My name is Marshall Fightlin. I am a licensed psychologist at the Master’s level and have over thirty years experience as a therapist, working with adults and children, married couples and families. I also have significant experience as a contract psychologist for the federal prison system, and as an examiner of applicants for Social Security Disability. Originally from Connecticut, I moved to Minnesota in 1985, and have been in private practice as a psychologist licensed in that State since 1987. I am presently a staff psychologist with a Christian-based mental health clinic in Duluth, Minnesota.

I have taught psychology courses in a program for working adults at the College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth.

I have published numerous articles in national and international journals related to marriage and family life. To read several of them, click here.

I have been a speaker at conferences, both regional and national, sponsored by organizations such as Connecticut Right-to-Life and International Birthright.

I have appeared on numerous radio call-in and talk shows, defending the Catholic viewpoint on issues such as sex education and contraception, and have also appeared on television, including a debate with the president of Connecticut Planned Parenthood League.

In addition to my degrees in psychology and counseling, I have a Master’s degree in Theology, from Saint Paul’s University in Ottawa, which is a Pontifical Institute. I also have an STL from that same University, which qualifies me to teach in a Catholic seminary. I have taught both in the Religious Studies Department of St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in the Theology Department and Psychology Department of Holy Apostles College, in Cromwell, CT.

As a psychologist who is a Catholic, I bring my faith to my work. Each psychologist practices his art from a certain perspective, a view of the human person, of marriage and of the family. My perspective is Catholic. My practice of psychology is shaped, in part, by the following beliefs:

1. The human person is an embodied spirit. He has been endowed with an intellect, by which he can know truth, and a will, by which he can make free choices and give himself to others in love.

2. A person’s behavior is determined partly by genetic endowment (“nature”), partly by early childhood experiences (“nurture”), but also partly by free choice.

3. I believe that sex is sacred and is essentially an expression of the marital commitment already made. Any use of sex outside of a marital context is destructive of both parties. I further believe that the sacredness of sex and of the body necessarily includes the fertility potential. I promote NFP as a unique way of safeguarding that sacredness in the context of family planning.

4. I am committed to the concept of the sanctity of human life from the first moment of fertilization to the moment of natural death.