Robert Weiss (therapist)


Robert Weiss is an author and therapist specializing in infidelity and sexual compulsions as well as he is a digital-age sex, intimacy, and relationship specialist.
Weiss grew up in Westchester County outside of New York City. He did his undergraduate work at Tulane University and then moved to Los Angeles. He was sexually promiscuous with men from the time he was 14 into his twenties when he started attending a twelve-step program meeting for people whose lives were disrupted by sexual compulsions, just at the time that the AIDS crisis was emerging, from which he emerged safely.

Career and education

The AIDS crisis led him to want to study sexual compulsions, so Weiss attended The Fieldston School and then he did his college undergraduate work at Tulane University, New Orleans and Emerson College, Boston. He earned his MSW from UCLA in 1992 and his PhD from the International Institute of Clinical Sexology in 2018. In 1992, he took a job working with Patrick Carnes, who did pioneering work in the field.
Since the early 1990s, he has been developing treatment programs, educating clinicians, and providing direct care to people affected by infidelity, sexual addiction/compulsivity, and other addictive disorders. In 1995 he opened his own clinic, the Sexual Recovery Institute, which offered intensive outpatient programs. This was shortly before internet pornography became prevalent and people began struggling with compulsive viewing and internet dating. However, people coming to SRI often had to pay out of pocket, since its programs were not covered by insurance, and he sold SRI to Elements Behavioral Health in 2011. He became Elements' senior vice president of clinical development. Elements closed SRI in 2015. After selling SRI to Elements, Dr. Weiss became Elements' Senior Vice President of Clinical Development. He left Elements in 2017 to form his own company, . Seeking Integrity offers treatment for sex addiction, porn addiction, and chemsex addiction, along with free information, videos, podcasts, blogs, daily inspirations, and webinars to anyone who treats or is affected by sexual addiction/compulsivity.
In 2018 the World Health Organization announced it would include Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder in the next edition of its diagnostic manual, the International Classification of Diseases.

Books