Meet
Dr Michael Yates.
Clinical Psychologist and Psychosexual Specialist. Founder and Clinical Director of Time To Talk About Sex.
I'm Dr Michael Yates. For over a decade I have worked with men experiencing compulsive sexual behaviour, chemsex and other difficulties relating to sex, shame and relationships. My work combines clinical practice, research and compassion-focused approaches to understanding how change becomes possible.
Time To Talk About Sex grew out of the clinical work I have been doing for a large part of my career. The single most common thing I hear, in one form or another, is: “I thought I was the only one.”
Where it comes from
Why this service exists.
Over the years I have sat with a lot of men in this position. Most had nowhere to go with it. Not their GP, who often has a few short minutes and no obvious referral pathway. Not their partner, who might be the person they most want to protect from what they're carrying. Not their friends, because we live in a culture where men are still not particularly encouraged to say the difficult things out loud.
That gap is the reason the programme exists, and it is the reason I have been building it in the way I have.
What the evidence says
Change is possible.
The evidence for this kind of work is clear. Group-based, compassion-focused approaches to compulsive sexual behaviour produce real, measurable change in the men who engage with them. Time To Talk About Sex takes that evidence and builds on it, with a programme designed for the depth and duration this kind of change actually needs.
Most of the men I meet cannot see what a healthy sexual life on the other side of this looks like. They don't believe it exists for them, or that they can get there. I am here to say that the evidence proves it is possible. What it takes is a willingness to take the first step, and then to properly commit to engaging with the programme once you're in it.
If you are already here, reading this, some part of you probably knows something is not quite right. That is more than enough of a starting point. There is a way to talk about this, and this is one of the places it can happen.
The intention
Reaching more men.
The intention behind Time To Talk About Sex is straightforward. To keep improving the clinical work I have been doing for years. To make that same standard of care available to more men than any single clinician can see in a week. In this first year, up to 100 places are being offered at no cost to the men who join, so that clinical fit, not ability to pay, is what decides who comes in.
Approach
Why groups.
The behaviour that eventually brings men to a service like this is nearly always sustained by three things sitting on top of one another. Shame keeps it hidden. Secrecy grows out of shame. Isolation grows out of secrecy. Around it goes. Individual therapy can do a lot, but it does not, on its own, fully interrupt that loop.
A group can. When someone sits in a room with others and says something out loud that they have never said out loud before, and the others in the room do not flinch, do not judge, and in fact recognise themselves in what was said, something happens that cannot happen anywhere else.
Compassion Focused Therapy sits at the centre of how the work is done. It is the model I have been developing and publishing on, and it offers a serious, evidence-informed response to shame, which is where the vast majority of this work has to start.
Grounded
Published research.
My clinical work is grounded in published research. Two peer-reviewed papers appeared in 2026 in Sexual and Relationship Therapy, documenting the outcomes and theoretical model behind this approach (Yates et al., 2026a; 2026b). My clinical writing continues on drmichaelyates.co.uk and across the essays hosted on this site.
Regulated
Professional registrations.
- HCPC-Registered Clinical Psychologist
- EFS-ESSM Certified Psychosexologist
- COSRT Registered Sex and Relationship Therapist
To learn more about Dr Michael Yates and his work.
His full biography, publications, career, writing and speaking work are on drmichaelyates.co.uk.