can a therapist be addicted to porn?

Therapist are only human (we all are) and so are susceptible to the same as anyone else and I once met a hypnotherapist (who helped people to stop smoking amongst other things) who smoked and a marriage guidance counceller who was having an affair behind his wifes back. I also knew a doctor whose eating habits/lifestyle was appalling and recently heard of a politician who was campigning ferociously to ban prostitution etc and was then discovered to be spending $10, 000 per month on prostitutes himself (and was reported to have quite 'aggresive' tastes!)

So I guess its about self awareness, integrity and being honest to yourself first and foremost?

See of this helps mate...http://www.nofap.org/forum/showthre...ange-you-want-to-see-in-the-world-quot-Gandhi

 

Hi iwillovercome. A therapist can absolutely become addicted to porn. A physician can become sick, a banker broke, a lawyer can break the law.

Once you understand the mechanics of porn addiction you will be surprised more people do not become addicted or being addicted understand they are.

Try this link for an education:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_RIm9ZMN1I

Do not judge yourself too harshly. It is only recently we have come to understand that pornography can be addictive; only since HSIP (high speed internet porn). There is not much evidence, if any, that what came before was addictive, certainly not the print stuff. Once you understand the science behind internet addiction, and that for an addict the dopamine release mechanism is simply stimulus/response, Pavlovian, you will understand you simply get the high from porn you get when you see it; you don't really have a choice to get it or not; it just happens. Study Skinner and the case of the drooling dog. Nothing more complicated than that.

Good news is, a lot of guys who get serious in here overcoming their problem do so within a few months, which may sound like a long time, but really isn't when you consider most of us abused porn for years, and sometimes decades. I think if your are addicted you would make a much more effective therapist if you acknowledge it, (if only to yourself), and take the cure. I don't know if one who has never actually recovered from an addiction can actually understand the pain involved in rewiring those reward pathways, but if you can recover (and you can) then you would have much greater empathy with anyone who had an addiction you were working with.

So, physician, heal thyself.

Good luck on your journey.

 

I'm also currently in school to do marriage and family therapy, and have been chewing on the same question. My personal conviction is that I need to have this figured out before I start practicing. I don't mean this in some sort of pious, unrealistic way. What I mean is that if I need to go to see someone myself in order to recover, I'll do it. If I PMO the day before I start as a therapist, I want there to be someone to go to so that this doesn't spill too deeply into the work I do.

In short, I want to understand my addiction more deeply before I practice.