From Disembodied Division to Embodied Wholeness: Healing the Impacts of Pornography and Technology

Presented by Christian Wolfe, LPCC, LADC, CSAT Candidate

This talk examines the governance of technology through a Catholic lens, focusing on pornography addiction, its neuroscience, etiology and developmental impacts based on age of first exposure. Drawing on the presenter’s expertise as a former advertising executive, it explores the attention economy’s role in addiction formation. The discussion addresses technology’s effects on individuals, families, relationships and society, emphasizing habit formation and spiritual consequences. Clinical insights from the presenter’s experience as an licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC), licensed alcohol and drug counselor (LADC) and certified sex addition therapist (CSAT) candidate offer practical approaches for priests and deacons to support parishioners. Strategies for healing and fostering self-mastery align with Catholic anthropology.

Christian Wolfe is a Catholic counselor in private practice with Caritas in Veritate Counseling and works with adults, clergy and religious, and adolescents. He got his start at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and, after four years in addiction counseling, expanded to the broader Catholic-integrated mental health space. Wolfe is in his fourth year as an adjunct counselor at The Saint Paul Seminary. A cradle Catholic, Minnesota transplant and former international advertising and marketing executive, he is active in parish life and rarely shies from retelling God’s transformative and merciful love in restoring and reordering his life.

Wolfe earned a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Divine Mercy University, a Master’s in Pastoral Ministry from The Saint Paul Seminary and a Post-baccalaureate Certificate in Addiction Studies from the University of Minnesota. He engages a Catholic anthropological lens for whole person healing. He is EMDR-trained, IFS-informed, and routinely helps men, women and adolescents with anxiety, depression, trauma, developmental wounds, relationship conflict or addiction.