Pornography & Sexual Addiction

Are you struggling with a Pornography or Sexual Addiction?

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​"Self-discovery can become self-defence when you learn to recognise the circumstances, emotions, and internal patterns that are likely to precede temptation—giving you an opportunity to respond differently before the behaviour takes over." - Murray Sibbison 

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​​​​Congratulations on your bravery in choosing to reach out and look for help with your addiction.

 

At Prodigal Family Services we know first hand how significant this step is for anyone looking to make lasting change in their life. As the Clinical Counsellor and Supervisor at Prodigal Family Services, Murray offers specialised addiction counselling based on your needs as a client. This means his service is personalised and unique to each individual, and requires that he learn from you about your specific circumstance in order to genuinely connect with you as someone who struggles to be their true self as a result of addiction.

 

Put simply, his aim is to connect with you through counselling, in order to help you reconnect with yourself, therefore allowing you to regain control over your entire being and overcome any obstacle in life, inclusive and beyond that of addiction. Murray has significant experience in the area of addiction - both personal and professional - which will become relevant through the development of your therapeutic relationship.

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Understanding Pornography Use and Sexual Addiction

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A Personalised Approach to Lasting Change

Reaching out for help with pornography use or unwanted sexual behaviours takes courage. At Prodigal Family Services, we understand that change is rarely as simple as deciding to stop. Patterns of pornography use can become deeply connected to the way we respond to stress, emotional pain, relationships, and difficult experiences.

Our counselling approach explores what is happening, why it is happening, and where these patterns may have come from—so you can develop greater self-awareness, healthier coping strategies, and greater control over your choices.

 

Psychoeducation: Understanding What Is Happening in the Brain

Understanding the brain can help make sense of why pornography can become a persistent behaviour and why stopping can be difficult.

Counselling provides education about:

• How repeated pornography use can reinforce patterns of reward, craving, and habit.

• How compulsive behaviours can develop and become difficult to change.

• Why pornography may continue to feel compelling even when you genuinely want to stop.

• How stress, emotional pain, loneliness, and other experiences can reinforce unwanted sexual behaviours.

• How maladaptive coping strategies can develop as attempts to manage distress.

• Practical ways to work around established patterns and develop healthier responses to stress and emotional pain.

• The goal is not simply to understand the behaviour, but to understand what the behaviour has been doing for you and begin developing healthier ways of meeting those underlying needs.

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Psychotherapeutic: Understanding Why It Is Happening Now

Pornography use does not happen in isolation. It can be connected to what is happening in your life, your thoughts, your emotions, and your relationships right now.

Through a psychotherapeutic approach, we explore the current stressors and pain points that may contribute to the desire to use pornography as a way of self-soothing, escaping, or avoiding emotional distress.

Talking openly about these experiences can help you:

• Identify the situations and emotions that increase vulnerability.

• Recognise thoughts and patterns that precede unwanted sexual behaviours.

• Develop greater emotional resilience.

• Increase your capacity to tolerate difficult emotions without acting out sexually.

• Build healthier strategies for responding to stress, loneliness, anxiety, frustration, or emotional pain.

Rather than focusing only on stopping a behaviour, the aim is to understand and address the emotional processes that keep the behaviour going.

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Psychodynamic: Exploring Where These Patterns Come From

Sometimes our strongest emotional reactions have roots in parts of our history that we have never fully explored or understood.

A psychodynamic approach can help you examine the possibility that earlier experiences, relationships, beliefs, and emotional patterns have contributed to the way you respond to certain situations today.

Together, we can explore:

• Previously unexplored experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

• Personality patterns and beliefs that developed over time.

• Emotional trigger points that may leave you particularly vulnerable to temptation.

• Why an overwhelming urge can sometimes appear without an obvious explanation.

• The connection between past experiences and present-day coping strategies.

Greater insight can lead to greater self-awareness.

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Exploring Your Past and Present to Create a Different Future

Lasting change involves more than simply trying harder to avoid pornography.

It involves understanding the relationship between your past experiences, present circumstances, thoughts, emotions, coping strategies, and behaviours.

By exploring these connections, counselling can help you develop a clearer understanding of yourself and create a more productive path forward—one that supports freedom from pornography use and unwanted sexual behaviours.

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Appointments are available online and in-person at our Echuca and Caulfield North offices.

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(For a snapshot of our Addiction Philosophy click here)​