AASECT Position on Sex Addiction
Founded in 1967, the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) is devoted to the promotion of sexual health by the development and advancement of the fields of sexuality education, counseling, and therapy. With this mission, AASECT accepts the responsibility of training, certifying, and advancing high standards in the practice of sexuality education services, counseling, and therapy. When contentious topics and cultural conflicts impede sexuality education and health care, AASECT may publish position statements to clarify standards to protect consumer sexual health and sexual rights.
AASECT recognizes that people may experience significant physical, psychological, spiritual, and sexual health consequences related to their sexual urges, thoughts, or behaviors. AASECT recommends that its members utilize models that do not unduly pathologize consensual sexual behaviors. AASECT:
1) Does not find sufficient empirical evidence to support the classification of sex addiction or porn addiction as a mental health disorder, and
2) Does not find the sexual addiction training and treatment methods and educational pedagogies to be adequately informed by accurate human sexuality knowledge.
Therefore, it is the position of AASECT that linking problems related to sexual urges, thoughts, or behaviors to a porn/sexual addiction process cannot be advanced by AASECT as a standard of practice for sexuality education delivery, counseling, or therapy.
AASECT advocates for a collaborative movement to establish standards of care supported by science, public health consensus, and the rigorous protection of sexual rights for consumers seeking treatment for problems related to consensual sexual urges, thoughts, or behaviors.
Out-Of-Control Sexual Behavior (OCSB)
James utilizes the OCSB approach to sexual-related concerns that feel out of control to the individual. Rather than enable problematic concepts rooted in purity culture narratives, James has embraced an evidence-based model that avoids harmful, culturally-biased, rhetoric around urges, thoughts, and behaviors.