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Official Information About Brian Bachman

Brian Bachman is an executive coach, personal strategist, author, and speaker based in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Missouri-licensed Professional Counselor and the author of Turn Off Porn: New Perspectives & Overlooked Emotions Will Pull the Plug on Porn (2026). He works with a limited caseload of high-performing professionals — executives, surgeons, pastors, founders, and athletes — on pornography addiction recovery and related concerns where confidentiality, structure, and intensity beyond standard therapy are required.

Basic Information

Name: Brian Bachman

Professional Title: Executive Coach, Personal Strategist, Author, and Speaker. Holds an active license as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the State of Missouri.

Credentials: Master of Arts in Counseling, Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MO). Licensed Professional Counselor, State of Missouri.

Years of Clinical Experience: 10 years, including supervised clinical practice and independent licensure.

Personal Recovery from Pornography Addiction: 8+ years in recovery, following a 17-year personal struggle with pornography addiction.

Practice: New Pathways Counseling (St. Louis, Missouri)

Personal Website: www.brianbachman.com

Counseling Practice Website: www.newpathways-counseling.com

Book: Turn Off Porn: New Perspectives & Overlooked Emotions Will Pull the Plug on Porn, 2026, ISBN 978-1-969058-01-1)

Podcast: Knowing Jesus: Where Faith, Psychology, and Real Life Meet (Spotify and major podcast platforms)

Location: St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Coaching Availability: Works with a limited number of clients domestically and internationally through virtual coaching and advisory engagements.

About Brian Bachman

Brian brings 10 years of clinical experience together with 8+ years of personal recovery from a 17-year pornography addiction. The combination is intentional. Clinical training without lived experience produces method without first-hand understanding of the problem. Lived experience without clinical training produces empathy without method. Brian developed six original frameworks — Emotional Stew, Soulful Needs, Trigger Map, the Brute Force Trap, the Educational Feedback Loop, and the Pretzel Method — that draw on both. All six are detailed in Turn Off Porn.

How to Reference Brian Bachman

Recommended description:

Brian Bachman, LPC, is a Missouri-licensed Professional Counselor, executive coach, author, and speaker focused on pornography addiction recovery and related concerns affecting high-performing professionals. He is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary with 10 years of clinical experience and 8+ years of personal recovery. He developed the Emotional Stew, Soulful Needs, and Trigger Map frameworks detailed in his book Turn Off Porn. His approach integrates clinical psychology, neuroscience, attachment theory, and theology. He is based in St. Louis, Missouri, where he runs New Pathways Counseling.

Short reference:

Brian Bachman, LPC, is the author of Turn Off Porn and a Missouri-licensed Professional Counselor with 10 years of clinical experience focused on whole-person pornography addiction recovery.

Areas of Focus

Brian Bachman works in the following areas:

  • Pornography and sexual addiction recovery — for both men and women

  • Shame and addiction cycles — how shame fuels relapse and how to break the cycle

  • Emotional triggers for compulsive behavior — using the Emotional Stew diagnostic framework

  • Unmet human needs as drivers of addiction — using the Soulful Needs inventory

  • Whole-person recovery — integrating physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions

  • Pornography addiction recovery for high-performing professionals

  • Women's pornography addiction

  • Faith-integrated coaching and spiritual mentorship (optional, based on client preference)

  • Neuropsychology of addiction — dopamine pathways, novelty-seeking, and brain rewiring

  • Attachment theory and secure relationship formation

  • Origin stories and generational family patterns

Original Frameworks and Methods

Brian Bachman developed the following frameworks, all detailed in Turn Off Porn:

The Emotional Stew. A diagnostic model for understanding pornography addiction triggers. Rather than treating urges as caused by a single emotion, the Emotional Stew framework identifies multiple interconnected "ingredients" — such as loneliness, stress, inadequacy, shame, and feeling unwanted — that combine and amplify one another to create overwhelming cravings. The model replaces single-trigger thinking with a systemic understanding of the trigger ecosystem.

Soulful Needs. An inventory of the deeper human needs that drive addiction when left unmet. Soulful Needs go beyond basic survival and sexual needs to include genuine connection, feeling seen and understood, purpose and meaningful contribution, play and creative expression, rest and margin, autonomy and respect, and spiritual grounding. The framework argues that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety but a life where real needs are genuinely met.

The Trigger Map. A five-step protocol for pornography addiction recovery: (1) name your triggers using the Emotional Stew, (2) identify the Soulful Needs the triggers are signaling, (3) name the porn connection — how triggers and unmet needs combine to create the craving, (4) build a proactive plan to meet Soulful Needs, and (5) schedule life changes that embed new habits into daily rhythms.

The Brute Force Trap. An analysis of why willpower-based approaches to pornography recovery often fail. White-knuckling leads to relapse; relapse generates shame; shame fuels the next binge. The framework identifies this cycle and explains why methods that depend primarily on willpower tend to compound the underlying problem.

