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CE Abstracts
Pre-Conference Workshop A:
Thursday, April 10, 9-Noon, 3 hours CE
Olga Perez-Stable Cox, M.A., M.F.T., Orange Coast College
BDSM and Empowerment: Guidelines for Professionals Working with Kinky People
A growing number of persons are participating in kinky sexual activities and exploring BDSM relationships. Most of them experience BDSM as positive, fun, and sexually exciting. SM sex and relationships, with their inherent focus on power, provide practitioners with many experiences that may lead to personal empowerment and self-affirmation. Common pathology-based misconceptions about BDSM are prevalent and interfere with the ability to provide effective non-judgmental help and services to those who practice it. The BDSM/leather community is committed to education and most in the community strive to be honorable and play safely. This session will: provide basic information on BDSM sex and relationships; clarify the difference between SM and abuse; discuss how BDSM is experienced as empowering; suggest guidelines for clinicians, educators, and health care providers; provide an opportunity to meet SM practitioners; and provide resources. At the end of the session participants will be able to:
1. describe basic BDSM activities and relationships
2. explain the difference between SM and abuse
3. list two ways that BDSM is experienced as empowering
Pre-Conference Workshop B:
Thursday, April 10, 9-Noon, 3 hours CE
Stephen L. Braveman, L.M .F.T, Private Practice
Innovative Methods for Treating Adult Men Who Experienced Sexual Trauma as Children
This session will address incidence, co-morbidity and common clinical presentations of men who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. Symptoms unique to male survivors will be examined. Participants will gain a more personal understanding of male survivors thru hearing actual accounts of abuse, told by the survivors themselves, and demonstrations of experiential exercises used in group therapy. Treatment strategies tailored to motivate male survivors toward healing will be presented. Portions of soon to be released public service announcements and training films, made by participants in a Men's Group for Sexual Abuse Survivors, will be presented. Resources for both the survivors and therapists will be provided. At the end of this session participants will be able to:
1. define several presenting clinical features unique to male survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
2. identify some of the unique challenges male sexual abuse survivors face after being sexually victimized.
3. discuss 2 treatment approaches found to be successful in clinical work with male sexual abuse survivors.
Pre-Conference Workshop C:
Thursday, April 10, 1:30-4:30 pm, 3 hours CE
Lawrence Hedges, Ph.D., ABP, University of California, Irvine
Can Love Last? The Development and Restoration of Intimacy
We have long known that physical and emotional intimacy diminishes or actually dies during the course of long-term relationships. There have been many speculations as to why this is so, and couples' therapists have generally, without any real basis, promised that intimacy can be restored. Psychoanalyst Stephen Mitchell's question, Can Love Last? and anthropologist Helen Fisher's question, Why We Love? have stirred recent controversies and fostered a series of radical re-formulations regarding the development and restoration of intimacy and love. Further, methodological and technological advances in neuroscience, infant research, anthropology, sociology, and relational psychology over the past decade have yielded startling new insights into sex, sexuality, gender, and gender identity that have massive implications for our intimate relationships-how we form them and how we can keep them. We now know that we are a relational species-that our brains are actually shaped by and our biological regulatory systems fully responsive to the intimate relationships we are exposed to throughout our lifetimes. Something in us continues to believe that love can last. But cross-cultural and historical research makes clear that we have always been a species generally given over to serial monogamy. Dr. Hedges will present recent theory and research findings that point us in new directions for how we can establish more rewarding intimate relationships and how we can work together to make love last. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe two ways that relationships affect our neurological systems.
2. describe two current research findings on infant sexuality
3. describe two aspects of current thinking on long-term relationships and sexuality.
Pre-Conference Workshop D:
Thursday, April 10, 1:30-4:30 pm, 3 hours CE
Stella Resnick, Ph.D., Private Practice
Embodied Sex Therapy: An Evidence-Based Model for Sexual Health and Healing
This session presents an expanded model for treating sexual concerns that is supported by the latest scientific data and integrates cognitive, behavioral, somatic and experiential dimensions of sexual healing. We'll examine relevant research in developmental neuroscience, the psychobiology of attachment, and sexual science identifying an implicit, intersubjective level of relating between people that can either fan the fires of passion or extinguish them. We'll look at key features of sexual health that demonstrate the value of an embodied awareness of one's sexuality. Through discussion and experiential exercises, participants will have an opportunity to explore breath work, felt-sense awareness, Gestalt processing, spontaneous imagery, and voice dialogue. We'll see how an embodied sex therapy teaches awareness of stress patterns, muscular tensions, and how to safely express and release emotional wounds that block physical intimacy. These skills learned in therapy can be transferred to enhance intimate contact, eroticism, and mindful everyday living. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. identify a new approach to sex therapy that integrates cognitive-behavioral and somatic-experiential dimensions of sexual healing.
