ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter lays out the objectives of the book to integrate and broaden the perspectives and repertoires of couples therapists and sex therapists and to describe the relevant neurobiological research that can enhance the growth potentials of both disciplines. This book offers a holistic approach to sexual concerns that shows that our sexual selves are neurobiologically intertwined with our emotional development and attachment histories, an important part of physical health and a core aspect of subjective well-being. The author maintains that couples and sex therapists’ personal growth, particularly with regard to the interplay between their emotional and sexual lives, is essential to do good work with couples. She gives a brief personal account of her own history and the personal development route that inspired her professional growth that has become an integral part of the work she defines as Embodied Relational Sex Therapy. This work integrates Gestalt therapy, breath work, psychodynamic psychotherapy, clinical sexology, present-moment mindfulness, the transformative powers of pleasure, and studies in relational neurobiology. This integrative therapeutic process is presented along four spectrums where the apparent opposites define two ends of an interrelated continuum: the Problem-Transformation Spectrum, the Attachment-Sexuality Spectrum, the Pain-Pleasure Spectrum, and the Cognitive-Somatic-Experiential-Behavioral Spectrum.