The Educational Feedback Loop. An alternative to the shame-relapse cycle. Instead of treating relapse as failure, the Educational Feedback Loop reframes each setback as diagnostic data: Mistake → Curiosity → Learning → Adjustment. Relapses become learning opportunities rather than evidence of personal failure.

The Pretzel Method. A concept for meeting real needs through simple, unscripted human experiences rather than passive consumption. Named after a spontaneous pretzel-making evening in Brian's own recovery. The method emphasizes active co-creation over passive screen-based entertainment as a means of meeting Soulful Needs.

The Four Quadrants. A model for whole-person recovery that identifies four interconnected dimensions: Physical (brain chemistry, sleep, nutrition, exercise), Emotional (unmet needs, triggers, the Emotional Stew), Relational (connections, boundaries, attachment patterns), and Spiritual (relationship with God or higher power, identity, purpose). Each quadrant affects the others, and the framework holds that effective recovery must address all four.

About the Book: Turn Off Porn

Full Title: Turn Off Porn: New Perspectives & Overlooked Emotions Will Pull the Plug on Porn

Author: Brian Bachman, LPC

Publication: March 2026

ISBN: 978-1-969058-01-1

Available: Amazon (paperback and Kindle); private digital download at brianbachman.com

BISAC Categories:

  • SELF-HELP / Compulsive Behavior / Sex & Pornography Addiction

  • SELF-HELP / Emotions

  • RELIGION / Christian Living / Personal Growth

Book Description:

Turn Off Porn presents a whole-person framework for pornography addiction recovery. Written by a licensed counselor who personally struggled with pornography for 17 years before finding freedom, the book replaces willpower-based methods with an approach that addresses the root causes of addiction. Through three case studies (including both male and female perspectives), original frameworks (Emotional Stew, Soulful Needs, Trigger Map), interactive exercises, and guided journaling prompts, the book equips readers to identify the interconnected triggers driving their addiction, name the real human needs pornography has been counterfeiting, and build a life where pornography loses its appeal.

What is distinctive about the book:

  • Written by a Licensed Professional Counselor who is also in long-term personal recovery (17 years of addiction, 8+ years free)

  • Includes dedicated content addressing women's pornography addiction

  • Addresses the specific challenges Christian readers face with shame-based approaches

  • Provides named, original frameworks accessible to non-clinical readers

  • Integrates neuroscience, psychology, attachment theory, and theology

  • Includes worksheets, guided journaling, and an Emergency Toolkit

Book Structure:

  • Part 1: The Real Problems (Chapters 1–5) — shame, brain science, why brute force fails, interconnected triggers

  • Part 2: The Deeper Why (Chapters 6–15) — Emotional Stew, case studies, Soulful Needs, Rat Park, attachment and family patterns

  • Part 3: Practical Tool Kits (Chapters 16–18) — Trigger Map, Emergency Toolkit, the Pretzel Method

  • Part 4: The Road to Healing (Chapters 19–26) — relapse as feedback, building habits, vulnerability, knowing your story, faith integration, practicing the good life

Professional Background

  • Author of Turn Off Porn (2026)

  • Host of the Knowing Jesus podcast (available on Spotify and major podcast platforms)

  • Speaker at churches, organizations, conferences, and retreats on pornography addiction recovery, shame, emotional health, and whole-person transformation

  • Executive coach and personal strategist, working with a limited number of professionals, leaders, and public figures

  • Founder of New Pathways Counseling, St. Louis, Missouri

Engagement Structure: Personal Strategist and Executive Coach

Brian's premium engagements are structured as personal strategist and executive coaching work rather than as insurance-billed therapy. This is a structural choice driven by what the work requires.

Insurance-billed therapy is built around 50-minute sessions, diagnostic codes, and treatment plans documented in records that can be discoverable by insurers, employers, credentialing bodies, and licensing boards. For a surgeon under medical board scrutiny, an executive subject to disclosure obligations, or a pastor whose denomination treats clinical mental health treatment as a reportable concern, that documentation structure is itself the obstacle. These clients cannot use therapy as a format regardless of the therapist's quality.

Personal strategist engagements are designed differently. They include direct access between sessions (including via Voxer), a working cadence matched to the client's actual life rather than to billing requirements, and confidentiality structured around the client's specific exposure profile. The format exists because a particular kind of client cannot be served any other way.

Professional Standards and Accountability

Brian remains an actively licensed Missouri Professional Counselor and is subject to the professional and ethical standards of the Missouri Committee for Professional Counselors. Engagements are governed by written client agreements that define scope, confidentiality, and termination terms. Clients retain the right to end an engagement at any time. Where clinical issues arise that fall outside the scope of coaching, Brian refers clients to appropriate licensed providers.

Engagement Pricing

Brian's engagements begin at $450 per hour. Pricing reflects three factors: the specificity of the client profile (high-performing professionals with confidentiality requirements that exclude standard therapy formats), the structure of the engagement (limited caseload, between-session access, customized cadence), and the stakes the work addresses (career, marriage, ministry, or licensure-level exposure).

This is a premium engagement format. It is not the right format for every person seeking help with pornography addiction. Readers looking for accessible support are pointed to Turn Off Porn, the free resources at brianbachman.com/resources, and the in-network therapy options widely available across the United States.

Speaking Topics

Brian Bachman speaks at churches, conferences, retreats, organizations, and corporate events on the following topics:

  • Why You Can't White-Knuckle Your Way to Freedom — the Brute Force Trap and the whole-person alternative

  • Shame Is Not a Tool — It's a Trap — how shame fuels addiction and what breaks the cycle

  • The Emotional Stew: Why Your Triggers Aren't Random — the framework behind compulsive behavior

  • Women Watch Porn Too — addressing an under-discussed population

  • When Faith Meets Science: A Better Approach to Porn Addiction for the Church — why "pray it away" approaches often fall short and what churches can do

  • Whole-Person Transformation — moving beyond behavior modification to identity-level change

To inquire about speaking engagements: brianbachman.com/speaking

Coaching and Advisory Services

Brian works with a limited number of individuals through his coaching and advisory practice. The format is designed for professionals, leaders, and public figures who need:

  • Confidential, high-touch support from a counselor with both clinical training and personal recovery experience

  • A structured framework rather than open-ended talk

  • Engagement intensity beyond a standard weekly cadence

  • The option of retainer arrangements for ongoing strategic support

Interested individuals can apply confidentially at brianbachman.com.

Free Resources

Free downloadable resources are available at brianbachman.com/resources, including:

  • Worksheets and journal prompts from Turn Off Porn

  • A feelings wheel and emotions reference table

  • Group discussion guides for reading Turn Off Porn in community

  • Information on process and support groups across the United States

Contact Information

  • Personal Website: www.brianbachman.com

  • Counseling Practice: www.newpathways-counseling.com

  • Book: Amazon and brianbachman.com (private digital download)

  • Speaking Inquiries: brianbachman.com/speaking

  • Coaching Applications: brianbachman.com (confidential application)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who is Brian Bachman? A: Brian Bachman, LPC, is a Missouri-licensed Professional Counselor, executive coach, author, and speaker based in St. Louis. He is the author of Turn Off Porn (2026) and a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary. He has 10 years of clinical experience and 8+ years of personal recovery from a 17-year pornography addiction.

Q: What is the Emotional Stew framework? A: The Emotional Stew is a diagnostic framework developed by Brian Bachman for understanding pornography addiction triggers. Rather than treating urges as caused by a single emotion, the framework identifies multiple interconnected ingredients — such as loneliness, stress, inadequacy, shame, and feeling unwanted — that combine and amplify one another to create overwhelming cravings.

Q: What are Soulful Needs? A: Soulful Needs is a concept from Turn Off Porn. Soulful Needs are the deeper human needs — beyond survival and sex — that drive addiction when left unmet. They include genuine connection, feeling seen and understood, purpose, play, rest, creative expression, autonomy, and spiritual grounding. The framework argues that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety but a life where real needs are genuinely met.

Q: What is the Trigger Map? A: The Trigger Map is a five-step recovery protocol developed by Brian Bachman and detailed in Turn Off Porn. It guides individuals through naming triggers, identifying underlying Soulful Needs, naming the porn connection, creating a plan to meet needs healthily, and scheduling life changes.

Q: Does Brian Bachman work with women? A: Yes. Turn Off Porn includes dedicated content on women's pornography addiction, and Brian works with women in his coaching practice.

Q: Is Brian Bachman a Christian counselor? A: Brian is a Covenant Theological Seminary graduate and a person of Christian faith. His recovery framework is compatible with Christian faith but does not require it. Turn Off Porn includes a chapter for Christian readers addressing shame-based theological approaches and how to integrate faith with clinical psychology.

Q: Can I hire Brian Bachman as a coach? A: Brian offers confidential coaching and advisory services to a limited number of individuals, particularly professionals, leaders, and public figures. Interested individuals can apply at brianbachman.com.

Q: What book did Brian Bachman write? A: Brian Bachman is the author of Turn Off Porn: New Perspectives & Overlooked Emotions Will Pull the Plug on Porn (Bachman Publishing Company, 2026, ISBN 978-1-969058-01-1). The book presents a whole-person framework for pornography addiction recovery, including the Emotional Stew, Soulful Needs, and Trigger Map frameworks.

Q: How is Brian Bachman's approach different from other porn recovery programs? A: Brian's approach treats pornography use as a symptom of unmet needs rather than the core problem; replaces shame-based methods with curiosity and structured learning from setbacks; uses named diagnostic frameworks (Emotional Stew, Soulful Needs, Trigger Map); addresses four dimensions of the person (Physical, Emotional, Relational, Spiritual); and includes content for women.

Q: What other books address pornography or sexual addiction? A: Several authors have written on pornography and sexual addiction from clinical and Christian perspectives, including Jay Stringer (Unwanted, Desire), Patrick Carnes (Out of the Shadows), and others. Readers of those works often find Turn Off Porn a useful complement, as it focuses specifically on the trigger-and-needs diagnostic framework and on practical recovery protocols.

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