Few topics make clinicians more uncomfortable than pornography, yet many of our patients struggle with it, or their partners do. When patients bring concerns about “too much porn”; or wonder if their use is problematic, how do we respond without imposing our values or defaulting to oversimplified frameworks?

This course cuts through the moral panic and reductive addiction models to give you practical, evidence-based approaches for this complex clinical territory. We’ll briefly contextualize pornography and erotic material throughout history and in our current moment of unprecedented access. Then we’ll cover how to assess the actual impact of pornography on your patients’ lives, examine whether the addiction paradigm is useful (spoiler: it’s complicated), and develop individualized treatment approaches drawing from Motivational Interviewing, behavioral techniques, neuroscience, and Control-Mastery Theory.

The emphasis throughout is on adaptation, helping you tailor your interventions to each unique patient rather than applying cookie-cutter solutions. We’ll also create space for honest self-reflection about our own discomfort, biases, and challenges when working with pornography and erotic content.

Whether you’re a seasoned clinician who’s been avoiding this conversation or someone who wants more sophisticated tools, this course will help you show up more confidently and effectively for patients navigating this often-shame-filled territory.

This training will cover topics including sexuality, eroticism, kink, and masturbation. We’ll discuss these frankly for two reasons: first, to ensure clarity about the material itself, and second, because successful treatment requires comfort with these subjects and the flexibility to shift tone based on client needs, sometimes serious and professional, sometimes joyful and relaxed. Accordingly, this training will alternate between lighthearted playfulness and serious reverence as the material demands.