Dr. Patrick Carnes Biography
Patrick J. Carnes, Ph.D., C.A.S. is a nationally known speaker on addiction and recovery issues.
The New Times suggested his book, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred, "will create a new wave of understanding about sexuality and the dynamics in intimate sexual relationships." Dr. Carnes is co-editor of Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention.
He pioneered the founding of the Certified Sex Addiction Therapist program. This has evolved into a network of local, regional, and residential programs which specialize in this work. He currently serves as Executive Director at A Gentle Path Program at Pine Grove in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for the treatment of sexual and addictive disorders.
He developed a therapeutic technology based on his landmark study of the recoveries of 1,000 sex addicts. This work is summarized in Don't Call It Love, which has been described by The New Age Journal as "the best book on the market about addiction and its costs and consequences."
Dr. Carnes graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He received his Master's degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in counselor education and organizational development from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Carnes was awarded the distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Council of Sex Addiction and Compulsivity. Each year, NCSA/C bestows a "Carnes Award" to deserving researchers and clinicians who have made outstanding contributions to the field of sexual medicine. He also was awarded the 2000 Counselor of the Year Award by AzAADAC in recognition of his contributions to the field of addictions treatment.
He as authored Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction (1992), Contrary to Love: Helping the Sexual Addict (1989), The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships (1997), Open Hearts (1999), Facing the Shadow (2001), In the Shadows of the Net (2001), and The Clinical Management of Sex Addiction (2002). His first book on family systems, titled Understanding Us, is regarded as a classic in family education and is not available in many foreign editions.