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The Business Of Doing The Business: Sex Addiction Rehab On The, Ahem, Rise
Photo by jpcolasso via Flickr
Photo by jpcolasso via Flickr
Like firing sewage into the ocean, high-profile celebrity hedonists have ejaculated a plague of pathological narcissism into mainstream currents, normalizing the once fringe concept of sexual addiction.
Alexandra Katehakis, an unlicensed sex addiction therapist -- because no is license available, because it's not acknowledged as an official disorder, because it's not governed by any regulation -- runs the Los Angeles based Center for Healthy Sex, a practice she calls, "a full-blown organization" (oh no she didn't) that includes a team of counselors, a range of group therapies, and training programs for would-be sex docs, reports the LA Times.
Katehakis, who's licensed as marriage and family therapist, has been specializing in the controversial field since 1997 and claims celebrities are the, "greatest evangelists for treatment." With sexual addiction exposing itself en mass to the masses, a growing population of Americans are now fondling the idea of getting help for themselves and/or their spouses.
Lest the luxury drug addiction specialists be left in the wet spot during this new-found gold rush, expansion into the rising tent of sexual addiction treatment is taking place right here at home.
According to the LA Times, "A testament to the increasing demand for services and the potential money to be made providing them, is the entrance into the sex addiction market this week of the private-equity-backed corporation that owns Promises, the high-end Malibu drug rehabilitation center known for its Hollywood clientele."
Elements Behavioral Health, is buying a Westside treatment center, The Sexual Recovery Institute -- an outpatient center near Beverly Hills that saw business go up 50% in the year following Tiger Woods' scandal.
Sponsored message
Regarding scientific research on compulsive sexual behavior, there is disagreement over whether humans can be addicted to sex in the same way they can be addicted to drugs and alcohol.
However, despite a lack of empirical data demonstrating that sex addicts build up a tolerance or suffer through withdrawal (two key characteristics of substance addiction), consumer demand for treatment hits a new peak every time a celeb is caught with his/her pants down.
* exahale. light a cigarette. *
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