Helping Couples Navigate One Partner’s Porn Use
1h 32m
Marty Klein
Sex Therapist & Public Policy Analyst
Trailer
Get AccessFull VideoContent and Aim: We are seeing more and more couples in conflict over one partner’s porn use. To help us work more deeply with such cases, this presentation focuses on treating intrapsychic conflicts, power struggles, and existential issues relating to porn use. We’ll look at how one or both partners may be acting out body image issues, and we’ll explore how conflict about pornography is often used to avoid confronting a sexual relationship’s deficits.
We’ll look at various sexual issues—such as desire, arousal, and masturbation—that should be raised when working with these cases. We’ll also discuss working with individuals who:
- Feel out of control about porn;
- Are upset about their preferred porn content;
- Keep making poor choices about how much, when, and where to view.
How do we work with these people without adding to their shame, self-criticism, and sense of isolation? And why is “porn addiction” such a dangerous, counter-productive concept?
Learning Objectives: Participants will learn how to:
- Assess and discuss power struggles in couples;
- Critique the “porn addiction” model;
- Discuss a couple’s narratives surrounding masturbation and pornography use.
Produced in 2023
Marty Klein
Sex Therapist & Public Policy Analyst
Lecturer
Dr. Marty Klein has been a California-licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Sex Therapist working with individuals and couples for over 40 years. He also runs a program of group and individual supervision for mid-career therapists.
Marty is the award-winning author of 7 books about sexuality, including Sexual Intelligence and His Porn, Her Pain. Marty is a Qualified Forensic Expert providing testimony about sexuality in state, federal, and international courts. He recently gave two U.S. Congressional briefings on evidence-based sex education.
Marty was the first American clinician to challenge the then-new concept of “sex addiction” in the 1980s and was the first to predict the psycho-social complexities of Viagra in 1998. In 1999, he consulted on a series of trials across the U.S. that successfully challenged various new laws attempting to censor sexual content on the Internet.
Dr. Klein has trained physicians, psychologists, and policymakers in 35 countries and most American states. He has given keynotes or plenaries at national conferences for AASECT, SSSS, SSTAR, ISSWSH, and other groups. Audiences across the U.S., Europe, and Asia call his trainings practical, thought-provoking, and entertaining. His popular Sexual Intelligence blog is at www.SexEd.org.
