How many pictures are on your phone right now? How many emails in your inbox? How many tabs on your browser? The nature of the technological immersion encouraged by modern life means that many of us are beginning to mimic some of the features we might use to describe a hoarder if we were describing boxes of clothes instead of stored selfies. But when does digital collection become hoarding? It doesn’t stand out in the same way that a house piled with newspapers to the ceiling does. It is easier for the obsessive pursuit and collection of images to go unnoticed when thousands can fit on a thumb drive. Even more specifically, when working with those who struggle with compulsive sexual behavior, this phenomenon may go unexamined, hidden as an artifact of a compulsion towards the content of the images and videos versus the collection of those items themselves. They may even struggle with hoarding behavior unrelated to their sexual desires but driven by the same anxieties, cognitive challenges and traumas that they soothe with their sexuality. This talk is intended to walk clinicians through the basics of the hoarding brain, to see how these clinical manifestations may overlap and merge, and how to support clients when hoarding does emerge as part of the treatment picture.
SASH Credential Credits | This course meets the following SASH credential education requirements:
General Human Sexuality 2a -The influence of health and medical factors on sexuality (e.g., illness and infection, disability, mental health, medications, contraception and safer sex practices, fertility struggles, pregnancy and childbirth, pregnancy termination, sexually transmitted infection, physical injuries) 60 minutes. General Human Sexuality 3e – The interaction of technology and sexuality 30 minutes OR CPSBT 1b – Assessment and Diagnosis related to problematic sexual behavior 30 minutes. CPSBT 1c – Clinical intervention for problematic sexual behavior 30 minutes