Sexual Therapy: What You Should Know

Sexual therapy is a form of counseling intended to help individuals and couples resolve sexual difficulties, such as a lack of interest in physical intimacy, performance anxiety, or relationship problems.

Clients generally meet in the therapist’s office. Some choose to attend sessions alone; others bring their partner with them. Session frequency and length usually depend on the client and the type of problem being addressed.

Sexual therapy is for anyone who needs help overcoming or understanding something that’s going on in their sex life. Sex therapy helps you gain an understanding of your sexual wants, needs, and desires. All the while it helps you to get comfortable communicating sexual talks with your partner.

Quite often, your regular doctor or therapists who haven’t specialized in sex therapy may not be equipped to advise or help you as well as a sex therapist can; when it comes to a sexual issue, they may refer you to one. You can however also access one without a referral. If you have troubles with your sex life and have things to get off your chest and work out then sex therapy may just be for you.

Read on to learn all about the compassionate and research-based guidance a sex therapist can give you, as well as the range of psychological, physiological, and cultural factors that interact to affect your sex life.

Couples, Techniques, and What Does a Sex Therapist Do?

It’s normal for clients to feel anxious when seeing a sex therapist, especially for the first time. Many people have trouble talking about sex at all, so discussing it with a stranger may feel awkward. However, most sex therapists recognize this and try to make their clients feel comfortable. Often, they start with questions about the client’s health and sexual background, sex education, beliefs about sex, and the client’s specific sexual concerns.

It’s important to know that sex therapy sessions do not involve any physical contact or sexual activity between clients and therapists. Clients who feel uncomfortable with any aspect of therapy should speak up or stop seeing that particular therapist.

Going to see a sex therapist is as normal as going to any other healthcare professional. If you break your leg, you go to the leg specialist; if your sex life feels broken, you go to a sex specialist.

But what exactly is sex therapy? If you haven’t been, it’s highly like your picture of it is informed by TV, movies, or what you’ve seen online. So we’re here to tell you what it’s like.

Sex therapists usually assign “homework”—practical activities that clients are expected to complete in the privacy of their own homes.

Such homework might include the following:

• Experimentation. Couples who feel they’re in a sexual rut may try different activities, such as role-playing or using sex toys, to increase their desire. Other couples may need to adjust their sexual routine or positions, especially if one partner has a health condition that requires such changes.
• Sensate focus. This technique for couples is designed to build trust and intimacy while reducing anxiety. Couples progress through three stages, starting with nonsexual touching, progressing to genital touching, and, usually, ending with penetration.
• Education. Sometimes, clients do not receive adequate sex education while they are growing up. As a result, they may not be aware of anatomy and how the body functions during sexual activity. Therapists might assign books or web content to read or videos to watch. They might also suggest that clients use a mirror to learn more about their bodies.
• Communication strategies. Clients may practice asking for what they want or need sexually or emotionally in a relationship. This activity helps the client to talk to their partner more comfortably, opening up to the issues that have caused the problem in sex life and trying to resolve it with open minds.

Success with sex therapy often depends on how committed clients are to the process. If clients are willing to put in the effort, either alone or with a partner, they may reach their sexual goals.

Perspectives on Sexual Dysfunction Disorders 

There are many factors that may result in a person experiencing sexual dysfunction. These may result from emotional or physical causes. Emotional factors include interpersonal or psychological problems, which can be the result of depression, sexual fears or guilt, past sexual trauma, and sexual disorders, among others.

Sexual dysfunction is especially common among people who have anxiety disorders. Ordinary anxiousness can obviously cause erectile dysfunction in men without psychiatric problems, but clinically diagnosable disorders such as panic disorder commonly cause avoidance of intercourse and premature ejaculation. Pain during intercourse is often a comorbidity of anxiety disorders among women. Therefore, clinicians should be careful not to rule out the fact that there may be physiological causes of these dysfunctions as well.

The Biological Model

Physical factors that can lead to sexual dysfunctions include the use of drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine, narcotics, stimulants, antihypertensives, antihistamines, and some psychotherapeutic drugs. Excessive use of alcohol or use of other recreational drugs may cause sexual dysfunction, either by a direct effect on the penile neurovascular system or by causing increased secretion of prolactin, reduction in the production of testosterone, or both. Many medications are commonly associated with sexual dysfunction, including diuretics, antipsychotics, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, buspirone, lithium, disulfiram, oral contraceptives, etc.

Sex therapists believe sexuality is an inherent and essential dimension of the human experience. They emphasize sexual freedom of thoughts, feelings, fantasies, and healthy forms of sexual activity.

What is sexual therapy? Benefits, how it works, and more 

Sex therapists use a non-pathologizing approach when addressing sexual concerns. This means that any problems you face are treated as solvable situations rather than untreatable diseases.

Sex therapy gives you the space to consider and analyze the sexual experiences you’ve had over the course of your lifetime, your current sexual experiences, and your priorities for future sexual expression.

In the same way you look after your physical health by eating well and exercising, and your mental health by attending traditional therapy, sex therapy gives you the chance to be intentional about an aspect of your life that is crucial for your overall health and well-being. For those without fulfilling sex lives, sex and intimacy can be a source of anxiety or emotional discomfort.

Sex therapists help you work through the psychological factors owing to sexual dysfunction by addressing underlying concerns, such as stress, anxiety, trauma, or confidence issues. When you see a sex therapist, you learn to: communicate openly and honestly with your partner, find the root of sexual issues or challenges, and move towards an empowered, happy, and fulfilling sex life.

How long does sex therapy take? 

A session is typically an hour long, but this is simply a tradition to fit neatly into schedules and for ease of booking. There is actually no scientific or therapeutic reason why an hour a week is better than, for example, doing little and often instead, as you may do with digital therapy.

There is no set time for sexual therapy, like any other therapy, there are no quick fixes but if you do your homework and stay honest and open, you will progress and overcome your problem. The Blue heart treatment plan (It is the leading digital relationship & sex therapy platform designed by experts to help millions of people struggling with relationship problems) for libido issues is usually around 6 months, but people can feel free to take as long as they like. It all depends on your motivation and how well you stick to the plan.

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