Identifying Sex Addiction: Compulsivity, Comfort, and Pleasure

Live Online Training for Clinicians

Thursday, 13 August 2026
11:00 AM Auckland | 9:00 AM Sydney
Delivered live via Zoom
5 Australian Counselling Association OPD Points (Pending Approval)

A client says they are doing something more often than they want to. Their partner believes they have a problem. They have tried to stop, but the behaviour continues.

Suddenly, the clinician is being asked to decide:

Is this an addiction? Is the label helpful? What might actually help this person change?

In this practical training, we will move beyond arguments about who is, or is not, an “addict” and explore compulsive behaviour from a more functional, compassionate, and clinically useful perspective.

We will examine how pleasure, comfort, stress, shame, and unmet needs interact to sustain compulsive behaviour. We will also consider why some common responses can unintentionally increase stress and make lasting change more difficult.

What You Will Explore

The Limits of the Addiction Label

Consider when the addiction label may be useful, when it may cause harm, and the real-world consequences it can carry for clients.

The Three Ps of Addiction

Explore the concepts of progressive, problematic, and persistent, and why these criteria may apply more broadly than is often acknowledged.

What the Behaviour Is Doing for the Client

Understand how compulsive behaviours can provide comfort, escape, agency, relief, connection, pleasure, or emotional regulation.

Why Simply Removing the Behaviour Often Fails

Examine what happens when alcohol becomes exercise, pornography becomes work, or one compulsive coping strategy is replaced by another.

The Brain Under Stress

Learn how fatigue, alcohol, arousal, and chronic stress can reduce access to the brain systems required for thoughtful decision-making.

Why Shame and Blame Can Intensify Compulsivity

Explore how attempts to force control may increase stress, deepen secrecy, and make relapse more likely.

A Practical Framework for Treatment

Develop a compassionate framework based on recognition, supportive disclosure, reduced shame, and alternatives that meet the client’s underlying needs more effectively.

What You Will Take Away

By the end of this training, you will have:

• Describe a clearer and more clinically useful approach to discussing addiction without becoming overly focused on judgement or diagnosis.
• Apply a practical framework for identifying what a compulsive behaviour may be providing for a client.
• Identify clinically relevant considerations when working with addiction, betrayal, pornography, alcohol, food, work, exercise, and other repetitive behaviours.
• Select strategies that help clients develop greater behavioural flexibility rather than replacing one rigid coping strategy with another.
• Apply a compassionate approach to supporting recognition, disclosure, emotional regulation, and lasting behavioural change.

Who Is This Training For?

This training is designed for:

• Counsellors
• Psychotherapists
• Psychologists
• Couples therapists
• Social workers
• Mental health practitioners
• Other clinicians working with compulsivity, betrayal, problematic behaviour, addiction, or emotional regulation

Delivery and Recording Information

This training will be presented live via Zoom.

The Zoom access link will be emailed to registered participants approximately 24 hours before the training.

A recording will be made available approximately 10–15 days after the live presentation.

Please ensure the email address entered during registration is correct so that you receive the Zoom link and recording information.

Professional Development

This training has been submitted for 5 Australian Counselling Association OPD Points.

Approval is currently pending.