Pornography, Sexual Addiction and Recovery

Mark Laaser, Ph.D.

Debbie Laaser, M.MFT.

Training Modules

• Session 1: Who’s an Addict? Diagnostic Criteria and Assessment of Addicts
• Session 2: “Do You Want to Get Well?” A Treatment Model for Spiritual Healing of Addicts and Spouses
• Session 3: Taking Every Thought Captive: A Treatment Model for Emotional and Physical Healing of Addicts and Spouses
• Session 4: “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?” A Treatment Model for Behavioral Change of Addicts and Spouses
• Session 5: “Can this Marriage Survive?” A Treatment Model for Relational Healing, Part 1
• Session 6: “Can I Ever Trust Him/Her?” A Treatment Model for Relational Healing, Part 2

Summary

Pornography is one of the greatest threats to psychological health existing today. Sixty-eight percent of young adult men and 18% of women turn to porn on a weekly basis. This Intensive will equip clinicians with the essentials of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of sexual addiction in both men and women. Sex addicts include those dependent on pornography, compulsive masturbation, emotional and physical affairs, prostitution, and various fetish behaviors (paraphilias). Nationally recognized experts, Dr. Mark and Debbie Laaser will cover diagnostic criteria for sexual addiction and model sample diagnostic and assessment interviews with clients. Based on years of experience, the presenters will share a unique treatment approach using a five-dimensional model, which focuses on physical (including medical and psychiatric) self-care, behavioral change, emotional healing, relational healing and growth, and spiritual direction. The Laasers will also discuss and demonstrate their proven model of couples’ counseling where one spouse is an addict. Participants will learn how to help couples share a full disclosure, re-establish trust, negotiate healthy boundaries, and learn safe ways to communicate at deep emotional and spiritual levels. Training modules will include active demonstrations with group participation. Attention will be given to Christian integration, multicultural, and ethical components.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

1. Understand the diagnostic criteria for sexual addiction, the addictive cycle, and the characteristics of spouses and their needs
2. Be equipped to include key spiritual questions in their treatment protocols, when working with both addicts and spouses
3. Explore comorbid mental health diagnoses, neuroscience factors, and effective strategies for managing fantasy and thoughts for addicts and spouses
4. Explain the practical use of accountability principles
5. Identify the treatment strategies that are essential in the early stages of the discovery of infidelity including the Laaser’s model for full disclosure
6. Study the Laaser’s model of how couples’ healing takes place over time and be equipped to teach couples how to have safe conversations at deep levels of emotion and spirit

Intensive Trainers

Mark Laaser, Ph.D., is a national and international author and speaker. He has written and co-written over fifteen books and conducted seminars and workshops around the country and around the world. Dr. Laaser is on the adjunct faculty of Fuller Seminary, Denver Seminary, and the Institute for Sexual Wholeness. He has been contributing to AACC conferences and video series for over 20 years. Together with his wife Debbie, he counsels individuals and couples struggling with sexual addiction and infidelity at their clinic in Eden Prairie, MN.

Debbie Laaser, M.MFT., is a Marriage and Family Therapist and has been involved in recovery work with her husband, Mark, for over 25 years. Debbie facilitates therapy groups for women, counsels spouses who have been relationally betrayed, and provides conjoint therapy for couples with her husband Mark at their counseling center in Eden Prairie, MN. She also speaks with her husband at training events and workshops around the country. She is author of Shattered Vows and co-author of Seven Desires.