Conference Paper

Sex in humanistic psychology and psychotherapy: A community roundtable discussion.

Authors:
  • Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association
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Abstract

How do we make space for, and how comfortable are we, engaging in talking about the erotic? Many clinicians fear erotic transference or counter-transference as well as genuine attraction emerging in the therapy context and unconsciously bring shame about sex into the therapy room. The necessity of maintaining boundaries with clients is a given, yet psychology is still plagued by clinicians that face sanctions from sexual boundary violations with clients. Sex with clients is, of course, not allowed; however, avoiding discussion of sex in therapy can also be harmful. How can clinicians embrace human eroticism and move towards sex-positive and shame-healing work in the humanistic therapy encounter? A panel of vignettes on the continuum of sexual orientations, sexual fantasies and practices, distinguishing transference from genuine attraction (including how to manage both in an ethical manner), cultural variations in the understanding and experience of one's sexuality, kink-positive therapy with S&M dynamics, trans* and gender-fluid identities, followed by group discussion on the implications for training and supervision in working with erotically-charged developments in the therapeutic setting.

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