2. identity the relevant research that supports adding a body-based perspective to sex therapy.
3. describe bodymind experiential exercises useful in an embodied sex therapy.
Pre-Conference Workshop E:
Thursday, April 10, 1:30-4:30 pm, 3 hours CE
Martin S. Weinberg, Ph.D., Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Social Constructionism but Were Afraid to Ask
The inimitably humorous Marty Weinberg will make you au courant with the constructionist perspective in the field of sexuality. Among other things, he will describe: what "social constructionism" refers to; what Michael Foucault's contribution was; what Scripting Theory really implies; what Post-structurualism means; what Queer Theory has to offer; what the concept of The Postmodern Era points to. The various aspects of constructionism will be explained in an understandable way. Most importantly, practical applications for sexologists-in counseling, research, and sexual politics-will be discussed. Summary handouts will be provided. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe the "social constructionist" approach.
2. identity the perspective's most common concepts and theories.
3. describe how to apply the perspective in counseling, research and sexual politics.
Thursday, April 10, 2008, 7:30 - 9:00 pm, 1.5 hours CE
Carol Cassell, Ph.D., University of New Mexico, School of Medicine
Strip Poker: Why We Play the Games of Lust, Love and Mating-Over and Over
A synopsis of the current science behind sexual "chemistry"-- especially what draws us to one specific person, but not another and how we fall out-of love. The role of jealousy, sexual secrets, the status of monogamy, and facts/myths about gender differences and similarities toward love and sex will also be examined. Recommendations will offered for a healing process based on acceptance of: (a) the realities of "no-fault" love and (b) the tension between our cravings for sexual freedom vs. love and security. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe two aspects of the current science behind sexual chemistry
2. define "no-fault" love
Friday, April 11, 2008, 9 - 10: 30 am, 1.5 hours CE
Elizabeth Rae Larson, D.H.S., Seattle Institute for Sex Therapy, Education and Research
Healing Women: Profiles of Modern Sexual Revolutionaries
In the past three decades we have witnessed profound changes in our understanding of female sexuality, scientifically and culturally. Many of these changes have been generated by the actions of women: scientists, artists, writers, moviemakers, therapists, educators, bloggers, etc. Behind the actions of these women have been the actions of their legions of supporters. This plenary will feature portraits of Betty Dodson, Shere Hite, and Leonore Tieffer and discussion of many others whose work has made a difference in women's sexuality. What have they created; what impact has it had, on them, on us; what would they advise the women who follow? At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. name a revolutionary contribution to our understanding of female sexuality.
2. identify one or more significant contributors.
Friday, April 11, 2008, 11am-12:30 pm, 1.5 hours CE
Marty Klein, Ph.D., Private Practice
Their Narrative, Our Narrative: Sex Therapy During the Culture Wars
Be afraid…be very afraid…That's the primary sexual narrative in America right now. Be afraid of others' sexuality. Be afraid of your own. But people who come in for therapy want to talk about erections. Or orgasms. Or low desire. We can't do our most effective clinical work without attending to the culture war raging outside our windows. Every day, our patients are absorbing toxic levels of sex-negative shame, anxiety about being abnormal, fear of predators, and unease about becoming "porn addicts," or realizing that they're married to one. This talk presents a psycho-social model that addresses the impact of the culture wars on our patients' sexuality. We'll examine patients' common assumptions about porn, desire discrepancies, sex toys, "dysfunctions," and the power of sex to cripple decision-making and destroy values. We'll discuss how to interest patients in their own beliefs when they desperately refuse to do so, and how we sometimes strengthen their resistance by unintentionally reinforcing those beliefs. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. name two ways in which government and "morality groups" attempt to undermine healthy decision-making.
