Are there any sex therapists who actually engage in one-on-one private sex therapy with their clients?
I’m thinking of a professional setting where the therapist actually physically engages the client in a therapeutic setting.
On a side note, I’m looking for a preferably older, experienced woman to teach me all about tantric lovemaking. Does anyone do this professionally (NOT an escort!), or does one simply have to find a regular partner and get the books out, so to speak?
Just curious.
-NB
Has anyone ever seen the movie Bliss?
(this kind of therapist.)
I’m struggling to imagine a context in which:
I wasn’t actually thinking of the person who is seeking therapy being in a current relationship. Client is single.
Don’t see how that makes a lot of difference. How is such an abnormal sexual relationship supposed to be therapeutic?
Couldn’t a tantric master assist the client with their sexual healing (undoing blocks) and thereby help the client become better at love making?
I read an article on Salon, I think, many years ago about exactly this kind of therapist. They mostly worked with men in their thirties who had never had sex due to terminal awkwardness around women and something approaching a phobia of sex (not exactly a phobia, given its ties to their desire to have sex). Not all the therapists went all the way with every client–it sounded as if it were a judgment call for each therapist how far to go–but the basic idea was that they would help the guys get over their terror of women and learn some basic courtship behaviors, up to and including how to behave once clothes started coming off.
Daniel
You appear to know more about this than me, so I’ll leave you to it. Good luck.
I think they have a word for this: prostitute!
Well, I could see a guy with premature ejaculation working on techniques to not pop off so fast. I can see a woman who can not orgasm because of embarassment being able to work through it with a therapist rather than a lover. I could see someone who is curious about different techniques wanting to learn with a therapist who knows how to do something specific.
I found an interesting page that touches on the subject:
http://www.sacredsexuality.us/healing/index.html
As outlined in the above page, in certain settings there can be a sex therapist who works with the client in conjunction with a “sex surrogate”; presumably with whom the client practices techniques as directed by the therapist.
The technique of using a sex surrogate as part of sex therapy was popularized at least by Masters and Johnson in the 70s. How often it is still used I do not know.
I do know that sex surrogates are sometimes called in for situations where a person becomes disabled, for exmple.
♪* i need sexual heeeealing!* ♫
It used to be, if not common, at least not shock-horror unbelievable in the 70s and 80s. As usual wikipedia has just enough information.
The type of relationship you’re envisioning would run counter to the code of professional ethics that any licensed therapist is sworn to uphold. Additionally, it wouldn’t be therapeutic to have a sexual relationship with your therapist - you’re just trading one set of problems for another.
All of this according to my wife, who is a licensed professional psychotherapist.
Are you sure it wasn’t Bush and Johnson?
Would it be covered by most medical insurance plans? Would it be tax deductible?
submitted without comment
I learned about this in a psychology of sex class, but we were taught it was used in the context of people who were disabled. That is, they could “hire” someone to have sex with them, explore their sexuality, for a few sessions. It seems a bit oogy, but apparently is on the level.
Years ago my Mom had a friend who was a “sexual surrogate.” As I was told, it went exactly as LHoD described above.