AASECT Position Statement on Sex Addiction: A Sexual Health Advocacy Process

Introduction & Rationale: AASECT recently completed
a multi-year process to establish a policy and
position statement about whether sex addiction training
and education meets their education and practice
standards. The debate regarding the legitimate existence
of a clinical disorder for sexual addiction motivated
AASECT’s mission of taking positions on
contentious topics and cultural conflicts that impede
sexuality education and health care The AASECT continuing
education committee chose to disqualify sex
addiction training as unacceptable for sex educators,
counselors and therapists. This required the AASECT
Board to establish a policy to support this committee
recommendation.
Action and Population group concerned: The
President of AASECT directed committees to draft,
review and ultimately present a position statement
for the Board to consider adopting. This decision
had ramification beyond AASECT membership with
reverberations among sex addiction treatment advocates,
sexual health advocates and sexual rights
advocates.
Outcome, Discussion & Recommendations: The
release of the position statement has led to increased
visibility of the controversy surrounding diagnosis and
diverse perspectives on whether sexual behavior control
problems should be considered an addictive disorder.
AASECT advocacy has increased media knowledge
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SEXUAL HEALTH A79
about the controversy with increased media and professional
journal citations.
Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Statement: None
Citation of supporting literature:
Abrams, M. (2019). REBT and Sexual Problems. In REBT
with Diverse Client Problems and Populations (pp.
127–147.
Orion, R. (2018). A Therapist’s Guide to Consensual
Nonmonogamy: Polyamory, Swinging, and Open Marriage.
Routledge.
Braun-Harvey, D. (2017). Sexual Health Conversations:
Crossing Boundaries to Liberate Us from Sexual
Addiction. Current Sexual Health Reports, 9(1), 1–4.
Skurtu, A. (2018). Helping Couples Overcome Infidelity: A
Therapist’s Manual. Routledge.
Keywords: Out of control sexual behavior, Sexual
health, Sex therapy