Marty Klein

Marty Klein, Ph.D. has been a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Sex Therapist for more than 30 years. He has aimed his entire career toward a single set of goals: telling the truth about sexuality, helping people feel sexually adequate and powerful, and supporting healthy sexual expression and exploration. A sought after keynote speaker across the globe, Klein has given over 700 keynote speeches, training programs, and popular lectures to groups in North America and in 22 countries, including India, Morocco, Croatia, Turkey, and China. He has spoken at almost 100 American colleges and universities; to dozens of physician dinner meetings; to groups of Jews, Catholics, and atheists; to tired social workers and energetic sex-toy saleswomen. Their consistent response is summed up by the annual banquet chairwoman of Catholic Healthcare West:

"Your special ability to keep everyone's attention, and to make a potentially complex subject highly enjoyable, was reflected in the outstanding evaluations. You made me look terrific."

Klein has written six books on sexuality, which have been translated into a dozen languages. His latest is Sexual Intelligence: What We REALLY Want from Sex and How to Get It (HarperOne), in which he goes beyond conventional wisdom to help men and women discover that what they focus on during sex is more important than any tricks or techniques. His innovative, smartly funny 1992 book Ask Me Anything: Dr. Klein Answers the Sex Questions You'd Love to Ask is still in print - as accurate and relevant today as it was the day it was published. His recent book, America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty was honored as Book of the Year by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and is required reading in several universities and law schools.

Klein has authored over 100 articles in publications such as Parents, New Woman, and Playboy, as well as San Francisco Medicine, the California Therapist, and the Journal of Homosexuality, and is a former contributing editor to The New Physician, American Baby, and Modern Bride. He has also testified as an expert witness in many state and federal trials relating to sexuality.

Klein is frequently interviewed by the national media on topics involving sexuality. When sex is in the news - whether it's teen sexting, politician peccadillos, "porn addiction," vibrators, sex offending, "cougars," or sex education - he is one of the first experts called. He can always be relied upon to deliver well-informed, often counter-intuitive analyses and opinions in an accessible way. His national appearances include ABC's 20/20, Nightline, Penn & Teller, and PBS, along with The New Yorker and the New York Times.

Whether the topic is serious or somewhat lighter, Klein's talks are thought-provoking, practical, and entertaining. He gets 1,000 college students laughing at their own inability to say the word "clitoris" - and challenges them to communicate better before having sex. He helps 500 psychologists feel understood and trusted - and then challenges their misinformation about kinky sex and arranged marriages.

Whether in Boise or Belgium, Alabama or Asia, on stage Klein is absolutely fearless and savagely funny. He gracefully weaves together insights from sociology, linguistics, psychology, law, technology, religion, and history - spiced with instructive, often funny stories of human fear, courage, and change from his clinical practice. Klein continues to study sexual decision-making on both the personal and cultural level, while promoting the sexual health and rights of all Americans.

Klein's work continually challenges American society's assumptions about sexuality. He is particularly critical of what he calls the "Sexual Disaster Industry" and the "Oprah-ization" of psychotherapy. He decries the sexual "dangerism" of the mass media and "decency" groups, and is continually challenging the gender stereotypes and shocking sexual ignorance of American medicine, psychology, the clergy, and our legal system. He is the country's most-quoted critic of the "sexual addiction" movement.

In his talks based on Sexual Intelligence (itself based on 30 years' clinical experience), Klein teaches audiences how to stop aiming for sexual "success" and sexual "normality" -- and to instead learn to care about other things entirely: how do various sexual behaviors actually feel? What do I and my partner actually enjoy? What do I want from sex, anyway? In this groundbreaking exploration of the sexual mind, he explores the three components of Sexual Intelligence:

The brain - information and knowledge

The heart - emotional skills

The body - body awareness and comfort

In an entertaining, provocative way, Klein shows audiences that Sexual Intelligence is the set of internal resources that allows them to relax, be present, communicate, respond to stimulation, and create physical and emotional connection with a partner. When they can do that, he says, they'll have enjoyable, nourishing sexual experiences regardless of what their bodies do or don't do.

Klein divides his professional time between private clinical conversations with individuals and couples, and very public conversations with his lecture audiences, book and blog readers, the national media, public policy venues, state and federal courtrooms, and international settings. He lives in northern California with his wife, cactus garden, and enormous collection of rock 'n' roll albums.

Sexual Intelligence: What We Really Want from Sex – and How to Get It

America’s War On Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty

Diagnosis and Treatment of Sexual Issues

His Porn, Her Pain: Treating Individuals and Couples When Pornography Is An Issue

When Sex Gets Complicated: Kinky Sex, Affairs, Pornography, and “Sex Addiction”

10 Things Every Psychologist, (or Physician, College Counselor, or Therapist) Needs to Know About Sex

Sexual Aspects of Health Care

Supporting Healthy Sexual Choices Around Campus

Making Sex Better: For Couples, Singles, and Everyone Else

Love, Sex, & Intimacy: One Conversation? Two? Three?