A couples’ relationship education intervention examining sexual mindfulness and trait mindfulness

Abstract

Much of the research on mindfulness training has focused on individuals and little has evaluated mindfulness training and education in the context of romantic relationships. Mindfulness practiced by committed partners has been linked to greater empathy, perspective taking, and overall marital satisfaction. However, no relationship education program includes training on how mindfulness may benefit a couple’s sexual relationship. Sexual mindfulness is a new area of research that preliminarily has shown that sexual mindfulness may benefit individuals and couples above and beyond mindfulness alone. To build on the small amount of research that indicates mindfulness and sexual mindfulness may benefit romantic relationships, we compared heterosexual couples in a mindfulness-only intervention comparison group (n = 66 individuals) to couples in a sexual-mindfulness intervention treatment group (n = 83 individuals). Couples in both groups were taught about mindfulness, communication, and effective problem solving. Participants in the treatment group were given addition information about sexual mindfulness. The two-session, six-hour intervention found that both groups improved in all metrics. The sexual-mindfulness group made greater improvements in sexual mindfulness awareness. Implications about how sexual mindfulness may benefit relationship education programs and therapists’ practice are discussed.

LAY SUMMARY

This intervention two-treatment design compared the use of mindfulness only and sexual mindfulness. Both treatments showed positive results. The sexual mindfulness treatment showed higher sexual awareness than mindfulness alone. Participants reported that the classes were fun, interesting, and taught several skills that were valuable and improved their relationships.

Keywords:

• Mindfulness
• sexual mindfulness
• relationship education
• sexual satisfaction
• relational satisfaction
• communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The 6-month follow-up assessment was missing one item of the relationship satisfaction scale, so alpha was computed using 3 items instead of 4.