Dr Paula Hall is a UKCP Accredited Sexual & Relationship Psychotherapist who specialises in helping people affected by sex addiction and porn addiction. Since her work in this field began, over 15 years ago, she has become increasingly passionate about developing national and international services to meet the ever growing problem. Furthermore, she campaigns for better education and social responsibility to protect others from falling into the sexual addiction trap (see her TEDx talk). She believes that overcoming sex addiction requires compassion, commitment and courage and she adopts these principles personally in her therapeutic approach.
Paula started her career as a therapist 30 years ago when she joined a local drug addiction agency as a volunteer. Two years later she began her formal training with Relate and went on to become qualified as a couple counsellor, psychosexual therapist, young people’s counsellor and family counsellor. In 2002, a few years after starting in private practice, she began to see a growing number of clients struggling with compulsive sexual behaviours and sought further training in the field. She completed two modules of the Patrick Carnes CSAT training, but feeling the model didn’t fit the UK market or her experience as a sex therapist, she went on to develop her own recovery model. These models are now internationally recognised since their publication in her first book, Understanding & Treating Sex and Pornography Addiction and the development of the Accredited Diploma in Sex Addiction Counselling.
Paula’s publishing career continued with Sex Addiction: The Partners Perspective (Routledge 2015) and Confronting Porn (Care 2016) and she has just published Sex Addiction: A Guide for Couples. She has also been published in a number of academic journals and written articles for the professional press. Paula was a founder member of ATSAC (Association for the Treatment of Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity), serving as Chair for three years. As a member of SASH (Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health) and former board member, Paula continues to develop her expertise alongside advancements in research and treatment from the US. Most recently Paula was awarded a Doctorate for her work in the field of sex and porn addiction.
Paula has spoken at conferences in the UK, Europe and in the US on behalf of ISSM, ESSM, UKCP, BACP, ATSAC, UKESAD, ICAAD and The International Sex Addiction Conference. Media work has included appearances on BBC2’s Newsnight, ITV’s This Morning, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, the Moral Maze and the Today Programme and Channel 4’s acclaimed Porn on the Brain. She is also a regular expert contributor to articles about sex addiction and its impact on partners and society within the national press and radio.
