by Duncan E. Stafford (psychotherapist, supervisor and author) @therapyspaceuk

Having been involved in debates around pornography since the mid-1990s I am well aware that porn is a very emotive subject. It invites strong opinion, but the greater my conscious competence in this field becomes, the more I recognize that these opinions are not necessarily well informed. Indeed, porn is a political and moral minefield that quickly encourages deeply entrenched, non-evidenced-based views to stifle debate. The advent of the Internet appears to have intensified this situation.

I’ve written this series of blogs with the hope that it might help to inform general practice therapists to become active in thinking about, and perhaps directly engage with, a currently burgeoning area of work – those who have issues around pornography use be they a user, partner or family member.

From my conversations with other therapists about this area of work I believe we need to begin to challenge our profession. If, as a thoughtful set of professions, we take the time and trouble to look at the evidence base for many of the beliefs about pornography, we often find that largely it is not available …

In Part 2, Duncan E. Stafford looks at problems with the actual definition of pornography.