
Sex Therapy
Our sexual identity is a part of our being often a part shrouded in secrecy. We absorb societal messages that leave us feeling ashamed and wondering whether we are “too sexual” or “not sexual enough”. Sexual intimacy is also one of the most common points of conflict in romantic relationships.
Sex therapy provides a safe space where you can ask those questions that you feel too awkward to ask anyone else. Where you can explore the societal messages, you have absorbed and evaluate whether they serve you in building a fulfilling sexual relationship.
“On the day you’re born, you’re given a little plot of rich fertile soil, slightly different from everyone else’s. And right away your family and your culture start to plant things and tend the garden for you, until you’re old enough to take over its care yourself.
Some of us get lucky with our land and what gets planted. We have healthy and thriving gardens from the earliest moments of our awareness. And some of us get stuck with some pretty toxic crap in our gardens, and we’re left with the task of uprooting all the junk and replacing it with something healthier, something we choose for ourselves.”
Extracted from Emily Nagoski, Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life (p. 39).
Sex therapy may assist with the following challenges:
- Exploring the consequences of sexual trauma and abuse
- Differing sexual needs in a romantic relationship
- Performance anxiety
- Difficulty reaching orgasm
- Low libido
- Hypersexuality or overactive libido
- Discomfort communicating sexual needs or having discussion of a sexual nature
- Erectile dysfunction, impotence
- Vaginismus
- Dyspareunia – pain during intercourse
- Sex addiction including addiction to pornography or masturbation
Many of these difficulties could have a psychological underpinning but ruling out an underlying medical cause is crucial to the process. As such, sex therapy will often include referral to a medical practitioner with an interest in sexual health.