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Pornography use and recovery / PPU-A06-4

Urge Pause without Suppression — Session activity

Facilitate a structured practice of urge pause without suppression with preparation, reflection, and an agreed closing.

30 minutes · Session guide · Mental health professionals

Download printable PDFPreview / add to packet

Fictional example: Noah practices delaying a routine phone check before applying the idea to a personal goal.

Use within your training and assessment of readiness. A pause can create room for choice without treating sexual thoughts as dangerous.

0–5 min | Agree on purpose and fit

Explain the educational scope. Ask what would be useful, check readiness and access needs, and establish choices to observe, adapt, or pass. Use an ordinary example; do not solicit trauma narratives.

5–10 min | Orient with an example

A pause can create room for choice without treating sexual thoughts as dangerous. Fictional example: Noah practices delaying a routine phone check before applying the idea to a personal goal. Ask what is observed and what remains uncertain.

10–20 min | Practice and compare

Practice noticing an ordinary urge, allowing it to be present, and choosing a next action aligned with the current goal. Offer quiet individual work, a supported conversation, or an observing role. Compare two possible responses without evaluating people as right or wrong.

20–25 min | Reflect on meaning

What helps create choice without fighting every thought? Ask what fit, what did not fit, and how culture, power, disability access, or external conditions affect the options.

25–30 min | Integrate and close

Invite one optional next step or support request. Orient to the current setting, allow an unfinished question to remain unfinished, and agree how to revisit it. End early or adapt if activation increases.

Adaptations

For a group, use fiction and no compulsory round-robin disclosure. For remote use, allow off-camera reflection and private notes. For brief use, keep one example and one question while retaining opening and closing choices.

Prompts for this resource

  1. What outcome would make this practice useful?
  2. What helps create choice without fighting every thought?
  3. What adaptation or follow-up is needed?

Conceptual background

AASECT Position on Sex Addiction — American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists

Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.

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