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The Chemsex Recovery Summit: Breathe Life Healing Centers / La Fuente Hollywood / No Matter What Recovery

Sex Under the Influence: Understanding Sexualized Drug Use

Mell McCracken, CADC II, ASAT, RAE
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Description

This course provides a comprehensive clinical overview of sexualized drug use and its intersection with sex addiction, arousal templates, and relational functioning. Participants will explore how substances such as methamphetamine, GHB, and other drugs become integrated into sexual behavior, altering inhibition, decision-making, and erotic experience. The training will examine how sexualized drug use can reinforce compulsive sexual patterns, disrupt attachment, and contribute to moral injury, shame, and identity fragmentation. Special attention will be given to the role of conditioning and reinforcement in shaping arousal templates, as well as the challenges clients face when attempting to separate substances from sexual identity and intimacy. Drawing from trauma-informed and sex-positive frameworks, this course will introduce clinical strategies for assessment, treatment planning, and intervention. Participants will gain tools to support clients in reducing risk, addressing shame, rebuilding relational integrity, and developing healthier pathways to intimacy and sexual expression in recovery.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Identify the core clinical features of sexualized drug use and analyze how it intersects with sex addiction, arousal templates, and compulsive sexual behavior.

  • Examine the concept of erotic self-betrayal and its role in the development of moral injury, shame, and identity fragmentation in individuals engaging in sex under the influence.

  • Apply trauma-informed and sex-positive treatment strategies to support clients in addressing shame, repairing moral injury, and developing values-congruent sexual behavior in recovery.

Educational Goal

This course aims to deepen participants’ understanding of sexualized drug use as a complex clinical phenomenon that intersects with compulsive sexual behavior, arousal conditioning, and addiction processes. Emphasis will be placed on recognizing the nuanced ways these patterns manifest and impact identity, intimacy, and relational functioning. Additionally, the course will equip clinicians with integrative, trauma-informed and sex-positive approaches to effectively address shame, moral injury, and experiences of erotic self-betrayal, while guiding clients toward rebuilding a sense of sexual integrity and alignment in recovery.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Mell McCracken, CADC II, ASAT, RAE
Mell McCracken CADC II, ASAT, RACS is the National Director of Chemsex and LGBT+ Programs at No Matter What Recovery, serving as the administrative leader of the clinical treatment program and overseeing programming for our sexualized drug use track. Mell is nationally and internationally recognized as an LGBT+ educator, co-author, and treatment provider. They also serve as faculty member at the International Institute of Trauma and Addiction Specialists. They are committed to uplifting voices and breaking stigmas, one conversation at a time, and have spent their career fighting for inclusivity and empowerment through chemsex education and LGBT+ activism.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Sero Mental Health: Breathe Life Healing Center