Using sexually explicit material in a therapeutic context

Abstract

For most of us, sex is a subjective, lived experience that is as unique as our genetic make-up, our upbringing, our thoughts, values, feelings, beliefs and ideas. It is through our erotic interactions, or the absence thereof, that we form aspects of our fluid and mutable erotic paths and identities. Despite the proliferation of sexual imagery throughout our culture, many of us still struggle with what sex means to us, what we do, how we experience it and what that says about who we are as people. Some who struggle with this may seek the services of a psychosexual sex therapist. This paper aims to explain how such services function, why they are necessary and how the use of sexually explicit material, in some psychosexual therapeutic contexts, can help unravel the mixed responses we have to sex and our social conditioning, and enhance our overall relationship to eroticism, pleasure and general well-being.

Keywords::

• sex
• sexuality
• sexually explicit material
• therapy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. Tiefer (2006) explains the restricted dominant model in sexology that overrides genuine explorations of sexuality within the field of sex therapy.

^2. The following case studies are derived from clients whose identities have been changed and offer an amalgamation of some of the more common themes that present in sex therapy.

^3. See Appendix 1.

^4. ‘They’ is used as a pronoun intentionally for clients whose gender identity sits outside the gender binary of strictly male/female.

^5. See Appendix 1.

^6. See Appendix 2.

^7. See Appendix 1.

^8. See Appendix 1.

^9. See Appendix 1.