Meet Clifton Hickman, LPC, CSAT | Christian Porn Addiction Counselor in Fort Worth

If you found this page, you probably already read something else on this site and wanted to know who is actually behind it. That is a reasonable thing to want to know before you tell a stranger the worst thing about your life.

Clifton Hickman is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist in Fort Worth, Texas. Roughly 95% of his caseload is men struggling with pornography, sex addiction, affairs, or related acting out, along with the couples trying to survive it. If you want the clinical picture of what that work involves, that lives on the porn addiction counseling and Christian sex addiction therapy pages. This page is about him.

Credentials and Training

• Licensed Professional Counselor, Texas, license #85208. Practicing since 2020.

• Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT) through IITAP.

• EMDR trained, through an EMDRIA-approved program.

• Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Levels 1 through 3.

• Foundations in Biblical Counseling, CCEF.

• Trained in therapeutic full disclosure.

How he holds the CSAT training

The CSAT is the clinical backbone of this work, and it is a credential very few therapists hold. It is also not built on a biblical framework. IITAP training generally will not call a sexual behavior wrong so long as both partners agree to it or it stays in moderation. Biblical Christianity critiques that directly.

So Clifton uses the clinical training without adopting the worldview it arrives with.

"There is a lot of good in it that is genuinely helpful. But Scripture is what I filter it through. Scripture does not answer every question, and it leaves room to operate with wisdom on the things it does not speak to. On the things it does speak to, it is clear."

That combination is the reason most of his clients drive past other therapists to get here.

How He Ended Up Doing This Work

Before counseling, Clifton spent three years and four months on staff with Cru, working with college students. That is where this started, and it was not a career plan.

"If you are working with college students, you are going to have a lot of conversations about this issue. That is where I cut my teeth. Exposure to pornography is close to universal by that age, and I was sitting with guy after guy in it."

What he saw in those conversations is what he still sees now.

"This issue holds men back in an astronomical way. From being the husband they want to be, the father they want to be, the friend they want to be, even the worker or the boss they want to be. And often the guys carrying it are the ones who could be doing real kingdom work."

He did his clinical internship at Clear Fork Academy, an addiction recovery facility for adolescent boys. He does not see adolescents in his own practice, but the internship shaped how he understands what he is dealing with.

"It got me well-versed in addiction. Withdrawal, detox, the intensity of it, and the shame these guys carry every single day. What recovery actually costs someone."

The CSAT came later and was deliberate.

"I wanted to understand porn and sex addiction really well, so I could actually help the people in front of me. Some good knowledge on this comes from people who do not know the Lord and have spent years thinking hard about it. That is God's common grace. I wanted to learn from them while keeping my own Bibical framework."

Asked why he stayed with this population instead of moving toward easier work:

"Because I want to alleviate pain in this world. I love people, and men are really struggling with this. It is taking a toll on their lives, their marriages, their relationships. I want to help them become the person God made them to be, who is not carrying this."

Who He Sees, and Who He Sends Elsewhere

Clifton sees adults and couples 18 and over.

In a normal week that means men struggling with pornography, men further along into sex addiction, men who are in an affair or have had one in the past, and men whose acting out has moved into massage parlors or paid sex. It also means couples: some in the middle of affair recovery, some who want general marriage work with no addiction involved at all.

He also refers a lot, on purpose.

Betrayed wives go to Georgina Hickman, LPC, CST associate. She leads betrayal trauma counseling at the practice and works with trauma more broadly.

Sexual and intimacy work inside a marriage also goes to Georgina. Most of Clifton's clients arrive with a badly damaged view of sex, and their wives do too. Rebuilding that once recovery has taken hold is its own specialty, and her Christian sex therapy training is broader than the CSAT, which is narrowly targeted.

Teenage boys go to Matthew Bacchus, LPC, who sees teens 16 and up and does the same addiction work.

Kids affected by a parent's addiction, whether that is a pending divorce or just years of hard fallout, go to Sarah Hanlin, LCSW, who works with teens 13 and up.

Anxiety is not something Clifton takes. Georgina, Sarah and Matthew all see anxiety, and that is where those referrals go.

Outside the practice, there are two situations. Clifton does not offer intensives, and some couples need intensive work to jumpstart things when the damage is severe. And when there has been a major breach and the level of distrust calls for it, a treatment facility that specializes in this issue is the better fit.

