Ethical Issues in Sex and Love Addiction Treatment

Abstract

Sex and love addiction treatment can involve many complex ethical issues. Awareness of these potential problems can assist clinicians in improving efficacy and, at the same time, reducing risk. Ethical difficulties flow from the fundamental principle that counseling is a fiduciary relationship. Sex and love addicts present with multiple addictions, strong psychological defenses, and trauma histories, which often result in lengthy treatments. Over the course of such treatment many challenging ethical areas surface including transference/counter-transference problems, evocative and provocative behaviors in clients, questions of therapist self-disclosure, confidentiality concerns, trauma reenactment possibilities, boundary issues, dual relationship questions, competence issues, diagnostic dilemmas, and fees problems. Examples and positive solutions for these and other ethical areas are given to foster the best result for both client and clinician.