ABSTRACT

Sex, God, and the Conservative Church guides psychotherapy and sexology clinicians on how to treat clients who grew up in a conservative faith—mired in sexual shame and dysfunction—and who desire to both heal and hold on to their faith orientation. The author first walks clinicians and readers through a critique of Western culture and the conservative Christian Church, and their effects on intimate partnerships and sexual lives. The book provides clinicians a way to understand the faulty sexual ethic of the early church, while revealing the hidden mystical sex and body positive understanding of sexuality of the Hebrew people. The book also includes chapters on strategies for a new sexual ethic, on clinical steps to heal religious sexual shame, and on specific sex therapy interventions clinicians can use directly in their practice. Finally, it offers a four step model for healing religious sexual shame and actual touch and non-touch exercises to bring healing and intimacy into a person's life.

chapter 1|23 pages

Christianity and Sex

What’s Going On?

chapter 2|15 pages

How Did Christian Sexuality Get Derailed?

chapter 3|19 pages

American Consumerism

chapter 4|23 pages

Hope for Clients

The Lost Message of a Sex-Positive God

chapter 5|17 pages

In Pursuit of a Sex-Positive Gospel

Strategies for a New Sexual Ethic

chapter 6|13 pages

Clinical Applications

Four Steps to Healing Religious Sexual Shame

chapter 7|26 pages

Sex Therapy Interventions

The Anatomy of Intimacy

chapter 8|19 pages

Sex Therapy Interventions

The Practices of Intimacy

chapter |8 pages

Epilogue

Are You a Renegade Therapist?