Struggling in the category of sex and sexual addiction is often not spoken about or addressed within church or Christian circles. At Fortify, we want to help you address these issues and find healing and wholeness for yourself, your relationship with God, and others. Sexual trauma is a deep wound that affects individuals mentally, physically, and emotionally. You may feel fear, shame, hurt, and guilt as a result of the trauma that you experienced. Through counseling, we pray that we can walk alongside you in your hurt and work toward healing. Excessive thoughts of sexual activity, compulsion to watch graphic sexual images, intimacy difficulty with your partner, and infidelity are all complex sexual issues that are hindering you from the sexuality that God intended in the garden. Through counseling, we hope to help you to restore the sexuality that God intended for you.
A Few Counseling Strategies for Sexual Trauma
1. Recognizing the Pain and Suffering
The role of the counselor, first, is to create an environment to discuss the deep pain of sexual trauma. A counselor will provide the space for you to share your story and struggles. It is also essential to recognize and validate your experience so that you feel heard and begin the recovery process.
2. Trauma-Informed Care
This approach emphasizes the understanding of the impact of trauma and sees counseling through the lens of a trauma perspective. This trauma-informed lens better emphasizes safety, trust, and support in hopes of guiding you to healing through processing in a safe environment.
3. Coping Strategies
Counseling can teach you coping mechanisms to manage symptoms of trauma, such as flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, or outbursts. These strategies can also help with any feelings of guilt, shame, or low self-worth.
Our prayer is that through speaking with our trained clinicians and sharing your story, that you would find hope for healing and hope in the God of all creation.
A Few Counseling Strategies for Sexual Addiction
1. Identify Triggers: Identifying the situations, emotions, or thoughts that lead to compulsive sexual behaviors can help decrease unwanted actions. This can help anticipate a given impulse and allow you to use coping skills and better control your responses.
2. Understand Patterns: Exploring the underlying psychology can help you become self-aware of the root of your addiction. Mental health issues such as trauma, anxiety, or low self-esteem may contribute to the sexual impulses you may be experiencing.
3. Develop Coping Strategies: Finding healthier ways to cope with urges without resorting to sexual behaviors is key. Utilizing things like hobbies, exercise, and other things that avert your impulses can help you to live a healthier life.
Sexuality and Scripture
Whether sexual addiction or trauma, sin and brokenness are at the heart of these two issues. In sexual trauma, brokenness is the aftermath of the survivor. In sexual addiction, sin and brokneness can be found in compulsive behaviors. Despite the hurt and the shame, there is grace and forgiveness in Christ Jesus. 1 John 1:9 emphasizes that he is faithful and will forgive us and purify us. In these hard and delicate issues, God’s word promises grace and forgiveness. Through the Biblical counseling offered at Fortify, your counselor and God’s word can offer hope and a reminder that there is redemption, regardless of the past. You are made a new creation in Jesus.
If you’d like counseling for sexual issues, you aren’t alone in having sexual problems. Contact us for a free consultation. We would love to walk with you in your journey toward sexual healing and restoration.
