The H.A.L.T.O. Checklist is a brief basic needs assessment tool that can be used to explore client’s basic needs, including sexual needs, and how they affect themselves, their relationships, and therapy sessions in real time.
H.A.L.T. is an acronym for hungry-angry-lonely-tired. The first known reference to this acronym was in 1975 in the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) World Services Living Sober publication by Barry Leach. While H.A.L.T. is a self-care tool that has primarily been used in AA and other substance abuse treatment settings for decades (Melemis, 2015), it is easily portable and useful in everyday living, including with clients across settings and concerns (Zomerland, 2014). The application of this acronym rests upon the Maslovian idea that most people can function pretty well when their more fundamental needs are met. When working with clients experiencing sexuality-related concerns, adding the O., which stands for orgasm, to the acronym—making it H.A.L.T.O.—is a helpful addition to this assessment checklist as it then frames orgasming/sex as a basic need and addressing sex through this lens from the advent of one’s clinical work with a case (Twist, 2013; 2019; Twist & Schoenike, 2020).
Indeed, for many people, the need for physical intimacy and/or sexual release is just as much of a fundamental need as eating, sleeping, and/or being free from anger (Schoenike, 2020). When people start to become out of balance with these basic fundamental needs, it is challenging for them to manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in real time. Most relatively healthy adult humans can manage one of these needs being out of balance for a short time, however, with two or more, most people become less patient and less in that moment in time (Twist & Schoenike, 2020). Addressing basic needs in practice can be a helpful tool in better managing sessions and helpful for clients in better managing relationships. Relatedly, in this master class training, Dr. Markie Twist provides an overview of the theoretical conceptualization of the basic needs areas of the H.A.L.T.O. [are you hungry?, are you angry?, are you lonely?, are you tired?, are you in need of orgasm?] Checklist. Dr. Twist discusses the importance of having an assessment tool that examines client’s basic needs, including normalizing self and consensual sexual needs, via the H.A.L.T.O. checklist. Dr. Twist then presents said tool—the H.A.L.T.O. Checklist—which she/they developed to do quick check-ins on basic needs during an initial sexual health intake assessment and at multiple points throughout the progress of therapy when working with cases across several sessions (usually at the mid- and near the end-point of working with case). The training closes with offering the opportunity to apply the H.A.L.T.O. Checklist tool in assessing a provided case scenario example.
About the Trainer
Dr Markie Twist, PhD is an award-winning sexuality educator, sexologist, relationship therapist, author and international speaker.
Dr. Markie Louise Christianson (L. C.) Twist (dr/she/they), Ph.D. is an award-winning sexuality educator, sexologist, relationship therapist, author, and international speaker. They were born and raised in a small village on the road-system in the state of Alaska. They are Teaching Faculty in the Department of Applied Psychology in the Doctoral and Master of Arts Programs in Couple and Family Therapy at Antioch University New England. Dr. Markie is also the Session Instructor in the University of Guelph Professional Sexuality Practices Clinical Training Program.
Dr Markie is a registered member of the College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists, a licensed marriage and family therapist and mental health counsellor, as well as a clinical fellow and approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and certified sexuality educator and supervisor through the American Association for Sexuality Educators, Counsellors, and Therapists.
Dr Markie is co-author of the books, The Internet Family: Technology in Couple and Family Relationships and Focused Genograms: Intergenerational Assessment of Individuals, Couples, and Families (2nd ed.).
Dr. Markie also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Sexual and Relationship Therapy: International Perspectives on Theory, Research and Practice and is co-editor of the book Eco-Informed Practice: Family Therapy in Age of Ecological Peril.
