Sex Addiction

Sex addiction counselling in Bermondsey

Sexual compulsivity (whether expressed through pornography, multiple parallel relationships, compulsive use of sexual services, or other patterns) tends to produce a particular kind of isolation. The secrecy is total. The self-judgement is severe. And because the subject is almost never spoken about honestly, even in therapeutic settings, the sense that this is uniquely yours to carry can become part of the condition itself.

This practice offers confidential sex addiction counselling at the Bermondsey practice, without moral judgement, without the reduction of a complex experience to a single diagnostic category.

What drives compulsive sexual behaviour

Like all compulsive patterns, sexual compulsivity is rarely about what it appears to be about. It is typically a response to something else, to disconnection, to shame with a longer history, to the absence of genuine intimacy in other areas of life, to unprocessed trauma. The behaviour provides relief that is real, even as its consequences become increasingly difficult to contain. Understanding what it is relieving is the work.

The therapeutic approach at Bermondsey draws on integrative and Jungian frameworks, attentive to the psychological meaning of the pattern as well as its surface presentation. Where trauma underlies the compulsivity, EMDR may be incorporated.

Pornography addiction

Compulsive pornography use is the most common presentation in this area. Whether the clinical definition of ‘addiction’ applies is a question the research field continues to debate. What is not in question is that when a person’s relationship with pornography has become distressing, secretive, difficult to interrupt, and damaging to their sense of self or their relationships, it is worth taking seriously. This practice does.

Confidentiality

All sessions at the Bermondsey practice are conducted under strict confidentiality. No referral is needed to begin.

Privacy matters here

Many people seeking help for compulsive sexual behaviour deliberately choose a practice away from where colleagues might be, and away from the medical postcodes where appointments are easier to guess. The Bermondsey practice offers exactly that: a discreet setting in a quiet street in SE16, minutes from London Bridge yet entirely outside the West End circuit. Appointments are scheduled so clients do not encounter one another.

Dr Philippe Jacquet is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, a Jungian analyst and an HCPC registered art psychotherapist, with twenty-five years of clinical practice. His Doctorate of Professional Practice at the University of Essex examined male eating disorders from the perspective of analytical psychology. Registration can be checked on either public register.

How the work is delivered from here

All international sessions are by secure video, in English or French. Online therapy is not a reduced version of consulting room work: it is the format that lets weekly work survive living abroad, travelling, or relocating. Sessions run in United Kingdom hours, which suits most regions, and if your time zone makes none of it workable, say so when you enquire rather than assuming it rules you out.

For clinicians and treatment services

Dr Jacquet supervises clinical teams in private residential addiction treatment and in a private psychiatric hospital. For treatment centres, psychiatric units and group practices looking for external clinical supervision, including in places where no supervisor of this seniority is available locally, team supervision is also delivered by video. For individual practitioners, see clinical supervision.

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