Treatment Of Sex & Love Addiction

Kusnacht Practice

It is important to recognize that sex and love addiction develops from a combination of physical, psychological, genetic, biochemical and social factors. Our goal is to identify the underlying causes of the disorder and to restore healthy coping mechanisms so that our clients are able to lead a normal life. To reach this goal, we treat the entire person: body, mind and spirit.

We use comprehensive laboratory testing to identify any physical, biochemical or neurochemical imbalances. We find that clients are unlikely to recover until their neurochemistry is functioning properly. We then use laboratory testing and psychological and other assessments to find out why our client has adopted sex and love addiction as a survival strategy and to help them develop healthy coping mechanisms.

Our holistic approach for all patients, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, includes the following:

1. Our ultimate priority is to identify and treat the underlying causes of the disorder – physical, psychological, genetic, biochemical and social.

2. Upon arrival, our clients are admitted to our partner hospital (the Mannedorf hospital) under the care of our medical team, for one to seven days.

3. During our client’s hospital stay, our specialists complete a full medical examination, involving comprehensive biochemical and neurochemical testing, which includes a genetic swab and the sampling of blood, urine, saliva and hair. We also perform several other assessments, including psychiatric, social-chemical and nutrition-and-lifestyle. At this time, a sexual addiction disorders counsellor will be assigned and begin the counselling process.

4. On the basis of these assessments, working together with the psychotherapist and the client, we develop a detailed treatment plan which will determine the length of primary treatment, normally lasting from six to twelve weeks.

5. Upon leaving the hospital, our client moves to one of our exclusive, luxury residences.

6. Our treatment of the underlying causes of the disorder includes creating a tailor-made formulation of micronutrients and amino acids to counter any imbalances that are identified in the biochemical and neurochemical testing. This formulation is as unique as the client’s fingerprint. The laboratory findings are also used to determine the menu cooked by the client’s personal gourmet chef, to maximize the biochemical and neurochemical restoration process.

7. Medication is prescribed only as a last resort, when symptoms are severe and fail to respond to Biochemical Restoration and other forms of therapy. Our goal is for clients to be drug free and, just as importantly, free of their side-effects.

8. We will, when possible, invite the client’s most important family members to attend a 2-day Family Systems Therapy program during the client’s treatment. This is not mandatory, but we strongly encourage it. The participating family members will gain an understanding of their loved one’s disorder and how they are involved in it. Such therapy can result in family members themselves deciding to seek treatment to address their own dysfunctional behaviour and pain.

9. Continuing care is crucial to long-term recovery. It is relatively easy for a client to be abstinent in the clinical environment, whereas the real challenge is for them to remain abstinent and to continue their recovery after returning home. To address this, we have a Continuing Care Program which can include a mentor or psychotherapist returning home with the client to support their re-engagement with their home, family, work, school and friends. Just as importantly, the psychotherapist helps the client to adapt their lifestyle to their recovery program. Other elements of the program can include daily telephone/Skype calls for the first critical period of time and return visits to the Kusnacht Practice (or home visits by a member of our clinical team), at first on a monthly basis, then quarterly for the first year and then at a declining frequency until the end of year two. Continuing care can last from anywhere between a few days to 2 years and, combined with 12-Step support groups, it greatly increases the likelihood of a long-term recovery.

Individualized Treatment

The Kusnacht Practice provides an individualized treatment approach to meet the precise needs of each client. We only treat clients individually, not in groups, so our entire clinical team (comprising doctors, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, counsellors and nutritionists) and our complementary therapy team (comprising yoga instructors, acupuncturists, reflexologists, masseurs and personal trainers) work with just one client and their family.

We look beneath the symptoms as a way to understand the function of addictive behaviour in the client’s life. Once we identify the underlying causes of our client’s disorder, we treat them using research-based interventions.

A Unique and Effective Approach

We work with clients to help them regain control over their symptoms, to resolve trauma and to enable them to develop the skills necessary to let go of addictive thinking and behaviour in their day-to-day lives. We use pharmaceuticals only as a last resort. Treatment may include some or all of the following:

1. Detoxification to rid the body of the toxins it has accumulated from our environment and the food, water and drugs that we ingest. This helps to stop craving. We use saunas, special detox agents, diet and exercise to achieve this.