2. give three examples of "phony categories" commonly used in the media to discuss sexual phenomena.
Friday, April 11, 2008, 11 am-12:30 pm, 1.5 hours CE
Winston Wilde, D.H.S., M.A., Private Practice; Hernando Chaves, D.H.S., M .A., Orange Coast College; Sueann Mark, Ph.D., Private Practice
Body Issues from two perspectives:
In the Hood: Myths and Facts About Male Circumcision
A Deeper Shade of Pink : Sexual Health in Women With Breast Cancer
Wilde and Chaves: The controversy over male circumcision is heating up in the global arena. The USA is the only non-theologic democracy in the world that routinely practices circumcision on male children: not so in Canada, all of Latin America, all of Europe, Russia, China and other civilized societies. What are the health risks on both sides of the debate? What does the research really say? What about the relationship between circumcision and HIV in Africa? This presentation will discuss circumcision from ancient Egypt to current global policy making, while honoring the traditions of cultures that practice circumcision around the world. This lecture is intended stimulate thoughts and feelings about how we as sexologists and advocates of sexual health can better serve humanity.
Mark: While every woman's journey through breast cancer is different, most will experience some disruption to their sex life during treatment, and many face a loss of sexual interest, sexual dysfunction or decreased sexual satisfaction throughout survivorship. These women are left with little or no support for their sexual concerns because discussions about sexual health are largely ignored within the medical setting. This presentation will provide the background necessary to work knowledgeably with women at any stage of breast cancer treatment from the newly diagnosed to long-term survivors. Using a multi-dimensional focus that includes the mind, body and spirit, we will examine the four most common breast cancer treatments: chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and anti-hormonal treatments, illuminating the sexual repercussions associated with each. Particular attention will be paid to distinguishing between the experiences of pre- and post-menopausal women with breast cancer. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe current thinking regarding male circumcision.
2. describe at least two differences between the experiences of pre- and post-menopausal women with breast cancer.
Friday, April 11, 2008, 2:30-3:30 pm. 1 hour CE
Stella Resnick, Ph.D., Private Practice
Couples' Therapy After the Affair: A Full Spectrum Approach to Anger, Guilt, Shame, Forgiveness and Sexual Healing
When one partner in a presumed sexually exclusive relationship or marriage is discovered in an affair, the other typically feels betrayed and devastated. If they seek couple's therapy in an attempt to stay together, the range of emotions, triggers for attachment issues, and depth of feeling in both partners can be challenging for the therapist as well as the clients. This presentation explores some of the key stages in the process of repairing a wounded relationship and suggests some effective methods for working through both current emotional injuries and pre-affair risk factors, particularly with regard to a lack of satisfaction in their sex life. It offers an expanded model for treating couples in crisis that integrates cognitive, behavioral, somatic and experiential dimensions of emotional and sexual healing. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe a multi-dimensional approach to couple's therapy after disclosure of an affair.
Friday, April 11, 2008, 2:30-4 pm, 1.5 hours CE
Elisabeth Sheff, Ph.D., Georgia State University; Rhea Orion, M.Ed., Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center; Amanda Pitts, B.A., Texas State University-San Marcos; Joshua Raclaw, M.A., University of Colorado-Boulder; Leanna Wolfe, Ph.D., Los Angeles Valley College;
Panel: Current Research on Polyamory
Polyamory is a form of relationship in which people have openly non-monogamous relationships with multiple partners. While virtually unknown among the general public for years, polyamorous relationships have begun to attract increasing media and academic attention. In this session, four panelists will present their current research on polyamory. Orion investigates the potential for polyamory to bring greater intimacy and satisfaction to marriages that suffer from a dearth of sexual contact. Pitts examines how self-identified polyamorists develop their safer sex practices and beliefs Raclaw explores the use of relationship categories and kinship terminology among polyamorists. Finally, Wolfe discusses how non-poly identified people in open relationships negotiate jealousy, identities, and sharing partners. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe current research on polyamorous relationships.
2. identify at least one technique that clinicians can use to assist their polyamorous clients.
