2022 Raising Healthy Families Community Education Series

As children negotiate their constantly connected lives, parents are faced with the general concern of online safety and, more specifically, the issue of unfettered access to online pornography.  This presentation will outline the psychological factors involved in our attraction to pornography with an outline of the development of problematic pornography use in children and teens.

Attendees will be given tools and suggestions to address the issue of online pornography, both for parents whose younger children have not yet accessed online pornography, and those who are concerned about their older children’s current use.

This presentation will explain the unique social and developmental struggles of teenage boys, and the social factors that contribute to these concerns. The presenter will also suggest useful parenting strategies to help improve the social, developmental, and emotional lives of boys.

Bio
Mark Edwards, LMFT, is a psychotherapist, trainer, teacher, and consultant. He has maintained a private practice in San Rafael since 2000 and works with a broad client group of children, adolescents, and adults. He has been a member of adjunct faculty of the Master’s Program in Counseling at Sonoma State University for more than 10 years, and was formerly Assistant Clinical Director at the Community Institute for Psychotherapy, where he continues to supervise and teach Post-Master and Pre-Doctoral interns. Mark was an early adopter of internet technology and is keenly aware of the clinical implications of this rapid shift in communication, leisure, and information.