The Center for Relationship and Sexual Recovery at The Ranch has been one of the nation’s leading residential sex and love addiction treatment programs. Located on a secluded 2,000-acre horse ranch outside Nashville, Tennessee, the Center provides state-of-the-art, highly structured and individualized treatment in a gender-separate environment.

Sex and Love Addiction in Men

Male sex addicts tend to act out in ways that damage themselves, their sexual partners and their loved ones. Whether addicted to affairs, prostitutes, casual hook-ups or solo masturbation with porn, male sex addicts tend to neglect life commitments or personal responsibilities in order to search for sex. Some use the intensity of sex, romance or porn in a misguided attempt to feel powerful or desired, or as a means of distraction, reward or escape.

At The Ranch, our experienced treatment team not only provides the tools needed to eliminate concerning sexual behaviors, but we also encourage clients to “dig deeper” to answer questions like: Why do I have this problem? How can I love someone so much and yet hurt them at the same time? Why do I keep repeating the same problem behaviors over and over again?

Characteristic concerns expressed by our male clients include:

  • Using people for sex without regard to the consequences
  • Thinking that sex or romance = love
  • Living a double life of sexual lies and broken promises
  • Persistent fear of being found out, contracting a disease or losing loved ones
  • Using seduction, sex or money to attract and hold onto relationships
  • Multiple extramarital affairs
  • Compulsive masturbation with or without pornography
  • Being sexually inappropriate with co-workers or clients
  • Being sexual in high-risk locations and/or risky situations

Sex and Love Addiction in Women

We all want to be intimately known and appreciated by the people in our lives. The longing for healthy intimacy is part of being human and an essential part of being a woman. However, women with early life histories of emotional or physical abuse or neglect are especially vulnerable to addictive patterns and may have never learned the essential tools to honestly love and be loved as adults.

It is not unusual for The Ranch to treat women who are secretly having affairs or casual sex, alongside others who are in an ongoing pursuit of romantic love. These very private and often shameful issues can be masked by more overt emotional health concerns such as alcohol and drug addictions, eating and spending disorders as well as depression and anxiety, while unexplored problems with sex and romance may lie at the core of struggles for self-esteem and emotional stability.

At The Ranch, our experienced treatment team helps female sex, intimacy and relationship addicts who struggle with some of the following patterns:

  • Using seduction and sex to hold onto partners or to hold relationships together
  • Multiple extramarital affairs
  • Masturbating to feel better or complete
  • Using others for sex without regard to their lives
  • Endlessly searching for “the one”
  • Consistently attracting addicted, abusive or otherwise emotionally unavailable partners
  • Mistaking intense sexuality and romance for intimate love
  • Having sex in high-risk locations or situations
  • Poor sex and relationship boundaries
  • Trading sex for drugs, help, affection, money, status or power
  • Repeated patterns of having sex and/or “falling in love” with strangers

Specialized Sex and Love Addiction Treatment for Men and Women

Treatment at The Ranch begins with a comprehensive assessment of each client’s life, relationship and sexual history including utilizing tools such as Patrick Carnes’ Sexual Dependence Inventory (SDI). This information is utilized throughout treatment to help guide our work and lead our clients toward more loving relationships, greater intimacy and healthy sexuality.

Sex and love addiction treatment for men and women at The Ranch includes:

  • Psycho-education classes and skill development
  • Fully gender-separate living, eating, recreation and treatment environment
  • Gender-specific, trauma-focused therapies
  • 24-hour onsite monitoring by residential staff
  • Daily group therapy and opportunities for individual work
  • Weekly individual and family therapy with spousal support
  • 12-Step meetings off and on site
  • Weekly experiential therapy days including adventure therapy, equine-assisted psychotherapy and ropes courses
  • A highly experienced therapist specifically dedicated to guiding clients throughout their entire stay

Treating the Underlying Issues

With an expert understanding of the issues that drive sex, relationship and love addiction and contribute to relapse, The Ranch also treats the full spectrum of co-occurring issues, including trauma, substance abuse, depression, anxiety and eating disorders. Whether single or working together with a spouse or partner, clients are encouraged to learn healthy boundaries and begin working toward genuine self-esteem and intimacy.

A Safe, Supportive Community

Our program utilizes a community-based model in which clients live together, eat together and participate in intensive group therapy as a community, developing healthy bonds that nurture trust and self-care. It is within this safe, structured setting that clients can learn and practice the tools that foster enriched relationships and self-respect.

Put an End to the Double Life

The lies, the secrets, the shame. All of these can be put to rest, and a healthy, rewarding life restored. More than putting an end to destructive behaviors, sexual recovery requires healing in mind, body and spirit – a transformation that we see every day at The Ranch.