2019 Salt Lake City UCAP Conference

“A sexual tsunami is coming!”
This dramatic statement is by Dr. Patrick Carnes, who has been a leading expert in the field of sexual addiction can also aptly be applied to the explosive and immeasurably destructive “tsunami” of cybersex and pornography which threaten to cause incredible destruction to our families and to the fabric of our society.
Gone are the days when traveling to a convenience store to purchase a Playboy magazine. Today an endless array of sexually arousing media is at our fingertips, instantly accessible on laptops, tablets and smartphones.
If we hope to reduce the impact of this tsunami of soul-sickening filth, we must begin to understand the forces that drive our youth and adults toward sexual and pornographic addiction. This presentation will address the relationships between childhood trauma, childhood traumatic stress, personal vulnerabilities and pornography addiction.
In this presentation we will address the following topics:
• We will briefly summarize the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study and its relationship to later health, and behavioral problems, i.e., addiction.
• We will examine the concept of “childhood traumatic stress” and how this stress can become a major driver toward a search for relief.
• We will overview of the Diathesis-Stress Model, and consider how it becomes a force to drive individuals to addictive substances and behaviors
• We will consider ways to mitigate the effects of childhood trauma, manage chronic stress and reduce vulnerabilities to stress.

For more than forty-five years Martin has been a training and instructional professional and has delivered more than 9,000 training and teaching sessions. In addition, for twenty-three years he was a psychotherapist working directly with adult survivors of childhood trauma, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Currently he is employed by the State of Utah, Division of Child & Family Services. He was Region Training Manager for several years. His current life focus is raising awareness to the need for greater trauma-informed perspectives and judgments. Martin and his wife, Judy, live in Springville, and are the parents of eight, and grandparents of twenty.