Greg Woodhill: Root Causes of Porn Addiction and Healing with Real Intimacy

Episode 244: Greg Woodhill, MFT, CSAT is a licensed psychotherapist who has spent thousands of hours directly helping sex and porn addicts recover from their addictions. He strongly believes that true psychological and emotional growth can only occur in a safe environment, which he provides for his clients through long-term therapeutic work. He holds a Master's Degree from the University of Santa Monica, where he developed his personal therapeutic style of empathic listening, exploring early childhood trauma, and encouraging personal responsibility. He is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, and spent 5 years working at the Center For Healthy Sex in Los Angeles under the mentorship of Alexandra Katehakis. He is passionate about the topic of addiction in all shapes and sizes, and he loves working with addicts to help them recover their passion and strength, so that they can create true intimacy in their lives. Show notes: To get a free 30-day trial of Audible + 1 free book, go HERE The Feminine Surrender Retreat - learn more HERE on how best friends are formed. How Greg got into this line of work and why he became interested in the profound effects that pornography has on men. The freedom that opens up for men once they start talking about this. Staggering pornography statistics. "It's hard to find a man that doesn't watch porn." Maddy's first experience watching porn. “I take no moral, ethical or religious perspective with porn. I don’t think it’s good or bad.” Porn is made for men by men in general. “I don’t think anyone needs to stop watching porn unless they believe it’s causing problems in their lives.” What it means when Greg says, "The porn is choosing them and they’re sexualizing their pain.” The upsides to porn — how it builds confidence, reduces shame and education, exciting, make you feel, soothing, sexy, fun. The dark side to porn and how it affects our unresolved emotional issues. Why you choose the type of porn that you do? “People gravitate to porn when they’re trying to work through unemotional material from the past.” A question Greg only asks during his therapy sessions: "If we could remove the sexual arousal from this experience, what experiences would you be experiencing?" "They’re porn watching to feel adequate." “Healing is the application of love to the places inside that hurt.” Why do they sexualize this pain instead of using drugs/alcohol for example? The false assumptions around pornography. Most of the time, the partner of a porn addict that doesn’t know that they’re with a porn addict. Erectile dysfunction and low libido are often accompanying effects with porn addicts. What do you do as a partner who is in a relationship with a porn addict? “The partner of a porn addict needs their own hope and healing.” Resources for pornography/sex-related addiction: sexandrelationshiphealing.com   pornaddicthubby.com iitap.com The important structure, boundaries, and guidelines you need as a partner of a porn addict. The importance of weekly check-in sobriety meetings. A reminder: you can set boundaries with love. A Brave New Man Podcast Must-read book: Pornland - How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality by Gail Dines One of Greg's best purchases ever: There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem by Wayne Dyer Connect with Greg:  Website Twitter Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands