Our Story
Freedom Coaching exists because behavior management isn't enough. Filters hold a line for a while. Accountability apps catch a slip. Willpower runs out. None of them touch the deeper problem: it's not so much what a person does as how a person sees. Freedom Coaching began with one man's discovery that when vision changes — when you see your own body, and everyone else's, as God sees them — the compulsion loses its grip. That discovery became a method, then a practice, then a Foundation.
It began with one man's journey
Our founder, Steve Pokorny, knew the shame of a debilitating pornography compulsion from the inside, being more than 12 years a slave. What he found on the other side wasn't merely abstinence. It was redeemed vision: the transformation from desiring to use a person as an object to seeing the dignity of another as an embodied image of God. As he worked in marriage preparation and began giving his testimony publicly, individuals started approaching him — sharing their own longing for liberation, asking him to walk them through the same process. That work has since opened doors he never anticipated.
He tells the full story in Redeemed Vision: Setting the Blind Free from the Pornified Culture.
Why behavior management isn’t enough
A filter blocks an image; it does not change the appetite behind the click. An accountability partner can catch a slip; he cannot repair the way a person understands his own worth. Working one client at a time, we meet men & women who have seemingly done everything the standard advice asks of them and still find themselves trapped in debilitating guilt, shame & self-hatred. After witnessing the inadequacy of mere behavior management, we developed a method and a system that transforms the underlying vision from distorted to redeemed. By addressing the root cause rather than the symptoms, we are have helped clients find a permanent path to freedom.
A method, not a program
Freedom Coaching is one-to-one mentoring, delivered live over secure video, grounded in Catholic theology and a practical methodology that reaches a person's desires through a transformation of mind, heart & vision. Freedom Coaching is not therapy or clinical counseling. A Freedom Coach works through the specific problems fueling a client's struggle, then helps that client to cooperate with grace in building practical habits for living differently. Our coaches have walked this road personally as well as professionally, and this is why we are experts in connecting well with our clients. Your story is your own — we want to hear it, to meet you where you are, and to walk with you toward what will actually satisfy.
Becoming a Foundation
Freedom Coaching began in 2011. In 2022, Freedom Coaching Foundation Inc. was established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (Tax ID 88-2960875), so that no one who needed this work would be turned away over money. We are currently an Apostolate of two dioceses (San Antonio, Vancouver, along with the Archdiocese of Toronto that has bequeathed us the title of “Lay Association of the Lay Faithful”) who recognize Freedom Coaching to be an effective response to an epidemic that has infected the lay faithful and clergy. Sessions are $150 per session, and we do our best never to turn anyone away for financial reasons. Because of generous benefactors who see the problem clearly and partner with us in this life-redeeming work, we are able to offer partial scholarships to many of our clients. We are grateful that a growing number of the people we serve are here because someone else gave first.
Where we are today
Freedom Coaching serves men & women wherever they happen to live — every session is online, private and confidential. Our coaches work in English & Spanish, supported by a board of directors, staff, and a network of donors who understand what is at stake. Since 2011 we have served more than a thousand male & female clients across more than 12 countries. We continue to expand our outreach, ensuring that support is accessible, compassionate and holistically transformative.
What comes next
We know firsthand what pornography compulsion does to men, women, families, children & vocations. We also know the other side of that story: lives transformed, marriages redeemed, men & women living their true worth in service to their vocation and their community. At Freedom Coaching, we're just getting warmed up. We are working to add coaches in more languages, to build partnerships with more parishes, and to grow our base of benefactors so that more clients can receive the financial help they need. Freedom Coaching stands in the gap for a growing number of people harmed by pornography, bearing witness to a simple truth: a compulsion may be present now, but it is only part of the story. We believe Jesus Christ intends to make all things new (Rev 21:5), and to offer the broken a path to a future of lasting sexual integration and redemption.
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes…”
– Jeremiah 29:11-14
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes…”
– Jeremiah 29:11-14
Take the first step
If you have felt trapped, alone, or unsure where to turn in your own struggle with an attachment to pornography and unchaste behavior, lasting transformation is possible — and it starts with a conversation.
Scripture quotation is from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes…”
– Jeremiah 29:11-14
Take the first step
If you have felt trapped, alone, or unsure where to turn in your own struggle with an attachment to pornography and unchaste behavior, lasting transformation is possible — and it starts with a conversation.
Scripture quotation is from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.