What a CSAT Is, and What It Means in This Office
CSAT stands for Certified Sex Addiction Therapist. This page explains what the letters are, what they are not, and how to use them when you are choosing someone to work with.
What the letters stand for, and who issues them.
CSAT stands for Certified Sex Addiction Therapist. It is a certification from the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals, usually shortened to IITAP. It marks additional, specific training in working with sexual behavior that has stopped feeling like a choice, and with the partners and couples affected by it.
People usually land on this page one of two ways. Someone said to look for a CSAT, and you want to know what you are looking for. Or you are a partner, checking whether the person about to be trusted with this has real training in it. Both are reasonable, and both deserve a plain answer.
My credentials read Mateo Leonardo, MA, LMFT, CSAT. The MA is a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology. The LMFT is the license. The CSAT is the certification. Those are three different kinds of thing, and the difference matters when you are deciding who to see.
A certification is not a license.
How the training shows up in a session.
I use a great deal of the training every week: how a cycle of behavior builds and escalates, how partners are affected and why their reaction is a real injury and not an overreaction, and how a disclosure is structured so that it does not become a second injury.
In the first sessions that looks like a careful look at history, what has been tried, and what is at stake now, followed by my honest read, including if I think someone else is a better fit. Later it looks like working on the conditions that come before the behavior, instead of relying on willpower at the last possible moment.
With couples, it means the partner who was hurt gets time that is about them, and the conversation about what happened has a structure instead of arriving as an ambush late at night.
None of that is a program with a certificate at the end, and I do not promise an outcome. It is a way of working that I can explain to you before you decide anything.
Why I hold the credential and still do not use the word addict.
The certification has the word addiction in its name, and it is the phrase most people type when they go looking for help. So the phrase stays where people search. In the room, I do not call anyone an addict. A label describes a person. The work is about a pattern, and a pattern can change.
That is not a criticism from outside the model. I did the training and I use it. What I set down is the identity language, not the clinical craft. If you already use the word about yourself, I will not take it away. If you arrive without it, I will not hand it to you.
How to check credentials yourself.
You do not have to take my word for any of this. A California therapy license can be looked up by name or number through the public license search the state runs. Mine is listed under Mateo Leonardo, and the record shows whether a license is current.
For the certification, ask. Any therapist who lists CSAT should be able to tell you plainly where the training came from and how they use it. If the answer is vague, that tells you something.
Then ask the questions that matter more than letters. How do you work with partners? What happens in the first month? What do you do if we are not a good fit? I answer those on a first call, and I would rather you ask them than assume.
What people ask when they have been told to find a CSAT.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ask me about the training directly
A short phone consultation. Ask how I work, what the certification covers, and whether I am the right person for your situation. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.