2. Testing and laboratory work to determine the biochemical and neurochemical imbalances of each client. Based on these results, we produce a computer-generated formulation of micronutrients and amino acids to restore biochemical and neurochemical balance. The formulation is as unique as the client’s fingerprint. The laboratory findings are also used to determine the menu cooked by the client’s personal gourmet chef, to maximise the biochemical and neurochemical restoration process.

3. Psychotherapy to discover and treat the underlying psychological issues that led to the onset of the disorder and any other psychiatric, personality, social or family issues identified in the treatment plan. Psychotherapy can involve:

Cognitive therapies
Clinical hypnotherapy/trance work
Mindfulness work

Somatic experiencing
EMDR to erase triggers and stressors

Positive psychology
Family systems therapy

4. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) – the use of magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to treat depression.

5. My Brain SolutionsTM – scientifically-designed computer exercises that target attention, memory, flexibility, stress-reduction and positivity.

6. Complementary therapies, including:

Yoga
Meditation
Personal Training
Satori Chair Sessions

Acupuncture
Art/music therapy
Reflexology

Alpha-Stim Sessions to relieve pain, anxiety, depression or insomnia

 

Massage

Use of the spa at the The Dolder Grand Hotel

7. Nutrition and lifestyle coaching

8. An intensive Psycho-Educational program, including a handbook containing relevant topics for each client and family member involved in the treatment program.

9. Completing some or all of the 12-Steps of SLAA.

10. Attending SLAA and other pertinent support group meetings.

11. Spiritual counselling.

12. A two-day Family Systems Therapy program.

13. Providing an intensive Continuing Care Program for the client and family members, which often involves a mentor returning home with the client to help them adjust to their new life.

Kusnacht Practice

Kusnacht Practice

  Our high-end treatment centre covers the widest range of psychological and dependency disorders with bespoke care plans, in completely private and luxurious surroundings. With a renowned team of doctors and psychiatrists provides one-on-one care, identifying and treating the underlying causes – a luxury rehab centre with high standards of excellence.  

Kusnacht Practice-addictions & Disorders

All of our 6-star exclusive services are provided in the luxurious, stylish and discreet manner for which Switzerland itself is famous. We pay the closest attention to every single detail of each client’s stay, from the moment of their arrival at our treatment centre by limousine or private jet. Each client chooses from a wide range of our luxury residences on Lake Zurich, where they will live with their individual counsellor. A personal butler, gourmet chef, maid and driver ensure that the non-clinical elements of a client’s stay are also provided to the highest standards of excellence. Our support staff are also constantly available to provide clients with any assistance they need. Our cultural and leisure program offers clients the opportunity to engage in recreational activities of their choice, including skiing and golf.

The world’s most exclusive treatment centre

We treat the widest range of psychological disorders:   Depression Alcoholism Drug Addiction Eating Disorders Sex and Love Addiction   Pathological Gambling Codependency Personality Disorders Anxiety Disorders Obsessive Compulsive Disorders   Phobias Trauma Chronic Pain Sydrome Burout Bipolar Disorder  

History

The Kusnacht Practice was founded in 2007 by the Canadian addiction counsellor Lowell Monkhouse, who continues to be its Chairman. The treatment centre’s first offices were located a short distance from the C. G. Jung Institute where Dr. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist known as the founder of analytical psychology, lived and worked until his death in 1961. The reason behind the initial creation of The Kusnacht Practice was very personal – Lowell had a friend who was dying from alcoholism and who was unable to get the help he needed in Switzerland.

These personal foundations of The Kusnacht Practice continue to remain at the heart of our approach to client treatment. We recognise that each client is absolutely unique and that successfully treating the root causes of their disorder(s) requires a unique approach that offers the most effective treatment for that particular client. For this reason, we treat one client at a time and our tailor-made treatment programs are designed specifically for that client. In February 2015,

The Kusnacht Practice was acquired by Capital36, a family-owned private equity fund which invests in and coordinates a wide range of projects throughout the health sector. In recent years, it has invested in the development and expansion of a number of private clinics and hospitals, including oncology, cardiology and cardio-surgery clinics, projects in the area of anti-ageing medicine and a range of psychiatry-based initiatives.

