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In this episode, host Tara McCausland welcomes Tim Stein, co-founder of Willow Tree Counseling and president of the American Foundation for Addiction Research (AFAR). Tim shares how AFAR, originally founded by Dr. Patrick Carnes, is advancing research to validate sex addiction as a legitimate, diagnosable condition and to improve treatment accessibility. He explains how addiction changes the brain—creating what’s known as Reward Deficiency Syndrome—and why recovery requires more than willpower. “When you’re suffering from addiction, your brain is working against you,” Tim notes, emphasizing the importance of community, structure, and neurological healing.

The conversation also explores how dopamine regulation plays a key role in recovery and why embracing healthy discomfort through practices like honesty, meditation, and exercise can restore balance. Tim offers a hopeful reframe—seeing recovery not as a burden but as a blessing that deepens awareness and emotional resilience.

Later, Tara and Tim discuss the critical need for partner sensitivity in addiction recovery. Tim highlights how understanding a partner’s betrayal trauma can foster real healing. Drawing from his co-authored workbook Finding the Way Through, he explains how empathy, education, and shared understanding can transform recovery into a path toward reconnection and lasting change.

Learn more about AFAR here. 

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