64th Annual Conference

Friday, March 9

Morning Workshops

10:00 A.M.-1:15 P.M.

Workshop 53

Sexual Intimacy: Lost and Found

Chairs:

Sarah Brandel, Ph.D., Psychotherapist, The Women’s Center, Vienna, Virginia

Trish Cleary, M.S., LCPC-MFT-ADC, CGP, FAGPA, Private Practice, Chevy Chase, Maryland

Lost interest in sexual intimacy can be difficult for most people, but perhaps especially for survivors of sexual abuse and major medical illness. Group offers the best treatment practice in which to honor members’ losses, explore and reinforce their capacity to rediscover desire, and to sustain hope for change.

experiential, sharing of work experiences, didactic, demonstration

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:
1. Identify the ways in which sexual abuse and illness can extinguish sexual intimacy.

2. Describe the promise of group as a best treatment practice for stimulating interest in sexuality and intimacy. 

3. Explain how group can best honor members’ losses and sustain hope for change.

Course References:  

1. Bleichmar, H. (2003). Attachment and Intimacy in Adult Relationships. Attachment theory and the psychoanalytic process.  London and Philadelphia: Whur Publishers.

2. Livingston, M. (1999). Vulnerability, Tenderness and the Experience of Self-Object Relationship: A self psychological view of deepening curative process in group psychotherapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. 49, 19-40.

3. Sherman, A., Mosier, J., Leszcz, M., Burlingame, G., Ulman, K., Cleary, T., Simonton, S., Latif, U., Hazelton, L., & Strauss, B.  (2004). Group Interventions for Patients with Cancer and HIV Disease:  Part I:  Effects on psychosocial and functional outcomes at different phases of illness. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. 54, 29-82.