New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives

by Peggy J. Kleinplatz (Editor)

Winner of the 2013 AASECT Professional Book Award! New Directions in Sex Innovations and Alternatives focuses on cutting-edge, therapy paradigms as alternatives to conventional clinical strategies. With each passing year, the treatment of sexual problems seems to emphasize more medical and pharmacological interventions. There is correspondingly less interest in the experiences of the individuals or couples involved. This book expands the definition of our field. Part I highlights the major problems and criticisms facing sex therapy and furnishes a rationale for new directions. Included in this new edition are critiques of "sexual addiction" nomenclature, the neglect of the ethical dimension in sex therapy, and there is a call to expand our vision of what sex therapy can attain. Part II demonstrates new approaches to dealing with traditional sex therapy concerns, including lack of desire and erectile dysfunction as well as innovative goals, such as integrating sexual medicine with sex therapy, using client feedback to customize therapy for the particular individual/couple's best interests, promoting relationship growth in working with transgender clients, and transcending sexual function/dysfunction to optimize erotic intimacy in long-term couples. This 2nd edition of New Directions in Sex Innovations and Alternatives is replete with helpful new clinical illustrations across the spectrum of theoretical orientations (e.g., systemic, narrative, Experiential, CBT) to demonstrate these approaches in action. This book is intended for anyone who deals with sexual issues and concerns in therapy–clinicians of every kind, novices and advanced practitioners–rather than only those who define themselves as sex therapists.

Genres: Sexuality, Counselling

410 pages, Hardcover

First published March 16, 2001

Reviews

[Romany Arrowsmith]

Hunted down/read this whole damn thing just to access the chapter by Apfelbaum. Every chapter had some interesting thoughts in it, but Apfelbaum is next level.

"The commonsense notion that sex means being free of our social habits makes it difficult to see how much the limited availability of these guidelines leaves us blindly groping, uncertain, in sex. We worry about being seen as pushy and inconsiderate (or worse) when initiating a move, or being seen as indifferent if we do not—or as cold or rejecting when dodging or evading a move or just unenthusiastically complying. But because there is no good way to ask for anything, you mostly do not. And since there is no good way to refuse, you mostly do not. Think how unavailable are all the shades of “no.” This creates the vulnerability that we associate with sex.

…This describes an automatic bypasser, someone who benefits from the hidden rules, who instinctively shuts out what turns her off by focusing on physical sensation. She could satisfy her urgent need to flee from this rejecting husband to the nice husband he could seem to be in bed. (remember, she would avoid looking at him, and he would be compelled to avoid breaking her concentration, as per the hidden rules.) She could not have told anyone about this. She would have had no idea that in bed she felt loved and comforted by her husband rather than hated and accused by him. All she would know was that sex offered the possibility of relief from the pain of their conflict—their separation—almost as if she had taken a mood-altering drug. how could intercourse create that experience for her? She could count on the hidden rules. her husband had to blend into the scenery, to be a good sex object. If he had given any sign of still feeling annoyed with her or had just expressed feeling put on the spot by her sexual demand—or even had sighed at the wrong time—her interest in sex could have vanished in a twinkling. But he would know the rules. We keep a low profile in sex, which would have given his wife’s imagination free rein..."

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book for anyone interested in sex therapy. Broad, comprehensive, nuanced and delightfully fresh both in perspective and detail.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on the topic

[culley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked chapters 4 and 11. Chapters 17 and 20 in the same book represent a narrative, fictional approach that seems inspired by Hillman and applicable far beyond sex therapy.