Week 5 Handout
Week 5 Handout
Week 5 Handout
Arousal template is defines what turns you on sexually and is made up of…
• Genetic background
• Family of origin
• Sexual experiences
Arousal template:
• Doug Weiss:
o Can be pornography
o Can be imagination only
o Can be a story line
o Can be a body part or type of woman
o If we have “glued” to are the things we will be triggered by and that is your Arousal
Template
• Jes Montgomery:
o Protective mechanisms learned before puberty can define Arousal Template
o Like: Isolation, masturbation, fantasy, pornography
o We tend to go back to what we first learned as a protective mechanism and what became
normal at that age
We need to have an understanding of our Trauma Profile and Arousal Template so that we can develop a
custom relapse prevention plan
TOOLS TO CONQUER
Why understand my Arousal Template?
1. A relapse prevention plan will prevent relapse from occurring
2. You won’t be caught off-guard
3. Help you identify the reasons we crash without knowing why
Where to start:
• Keep a journal and consider your last acting out
o What were you thinking
o What were you feeling
o What were you being triggered by
• Back up and look for patterns
o Then you will have a target to act with the Truth of God
SUMMARY POINTS:
• An arousal template is a form of sexual imprinting that you automatically return to.
• Your arousal template is uniquely individual
• The more this sexual stimuli is repeated, the stronger the template will become
• You need to know your arousal template and trauma profile in order to create an effective relapse
prevention plan
THE HEART OF BONDAGE
Men in sexual bondage have mediated the pain for so long that it happens without even thinking about it.
Bondage is found in the limbic system. This is where those subconscious decisions are made and, when
under pressure, it is more powerful than the prefrontal cortex where conscious thought occurs.
Fear:
• Anger is a secondary emotion. Primarily, when angry, we are dealing with fear.
• Sexual bondage is eroticized rage
o Men would get healed if they would face their fears
SUMMARY POINTS:
• Most of our decisions are made on a subconscious level from the limbic system
• The limbic system is what the Bible refers to as our heart and our flesh
• Fear hinders the prefrontal cortex from making rational decisions
• Bondage takes place in the limbic system - our subconscious mind
TOOLS TO CONQUER
• Why is the limbic system at the core of our behavior?
o The limbic system (coping mechanism) is programmed by the time we are 6 years old yet...
o The prefrontal cortex is NOT developed until the age of 25
This is the brakes that help you stop from making bad decisions your limbic system
may be driving you to
• 95%-98% of the decisions we make are subconscious.
• The limbic system is programmed to help you cope and survive
o Acting out sexually is a coping mechanism
o Sexual bondage is about taking coping behaviors and making them a lifestyle
DESTRUCTIVE VOWS
Sometimes you can make decisions out of your pain that can haunt you for years
• Vows are what happens when the enemy takes our imagination captive and we only see the worst
o We begin to live our life in reaction to what someone has done to us
• Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV) “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new
thing! Now it springs up: do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams
in the wasteland.”
• We must renounce the destructive vows
Father wounds:
• Most father wounds are wounds of neglect
• “Our Father who is in heaven…” Most of us need a father to heal the father wounds in our lives.
Summary Points
1. Sexual bondage is a coping mechanism to medicate wounds and to deal with the stress of life.
2. Sexual bondage is panicking limbically
3. Father wounds are typically what men in bondage have been hurt by the most.
TOOLS TO CONQUER
• Romans 8:37-39
o If you don’t deal with the past it will rise up and bite you. Something is not dead if it
continues to resurface in your present.
• Journal: The ten worst moments in your life
• Discover the limbic lie!