Friday, April 11, 2008, 4:30-5:30 pm, 1 hour CE
Marty Klein, Ph.D., Private Practice
The Sex Wars: Creating Productive Public Conversations About Sex
"Sex Ed makes kids have sex." "Abortion causes sterility." "Porn leads to rape." We've all had frustrating, non-productive conversations about sex. And we've all shook our heads at the sex-negative stories all over the media. What can we do? The Sex Wars aren't going away soon, so we need to participate differently. This presentation examines specific ways the fear-and-danger narrative distorts sexual issues. These methods include defining problems; phony categories; questioning the epistemology of science, logic, and fact; redefining sources of meanings of expertise; drawing conclusions from anecdote; and "teaching the controversy." More importantly, it will discuss effective ways to challenge this narrative and to get people thinking about sexuality in new ways. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe two "phony categories" with which the media discusses sexuality.
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 8:30-10 am, 1.5 hour CE
Douglas Braun-Harvey, M.F.T., C.G.P, The Sexual Dependency Institute of San Diego; Adjunct Professor, San Diego State University and David B. Wohlsifer, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., Private Practice
Sexual Health, Sexual Shame and Crystal Meth: Improving Drug and Alcohol Treatment Outcomes for Men who Have Sex With Men
Current drug and alcohol addiction treatment gives little attention to a client's intertwined sexual issues. Typically, treatment professionals advise men and women to avoid sex and relationships the first year of recovery. Unfortunately, all too often, drug treatment links sexual activity with relapse. These sex negative attitudes and behaviors within the chemical dependency treatment community contribute to relapse and treatment failure. Two independent psychotherapists/researchers challenged this substance abuse treatment cultural norm. Working on opposite U.S. coasts, they separately envisioned this void in sex positive approaches in treating crystal meth addiction. They both believed current treatment approaches were resulting in unnecessary treatment failure and premature treatment termination. They will describe their research findings and the treatment outcomes. This session will review how these outcomes support each independent conclusion. Leaders will discuss further application of sexual health, shame reducing crystal meth treatment approaches. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe a sex positive model for treating substance abuse.
2. identify at least three biopyschosexual consequences specific to crystal methamphetamine use among men who have sex with men.
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 11 am - Noon, 1 hour CE
Jack Morin, Ph.D., Private Practice; Adjunct Professor, California Institute for Integral Studies
How Eros Heals
Based on extensive clinical experience, as well as content analysis of peak erotic experiences provided anonymously by over 7,000 respondents, this presentation will make the case that healing and transformation are among the most important functions of the erotic adventure. Frequently, eroticism derives part of its intensity by tapping into conflicted or difficult areas in a person's development and relationships, combined with the desire to transform these challenges into arousal and self-affirmation. Within even the most problematic turn-ons-including those involving unfulfilling or painful repetitions-can be found deep motivations to heal. Similar dynamics can be seen in highly positive "peak erotic experiences." These often include descriptions of personal enlargement and self-discovery through profound contact with another, or with lost or underdeveloped dimensions of oneself. Furthermore, reports of emotional responses before, during, and after peak encounters or fantasies, reveal an unmistakable movement from negative to positive feelings. At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
1. identify how Eroticism seeks emotional and interpersonal healing.
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 2:30-4 pm, 1.5 hour CE
Jeffrey J. Douglas, J.D., Attorney; Diane Duke, M.A, Free Speech Coalition.; Mark Kernes, B.A., Adult Video News
Legal and Social Obstacles to Sexual Communication
This three members of this panel will address legal and social obstacles to sexual communication from different perspectives.
Douglas: States and the Federal governments have been inconsistent in their enforcement of obscenity and other censorship laws. This presentation will outline the modern history of those efforts (over the last twenty years), emphasizing how the changes in technological means of distribution have altered the content targeted, the entities targeted, as well as the changing means adopted by governments in prosecutions. In addition, the presentation will explore how anticipated technological changes will present increasing obstacles for the government to succeed in obscenity prosecutions. Finally, there will be a summary of how the technology changes the audience, the speakers and the content itself of sexually explicit entertainment.
Duke: Working for twelve years with Planned Parenthood gave me an introduction to the ignorance and fear our society has around issues of sex and sexual expression. As the Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, the trade association for the adult entertainment industry, I have witnessed, first hand, what happens when government acts on that kind of fear and ignorance. This presentation will focus on some of the laws that have been created and implemented as a result of our society's fear of, and our governments attempt to control, sex and sexual expression. Three laws will be discussed that highlight this situation: Toy Bans, Utah's Child Protection Registry and 18 USC 2257.
