What is Sex Therapy?
What is sex therapy?
Sex therapy can be utilized when individuals and/or couples are experiencing difficulties in their sex lives.
The goal of sex therapy is to help individuals understand their unique sexual challenges and to create a plan to work through them or have their needs met in other ways. This may involve an effort to reframe one’s opinions on sex, intimacy and pleasure. In addition, it can entail digging deeper about trauma and other life experiences that may be contributing to the sexual challenges.
Sexual Dysfunction
There are 4 main types of sexual dysfunction experienced by people.
Desire disorders, also known as libido dysfunctions, impact an individual’s sexual desire or desire to participate in sexual activity.
Individuals impacted by arousal disorders find it difficult or impossible to become sexually aroused, even if they are interested in being sexual, they may be unable to derive any pleasure from the experience.
Orgasm disorders impact one’s ability to have an orgasm - this may arise as an inability to have an orgasm or having delayed orgasms.
Pain disorders encompass feelings of pain or discomfort during sexual intercourse.
All forms of sexual dysfunction can have a significant impact on one’s interpersonal functioning and quality of life.
Do any of these sound like something you’ve experienced?
What a sex therapist does not do/Things that don’t happen during a session:
Does not take sides in a relationship
Does not help persuade either partner to do/participate in things they don’t want to
Everyone keeps their clothes on during a session (the sex therapist will not be participating or directing any sexual relations)
Could sex therapy be right for you?
Have you struggled to have an orgasm?
Have you struggled to maintain an erection?
Have you not wanted parts of your body to be touched during sex?
Is it hard to engage in intimacy?
Is it hard to be vulnerable?
Do you find yourself compulsively masturbating/looking at porn/sex worker sites?
Do you have kinks or fetishes that you’ve never explored due to shame?
Do you want to engage in group sex but have felt a lot of fear around that?
Do you experience pain during sex?
Do you have a consistent lack of interest in sex?
Are you in a relationship with someone that struggles with any of these issues?
If you or someone you’re in a relationship with struggles with these issues it may be worth reaching out to a sex therapist or doing more research on whether sex therapy might be right for you!
