Human Sexuality and Sex Therapy

Catalog description

This course is designed to help students develop a broad appreciation for the complexity of human sexuality and sex therapy. The aim is to understand the development and context of one’s sexuality and to enable the individual to sharpen his/her self-identity and clinical skills based on this knowledge. Moving beyond a “homework assignment” mentality of traditional sex therapy, students learn to think about sexual dilemmas as complex interpersonal and intergenerational realities. Sexual problems become but one of many important “elicitation windows” through which individuals and couples begin to view their sexual “problems” as developmental challenges and interlocking binds. We will compare and contrast this systemic focus with traditional cognitive-behavioral and analytic methods. Alternative views and categories of dysfunction, beyond the DSM-5, will be examined.