Kernes: As a journalist for 25 years for Adult Video News, the leading publication covering the adult video industry, I have attended numerous seminars and public meetings sponsored by leaders of the conservative religious community, most notably the National Pro-Family Conference on Pornography, Sexually-Oriented Businesses and Material Harmful to Children in 2000 (Citizens for Community Values), as well as the 2006 and 2007 Values Voter Summit (Family Research Council), and several Conservative Political Action Conferences (American Conservative Union). I also read daily e-mailings from the American Family Assn., Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, and less frequently from the American Center for Law & Justice (Pat Robertson) and Morality In Media. One thing is clear from my ongoing investigation: Conservative religious leaders and organizations have conspired to suppress all public discussion of sexuality and displays of content that is even remotely sexual, including Cosmopolitan and Redbook magazines. My talk will include video excerpts from several religious-right speakers, as well as excerpts from the American Center for Law & Justice TV show to demonstrate the far-ranging scope of religious sexual suppression.
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe legal and social obstacles to sexual communication.
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 3-4 pm, 1 hour CE
Charles Moser, Ph.D., M.D., Private Practice
Controversies in Understanding Transsexuality
For more than 20 years, Dr. Blanchard with a variety of co-authors and collaborators has proposed a theory which categorizes male-to-female transsexuals according to their sexual orientation. This presentation will explain and critique this theory, discuss the sexological, diagnostic, social, and political ramifications of that theory and other nosological approaches. We'll also discuss the clinical utility and problems of these approaches. The politics of the backlash against the theory by some transsexual activists also will be discussed. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. identify the subtypes of transsexuals that the "Feminine Essence" and "Blanchard's Autogynephilia" theories predict.
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 4:30 - 6 pm, 1.5 hour CE
Frank Zimring, J.D., University of CA, Berkeley;
Suzanne Brown-McBride, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault
Sex and Public Policy
Zimring: Doing Less Harm: A Rule of Reason for the Regulation of Adolescent Sexual Conduct
"Age of Consent" laws are currently set according to when lawmakers think young people are mature enough to conduct a rational sex life. But there is no such age. Adolescent sex is a classic example of a "learning by doing" exercise, and making mistakes is a normal part of the sexual learning process. The law, therefore, should not coercively attempt to prevent these mistakes. First and foremost, it should minimize the harm it inflicts on the process of maturing, which means very sparing use of criminal sanctions against consensual sexual relations. This talk will present an alternative model of how the law can both protect and support adolescents' sexual exploration, whether with another minor or with a young adult.
Brown-McBride: Fear and Loathing under the Dome: Practical Approaches to Sex Offender Policy
Few issues are more passionately misunderstood then nature of sexual violence. Coupled with an unprecedented level of public fear about sexual crimes, erroneous and distorted images of victims and offenders have become engrained in media depictions, cultural discourse and at every level of policy discourse. The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of policy designed to hold sexual offenders accountable including enhanced sentencing, residency restrictions, community notification and civil commitment. Understanding the intended and unintended consequences of these policy initiatives is essential to evaluating the safety of our communities and determining the most effective direction for future policy. Truly viable sexual violence prevention and intervention efforts will depend on emerging trends of collaboration and advocacy that engage the public, re-claim the language of community safety and create the conditions for rational policy making. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. identify two ways in which current "age of consent laws" undermine adolescents' sexual development.
2. name two current offender policies with unexpected consequences.
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 7:30-10 pm, 2.5 hours CE
Mark Schoen, sexsmartfilms.com
The Good, the Bad and the Sexy: A 100-Year Retrospective of Sexual Health Films
With the advancement of technology, we can now reach a wider audience than ever before, and we as sexual health professionals control the content. With this, there is a need to be responsible. Providing sexual health information has always stirred controversy. In the past, the decision makers of film content were corporations, film distribution companies, radio and television networks. Some of the issues were appropriate language, sexual images and content. And although the world has changed, the issues we confront providing sexual health have not changed at all. Technology has provided opportunities for just about anyone to produce and distribute sexual health messages electronically to a larger audience than ever. With this opportunity there is responsibility. Providing responsible sexual health information utilizing current technology will be one focus of this program. A history of sexual health content in film will be presented. It will begin in the early 1900's and bring us to the present day. The audience will see examples of early film, black and white with a very limited audience. It will move chronologically to the present day, where we have almost an unlimited audience and the controversy is what is appropriate content. The issues of sexual health content and age appropriateness will be addressed. One of the important messages now is: now that technology has provided the ability to disseminate sexual health information to a wide audience at a low cost, how do we assure that we provide accurate sexual health information that is age appropriate? At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe three effects Film has had over the last 100 years on advancing the delivery of sexual health content.