Capital36 is represented at The Kusnacht Practice by Wojciech Szczepaniak who, as its Chief Executive Officer, is determined to ensure that our treatment centre remains at the cutting-edge of research, medical and treatment innovations. The most important aspect of The Kusnacht Practice’s history concerns the clients who have already visited us for treatment and are now living lives free from the addictions and other disorders or harmful behaviours which had previously crippled their lives.

Our unique treatment programs ensure that, at the end of their treatment, clients leave us freed from their destructive behaviour patterns and with balance restored to their biochemistry, neurochemistry and self-perception. Our clients have the greatest chance of enjoying a permanent recovery and our Continuing

Care Program enables us to continue supporting clients once they return home. Each of our clients forms part of the successful history of The Kusnacht Practice and we are proud to have helped them lead the lives they desired. You may like to read the testimonials of some of our former clients on our homepage.  

Mission and Vision

Our mission is to ensure that each client enjoys a permanent recovery from the addictions and other disorders from which they are suffering. We successfully achieve this by recognising that each individual client is unique, as are the underlying causes of their disorder and the treatment that is required to achieve a successful and permanent recovery.

We begin by identifying the underlying causes of the client’s disorder, which can result from a complex interaction of physical, psychological, biochemical, genetic and social factors. No two clients are exactly the same, and neither are the specific underlying causes of their disorders.

Once our team of experts has identified the root causes of a particular client’s disorder, we are able to plan a totally unique treatment program which is tailor-made to meet that client’s specific needs. Whilst each of our treatment plans is unique, they all share a common characteristic which is fundamental to The Kusnacht Practice’s approach.

Our treatment plans are all holistic, in the sense that they cover a wide range of clinical and complimentary therapies, and are designed to ensure that balance is restored to a client’s biochemistry, neurochemistry and self-perception. We prioritise Biochemical Restoration to ensure that clients are free from biochemical and neurochemical imbalances which prevent the brain and body from functioning in a healthy manner. Such imbalances can cause anxiety, depression and insomnia and result in the brain’s key neurotransmitter systems sending signals to the body which create cravings for alcohol, drugs, food or other harmful substances and behaviours.

In essence, a client who undertakes rehabilitation therapy whilst still having biochemical or neurochemical imbalances is not only struggling to overcome harmful behavioural patterns from their past, but is also simultaneously fighting harmful signals which their body and brain continue to send.

Our team of specialists utilises the latest technology and professional expertise to analyse each client’s bio/neurochemistry, which is as individual as their DNA or fingerprint, and corrects any imbalances using a computer-designed formulation of organic micronutrients and amino acids which are customised to remedy the distinctive chemical imbalances of that particular client. Our goal is for clients to be drug-free and, just as importantly, free of their side-effects during their entire period of treatment and thereafter. For this reason, unlike many other treatment centres, we strive to avoid any use of medications, except as a last resort in exceptional cases where symptoms are severe and fail to respond to other forms of therapy.

The end of treatment at our centre signals the beginning of another set of challenges once clients return home. Our mission to ensure a permanent recovery for each client means that we continue to support them after they return home, through our excellent Continuing Care Program, which represents another important feature of our excellent long-term success rates. We recognise that some of the clients visiting us have already tried, and failed, to achieve a long-term recovery based on rehabilitation programs offered at other treatment centres. This is often because other treatment centres have failed to properly identify and treat the underlying causes of the client’s disorder and have opted for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to treatment, with no account taken of the uniqueness of that particular client’s situation. Since the underlying causes of their disorder remain untreated, the sufferer is unequipped to resist the urge (resulting from imbalanced brain chemistry) to renew their addiction or other harmful behaviour. Our experience demonstrates that willpower alone is insufficient to fight such urges or to ensure a lasting recovery. With this is mind, the ultimate goal of The Kusnacht Practice is to ensure that each client receives treatment which is the most effective in the long-term for their unique and individual situation. We ensure that, upon leaving our treatment centre and thereafter, clients are freed from the addictions or other harmful behaviours they once suffered, they are not reliant upon medical pharmaceuticals and balance has been restored to their biochemistry, neurochemistry and self-perception. These elements, in conjunction with our Continuing Care Program, provide each client with the tools they need to reclaim control over their own lives.  

× How can I help you?