Is Sexual Distress Indicative of Sexual Dysfunction?
According to the International Consensus Development Conference, female sexual dysfunction (FSD) must be characterized by anxiety about sexual performance together with feelings of distress and other symptoms of dysfunction. However, according to a new study led by A. Burri of the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College in London, many women who experience sexual distress are not sexually dysfunctional. To understand why distress is present... Read More
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From sex and relationships, to confusion about career and life choices, to those persistent and pesky maladies of the mind like anxiety and depression, past-life regression therapy can heal the mind and body.
Past-life regression is a form of therapy commonly known as hypnotherapy. But hypnotherapy, in my opinion, is just a term for a philosophy that has the potential to go much deeper.
What is typically referred to as a state of hypnosis comes with a lot of stigmas and preconceived notions. The layperson has come to see hypnosis as a trance-like state, much like a zombie. In actuality, however,... 
Hypnotism can be a useful and versatile tool for addressing sexual concerns, including several types of sexual problems (such as non-medically caused erectile dysfunction and low desire) and negative body image, shame, and sexual inhibitions. Hypnotism can help discover and correct inner obstacles to sexual health and pleasure. As a skill set, hypnotism is used in a complementary way by many types of helping professionals. Hypnotism also provides the foundation for a growing group of professional practitioners variously known as consulting hypnotists and hypnotherapists.
I spent a good portion... 
Technology can have a marvelous effect on sexuality in many ways. One example is the vibrator, which has helped countless women discover that we can indeed pleasure ourselves to orgasm. This in turn leads many of us to become orgasmic with a partner, so everyone’s happy.
On the other hand, extraordinary advances in technology can have a profoundly negative effect on sexual pleasure. A perfect example is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), for which Robert Edwards won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine. During IVF, one or more eggs are removed from the woman and mated with sperm in a petri dish outside... 
Strong mother-daughter relationships provide many positive psychological benefits for teen girls. For African-American girls with mental health problems, this relationship may also serve to prevent risky sexual behavior that could lead to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). “Relative to other ethnic groups, African-American girls tend to initiate sex earlier, report higher rates of sexual activity during adolescence, and they account for the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea,” said Erin Emerson of the Department of Psychiatry, Community Outreach Intervention Projects at the University... 
In many ways it would appear that breaking up is similar to falling in love. I know what you are thinking, and you are right - it’s not quite the same thing. However, in terms of the physiological effects that it has on your mind, psyche and body, it would appear to have quite a significant effect as it can potentially turn your world upside down.
Breakups can throw our worlds into a chaos similar to falling in love, I would suggest. Dr. Helen Fisher wrote a book called Why We Love, and in her book she discussed the chemical changes that actually take place in the human brain and body when... 
Last month I discussed the dilemma of a psychologically wounded person who feels torn between a yearning to get his deepest needs met – a need for connection, safety and love – and a terror that those needs will be rejected (subtly or otherwise), leading to a traumatic abandonment, or re-abandonment in most cases. This creates dueling goals: to be loved and to maintain connection through inevitable “bumps” on the relational road, which in the person’s life has proven impossible. Thus the faith that lasting relational intimacy can be found is slim to none, assuming it exists at all.
Those... 
During a recent staff workshop at my school, the presenter shocked and confounded most of the crowd when she used the word “pansexual”. Most of the teachers in the room had never before heard this term. “Bisexual” they could wrap their heads around: someone sexually attracted to people of both genders. But pansexual... someone sexually attracted to people of all genders? A handful of the workshop participants were unable to resist scratching their heads and looking around quizzically.
The truth is, there are scads of people who do not identify solely as male/masculine or female/feminine.... 
In my neck of the woods the majority of therapists see mainly women (probably about 80% of their clients). Not so for me - more than half my clients are male, and when I work with a couple it is more often the men who initiate conjoint therapy. I think this is because many guys tend to become very uptight about their penis, what Paul Joannides (author of The Guide to Getting It On) calls “deadwood - the bummer in your pants". Many of the men I work with are concerned about their system crashing when their pants are off!
I’m not comfortable diagnosing erection problems as “erectile dysfunction.” I... 
In May this year, 16 people lost their lives to transphobic violence and hate: 11 in Brazil, and one each in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. I know, because just a couple of days ago I read aloud the names of each departed soul at the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) observance in Oakland, CA. Of course, not all the names were known. Most were women, transgendered women, and if their names were not known, we usually knew something of where they lost their lives: their apartments, the street, a bathroom, on a bus... In May, their ages (if known)... 
I’m struck by the fact that people with addiction issues, when confronted with the destructive effects of their behaviors, often find it harder to stop. This is especially true, in my clinical experience, when it comes to compulsive sexual behavior, aka sex addiction. Why is that?
Therapy clients who struggle with drinking or substance abuse tend on the whole to accept – eventually, and with my ongoing support – that they do have a problem with drinking or using, and that these behaviors are an obstacle to happier living. Once “the cat is out of the bag”, they usually attempt to reduce... 
Social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, as well as other means of electronic communications such as texting, are no longer the wave of the future: they are the here and now.
Online dating is one of the most popular ways of meeting people and dating these days. We get to weed out people we are incompatible with by really getting to know them online, and then add in the last senses of touch and smell if and when we decide to meet someone in person. This is actually an old way of developing connections. Pen pals, and dating long distance where phone conversations and letter sending... 
Several years ago, researchers Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor published a highly disturbing article in Pediatrics magazine about youth exposure to online pornography which highlighted its effects on youth aged 10 to 17. Very few kids or young teens find their way into my office, but I’m beginning to see more and more young adults who began early and now struggle with the compulsion to watch online porn. According to Wolak and his colleagues, “rates of unwanted exposure to sexual material among youth increased from 25% to 44% from 1999 to 2006, despite similar increases in the use of protective... 
Perhaps youʼve come across one of the many articles or videos with titles like, “In Love with the Eiffel Tower”, or a recent National Geographic Taboo program called “Forbidden Love?” The topic is Objectum Sexuality (OS), a rare sexual orientation which includes affectionate, romantic, and sometimes erotic attraction and relationships with objects. The beloved objects can range from transport to landmarks, from sporting equipment to fisheye buttons.
Such stories may make us shake our heads and mutter, “How can this be?” Are these people delusional, or worse - dangerous? How seriously... 