2. explain how sexual science and technology can work together to advance sexual health.
3. identify aspects of the huge responsibility sexual health professionals have to create scientifically accurate, socially responsible, age appropriate content for the advancement of sexual health.
Sunday, April 13, 2008, 9-11 am, 2 hour CE
Douglas Braun-Harvey, M.F.T, C.G.P., The Sexual Dependency Institute of San Diego; Adjunct Professor, San Diego State University; and Michael A. Vigorito, M.A., Private Practice; San Diego Psychotherapy Services; Jewish Family Service, Integrated Services Program
Assessing Out of Control Sexual Behavior: Ending the Epidemic of Psychotherapist Premature Evaluation
Drawing from the fields of addictionology, mental health, sexology, and motivational interviewing, a clinically useful assessment can be completed to determine if specialized outpatient treatment for problematic sexual behavior is indicated. This comprehensive, sex-positive assessment provides a process for clients to discover their internal contradiction between current sexual behavior and their personal vision for sexual health. It integrates motivational enhancement techniques to determine and address the client's pre-contemplative or contemplative stages of readiness to change. Additionally, the assessment shifts the basis of the treatment goals from the therapist's diagnosis to the client's internal incongruity. The Five Fundamental Criteria for Assessing Sexual Dependency is a transtheoretical assessment model incorporating a series of interviewing steps that lead to the discovery and clarification of the client's sexual behavior self-discrepancies and motivation to change sexual health. This session will challenge participants to move towards a multifaceted etiological mechanism for OCSB to assess and plan treatment for a wide range of differing patterns of problematic sexual behavior. Participants will learn a sex-positive protocol to determine when and if specific assessment for out of control sexual behavior is indicated. Session leaders will review etiological determinants that lead to clinical criteria for developing a specialized treatment protocol for out of control sexual behavior. A sound assessment and treatment planning process is essential for improving treatment outcomes for OCSB. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe ways to minimize influence of therapist judgments, bias and assumptions about problematic sexual behaviors.
2. describe the appropriate use of the protocol: Fundamental Criteria for Assessing Sexual Dependency, for outpatient assessment for men presenting with consensual sexual behavior concerns.
Sunday, April 13, 2008, 9-10:30 am, 1.5 hours CE
Ava Cadell, Ph.D., Ed.D. Private Practice
Tantric Solutions for Sexual Concerns
This session relates to the scope of practices in LCSWs and MFTs, clinical sexologists, nurses and sex educators, providing them with valid, current, and effective information in diagnosing and treating sexual concerns in their clients in order to enhance intimacy in their relationships. This session includes experiential learning, growth and awareness on a physical, emotional, and sexual level with voluntary audience participation. No harm will come to participants. Furthermore, the session is backed up with scientific evidence on the elements of Tantra, mind-body therapies, imagery, meditation, body awareness and spirituality and healing. At the end of this session, participant will be able to:
1. describe the physical, mental, social, and sexual contributors of sexual concerns and distress.
2: describe how to help the healing process using the six Tantric elements.
Sunday, April 13, 2008, 9-10 am, 1 hour CE
Berta Davis, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Closeness Disease: A Couples' Model for Lack of Desire
Although lack of sexual desire has plagued sex therapists for many decades, psychological impediments for sexual pleasure is still not fully comprehended. In this presentation a theoretical model to explain lack of sexual desire will be presented. The concepts of enmeshment and abandonment are the foundation for this model and will be explained and demonstrated. Treatment modalities include learning the dialogue of intimacy, and helping the couple move from oneness to twoness while still retaining oneness At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. describe the four taboos in the dialogue of intimacy and identify the appropriate techniques to deal with them.
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