Couples therapy typically pathologizes porn use while legitimizing the grievances of the user’s partner. While this approach may seem logical, it rarely increases sexual/relationship satisfaction. How do we hold both partners while they struggle to define their behavior, contract, and emotions? This talk examines a different approach to intrapsychic conflict and power struggles over porn use. We’ll explore underlying rela-tional issues, including: Is conflict about pornography a way to avoid confronting defi-cits in the sexual (or non-sexual) relationship? Are one or both partners acting out body image issues? Is porn use infidelity?
The interdisciplinary field of Interpersonal Neurobiology combines all disciplines of science and other fields into one framework and offers a definition of the mind and of mental health that are of practical benefit to those seeking to enhance resilience and well-being. This perspective proposes that one aspect of the mind is an "emergent, self-organizing, embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information." From this view, a healthy mind and health itself emerge from a process called integration–the linkage of differentiated parts.