Certified Sex Addiction Therapist

The International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP) is one of several organizations that set standards for the professional treatment of sexual addiction and multiple addictions. IITAP certifies qualifying healthcare professionals who complete a rigorous training, clinical supervision process, and additional criteria to become Certified Sex Addiction Therapists (CSAT) or Certified Multiple Addiction Therapists (CMAT). IITAP is a certified educational resource for the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC)[10], and the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (CaBBS).

In the early 1980s, Dr. Patrick Carnes published Out of the Shadows, raising awareness about sexual compulsivity and addiction and eventually earning himself a reputation as the leading expert in his field. Due to Dr. Carnes' popularity, addiction practitioners began associating their business practices with him — qualified or not. A standard of training and certification was necessary to create a unified group of certified professionals, as well as to preserve the quality of Dr. Carnes' work. This led to the creation of the Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, or CSAT, program in November 2000 as a way to address the overwhelming demand from therapists and mental health professionals for tools to help treat an ever-increasing number of patients who exhibited sexually compulsive behaviors. It’s estimated that sexual addiction impacts millions of individuals and families in the United States and the world. The increase in the number of people seeking treatment for sexually compulsive and addictive behaviors has outpaced the number of experienced professionals trained to adequately treat those people. Many professional healthcare education programs don't cover the specific challenges, skills and knowledge required to successfully treat sexually addictive and compulsive behaviors. It became essential that CSAT training provide a form of quality control to ensure that clients and patients could receive competent treatment because sex therapists and other practitioners claiming to treat sex addicts often did not have specific training in the diagnosis, treatment and ethics of sex addiction.

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