Bio
Sharing the vision of TLI, Dr. Monica Hidalgo Breaux brings expertise to our understanding of God’s plan for marriage and family life. Her extensive research validates the wisdom of Catholic church teaching on human sexuality.
She was born in Lake Charles Louisiana where, in God’s gracious providence, the National Director of the US Bishop’s Family Life Bureau became her pastor! Mentored from early childhood by this lifelong friend, Monsignor I.A. DeBlanc, Monica first defended Humanae Vitae at age 16.
After marriage she joined the Couple-to-Couple League in advancing NFP training, then began teaching catechism and confirmation classes to teenagers. In mercy toward her sexually active, alcohol and drug- using students, she launched a local outpatient teen resource called New Direction, that was based on Fr. Charles Wyatt-Brown’s Palmer Drug Abuse Program. Her second nonprofit, New Life Counseling, is a pregnancy care center in her hometown, helping women since she founded it in 1984. For this, God blessed her marriage with a Family of the Year award from the Knights of Columbus, which she treasures.
While raising her five children, she received an AAS in substance abuse counseling from Lamar University, a BA in Liberal Arts from McNeese State University, and an MSW from Louisiana State University. She earned her PhD from Arizona State University teaching human behavior and research methods as a Faculty Associate in the MSW graduate program of Social Work. At the ASU Newman Center, Monica served as a guest instructor on sexuality issues in the RCIA program for 12 years, and she also established an adult confirmation program that included chastity education. When her pastor confided that priests were unprepared to assist penitents with pornography compulsions, she focused her doctoral studies on sex addiction. Pointers for Priests on the Problem of Pornography seminars led to her being recognized for priestly formation regarding sexuality. In 2019 she founded Arise For Him® as a nonprofit to address the pornography problem. Her latest initiative Wholly Men® offers 40 strategies for emotional regulation, impulse control, and masculine confidence in a self-help online format for groups at AriseForHim.com.
Monica is a speaker who draws on 30 years of experience with thousands she served as a therapist and spiritual director. She presented to Legatus, the National Conference of Diocesan Vocational Directors, Saint Thomas Aquinas Society, International Life Services Advanced Training Institute, Catholic Social Workers National Association, Bishop’s Presbyteral Council, AZ Abstinence Education Coordinators, and numerous seminars for priests, religious communities, parishes and schools in the U.S., Canada and Italy. She was honored as the 2010 Catholic Social Worker of the Year, then featured on Women of Grace TV, Catholic Answers Live, Vocation Boom, Take 2, The Good Fight, Kresta in the Afternoon, Drew Mariani Show, The Morning Show, The Bishop’s Hour, Seize the Day, The Live Hour, The Catholic Conversation, Catholic Phoenix, Champions of the Truth TV, Don’s News and Comments TV and Shalom World TV.
Monica enjoys entertaining by tap dancing while singing. She practiced for years to accomplish that feat, hoping someday to witness someone else do it. On occasion she travels to view her youthful company performance in the Lake Charles Civic Ballet during the Southwest Regional Ballet Festival. It is available at the New York Public Library of Performing Arts.