How the Work Moves

Clifton is not the right person to ask what happens in a single session. He would rather you know what three months looks like.

By month three, the foundation is built. Understanding your story and how it connects to the behavior. Real accountability structures. Other people in the fold besides your therapist and your wife, because this is a community-based problem and letting one more trustworthy person in changes the trajectory.

That is when the work gets more targeted.

"By then we can go after the actual patterns. Maybe it is anger, and we start looking at what anger has looked like across your life and how it is connected to this, how it starts the engine going in this direction."

Month three is also usually where the marriage comes into focus.

"I try to bring wives in earlier than that, but some are not ready, and that is fair. I always want the wife to have a place to say how this has affected her, and to meet her husband's therapist and hear how he thinks about it. Sometimes month three is a disclosure. Sometimes it is couples work starting. It depends on where both people are."

On prayer and Scripture. He prays with clients at the end of session when it fits. He brings Scripture into the room directly, often the prodigal son or the woman at the well.

On homework. He assigns it, sometimes a worksheet, sometimes something to think about, and he expects it back.

"If the homework is not getting done, we are just having the same conversation over and over. It also tells me how seriously you are taking this."

When someone stalls out. Sometimes the answer is patience, because growth genuinely takes time. Sometimes it means a fresh set of eyes, another clinician or an outside resource. But most often it is the same thing.

"Usually the guys who stall are only working this with me and are not talking to anybody else. So the challenge is, tell one other person this week."

Consultation and Confidentiality

Clifton consults with other licensed clinicians on complex cases, including a former supervisor, and does so without identifying information.

Where cases overlap inside the practice, the rule is stricter. If Georgina is seeing a man's wife, Clifton does not discuss that case with her at all unless both spouses have signed a release of information. Stripping out names is not sufficient in that situation, because a wife shares her own side in her own sessions and identification becomes obvious. So the case simply does not get discussed.

When a couple does sign a release, the two of them coordinate care deliberately. That process is covered on the couples counseling page.

The Tuesday Night Men's Group

Clifton leads an in-person group for men working on porn and sex addiction.

• Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:00 pm, 90 minutes

• In person only, at the Hulen Street office. No telehealth option.

• Adults 18 and over

• Open enrollment, join any time

• Capped at 8 to 10 men

• $70 per session, payable by cash, check or card

You do not have to be one of Clifton's individual clients to join. Some men in the group have never had an individual session with him.

"What group gives you that individual work cannot is men at every different stage of this. Somebody who knows what it is like to have a wife who is deeply hurt, who can look you in the eye and say, I know what you are going through and I am in it with you. That is powerful."

To join, use the contact form and mention the group.

Outside the Office

Clifton is married to Georgina Hickman, his wife of five years and co-founder of the practice. They have two young daughters.

They are members of Trinity, a PCA church in Fort Worth, where Clifton volunteers and is part of a community group.

He is a college sports fan, football and baseball both, and fall weekends usually involve a game. He reads constantly, mostly theology. He likes coffee more than is strictly necessary.

Writing and Speaking

• Covenant Eyes, where he has written on why men in recovery need friendship more than accountability. He plans to write with them again.

• The Former Fans Podcast, a long-form conversation with host Tyler on the roots of pornography addiction and what actually breaks the cycle. Covered in Breaking Free from Porn.

• Fort Worth Area Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, invited as guest speaker to present to other clinicians on sex and porn addiction.

• Northbrook Church, a live Q&A with Pastor Randy Fuller on relationships and how to care well for people in a congregation who are struggling.

• A talk at a Sex Addicts Anonymous meeting on the four levels of relational depth and why most men in recovery never reach the deepest one. The material became Connection Over Sobriety.

Working With Clifton

Sessions are 50 minutes. Individual sessions are $165 and couples sessions are $185. Reviving Hope is a private pay practice. Full rates and payment details are on the Take Your Next Step page.

He sees clients in person at 3509 Hulen St, Suite 255 in Fort Worth, and by secure telehealth anywhere in Texas. Many clients from Keller and Northeast Tarrant County do a mix of both.

The first step is a free 15-minute phone consultation. You do not have to have it figured out before you call.