- Our culture is accepting of men with sexual struggles while women feel more shame.
- How parents know if their teenager needs counseling for sexual struggles.
- It is usually incredibly difficult to get sex addicts to talk about their struggles.
- Some of the tools Kim uses to help patients put a plan in place.
- An overview of the inner, middle, and outer circle tool.
- There is extra shame for Christians who have sexual struggles and how Kim deals with it.
- Kim’s message of hope for anyone struggling with issues around sex.
Tweetables:
“We have to develop some sort of functional relationship with food. We can’t just eliminate was seems to be causing the problem.” — Kim Saltzman [0:03:47]
“There’s no shame in a woman having sexual struggles.” — Kim Saltzman [0:29:24]
“It’s very difficult to work through a shame issue if I can’t even talk about it with anybody.” — Kim Saltzman [0:53:10]
“I want to affirm that God created sexuality. He is the creator of this and he sees it as good.” — Kim Saltzman [0:54:50]
“The goal of our sexuality is to bring two people close together in an intimate way that they don’t share with anybody else.” — Kim Saltzman [0:56:24]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
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