Sex Addiction Therapy in Mount Pleasant, SC

Long Point Counseling offers confidential sex addiction therapy in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, with in-person care for the Charleston area and secure telehealth across South Carolina. Jeff Marcino, Psy.D., LPC, helps adults with compulsive sexual behavior, pornography use, affairs, shame, and relationship fallout using trauma-informed, non-shaming, relationship-aware treatment.

Sex Addiction Therapy: What It Is and When It May Help

Many people use the term sex addiction. Others prefer terms like compulsive sexual behavior or problematic sexual behavior. I understand that the language can matter. Some clients feel relieved by an addiction framework; others do not. What matters most in therapy is not forcing a label, but understanding the pattern, the function it serves, and the cost to your life.

Therapy may help when sexual behavior, pornography use, affairs, hookups, online sexual behavior, or secrecy continue despite harm to your relationship, work, finances, emotional wellbeing, or sense of self-respect. Common patterns include escalation, feeling out of control, making promises to stop and then breaking them, hiding behavior, deleting evidence, and feeling stuck in a cycle of relief followed by shame.

In my clinical experience, these behaviors are often not just about sex. They may be ways of coping with stress, loneliness, trauma, anxiety, depression, emptiness, or difficult emotions that feel hard to tolerate directly. That does not excuse the harm, but it does help explain why willpower alone often is not enough.

This page is for adults in Mount Pleasant, the greater Charleston area, and across South Carolina by secure telehealth. It is educational and not a substitute for therapy, diagnosis, or emergency care. I also cannot diagnose you from a web page. But if this pattern feels familiar, sex addiction therapy may be a useful next step.

Jeff Marcino’s Approach to Sex Addiction Therapy

I’m Jeff Marcino, Psy.D., LPC. I’ve worked clinically for 20 years and hold advanced certification in sex-addiction treatment. My approach is direct, trauma-informed, respectful, and non-shaming. That matters here because shame is often part of what keeps the cycle going. If therapy becomes one more place where you feel condemned, it usually becomes harder to be honest.

I focus on both the behavior itself and the underlying drivers. That means we look at what is happening concretely: when the behavior shows up, what precedes it, what follows it, and what it is costing you. We also look underneath it at trauma, attachment wounds, loneliness, anxiety, depression, shame, and old beliefs that can keep the pattern alive.

The practical work of treatment may include identifying triggers, mapping high-risk situations, interrupting relapse cycles, building accountability, strengthening emotional regulation, and making choices that are more aligned with your values. If you have been relying on secrecy or compartmentalization, therapy helps you develop a more honest and sustainable way of living.

When relationship repair is part of the work, I may integrate Relational Life Therapy. When shame, courage, and vulnerability are central themes, I may also draw from The Daring Way™. I use established sex-addiction treatment frameworks when they fit, but I do not force clients into a rigid template. Therapy with me is individualized, confidential, and shaped around your specific history, goals, and relationship context.

When Sexual Behavior Has Hurt a Relationship

Recovery often affects more than one person. I work with individuals whose sexual behavior or secrecy has damaged trust, and I also work with partners dealing with the impact of betrayal. If there has been discovery of pornography use, an affair, repeated lying, hidden sexual behavior, uncertainty about separation, or the need for thoughtful disclosure planning, the distress in the relationship is real and deserves careful attention.

I want to be clear about something important: partner pain should not be minimized, pathologized, or rushed past. Betrayal can be deeply disorienting. For many partners, the shock is not only about the sexual behavior itself, but about the collapse of trust and reality that comes with deception. That is one reason betrayal trauma therapy can be such an important part of care.

Individual recovery, partner support, and couples work are not the same thing

It often helps to separate three different tracks of treatment. Individual therapy focuses on the person engaging in the behavior: understanding the pattern, taking accountability, and changing it. Partner support focuses on stabilizing and supporting the person who has been hurt. Couples therapy focuses on the relationship itself: honesty, empathy, boundaries, repair, and deciding what a safer relationship structure needs to look like.

Couples therapy may be appropriate when both people are ready to work on rebuilding honesty, accountability, boundaries, empathy, and trust. In many cases, though, couples work is most useful once there is enough honesty and stability to make joint sessions productive. Treatment can be tailored to the stage you are actually in rather than where you think you are supposed to be.

What to Expect in Therapy

Your first session

The initial session is designed to understand the full picture. We will talk about your current concerns, relevant personal and relationship history, the behavior patterns you are noticing, the consequences of those patterns, and what you want help changing. You do not need to arrive with perfect clarity. Many people begin therapy still unsure whether the term sex addiction fits them, and that is okay.

From there, treatment usually moves at a practical, respectful pace. Depending on your needs, therapy may include behavior tracking, trigger mapping, coping strategies, boundary planning, support-system planning, relapse-prevention work, and referrals to additional supports when that would be useful. The goal is not only stopping a behavior, but building a more stable life around it so change has somewhere to hold.

It is very common to come in feeling shame, fear, ambivalence, or defensiveness. One part of you may want relief while another part wants to protect the very pattern that has been helping you cope. I do not treat that as failure. I treat it as something to understand honestly so we can work with it rather than around it.

A note on safety: if you are in immediate danger, or if you are thinking about harming yourself or someone else, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or call 911 in an emergency. Therapy is important work, but it is not emergency or crisis care.

In-Person in Mount Pleasant and Secure Telehealth Across South Carolina

I see clients in person in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, serving the greater Charleston area. I also provide secure telehealth for clients located anywhere in South Carolina.

Some clients prefer in-person therapy. Others choose telehealth for privacy, schedule flexibility, less travel, and easier consistency. Both formats can work well. Whether we meet in my Mount Pleasant office or online, therapy remains focused, confidential, and personalized to your situation. You can also explore all therapy services if you want a broader view of my practice.

How to Get Started with Long Point Counseling

The first step is simple: submit a confidential request. I personally review each inquiry myself. There is no front desk filter and no pressure built into the process.

I also want to be clear about fees from the start. Long Point Counseling is a private-pay practice. Working outside of insurance keeps your care confidential and shaped entirely around your goals, never capped by session limits or diagnosis codes. I’m glad to talk through current fees directly, so the financial side is clear from the start. I do not bill insurance. Being upfront about cost helps you make an informed decision before booking.

If you are an adult looking for help with compulsive sexual behavior, pornography use, secrecy, infidelity fallout, betrayal trauma, or relationship repair, you are welcome to reach out. A first contact is not a confession and not a commitment to long-term therapy. It is simply a private, respectful way to begin.

This content is educational and is not a substitute for therapy or diagnosis. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).