What is psychosexual therapy?

The aim of psychosexual sex therapy is to help improve the physical intimacy between you and your partner and to overcome or manage any sexual difficulties you may be experiencing. Psychosexual therapy is designed to help support you to feel more comfortable when having sex. 
 

Psychosexual therapy involves examining the mind to understand the physical and emotional factors that can sometimes cause sexual difficulty. It is interpretive therapy using history and examination to explore unconscious thoughts and feelings.
 

Why do people have psychosexual therapy?

Many people can experience issues when having sex at some point in their life. Some people manage to overcome the difficulties themselves, while for others, the sexual issues can develop further, causing a lot of unhappiness and distress.
 

What can Psychosexual therapy be used to treat?

There can be various causes for sexual difficulties, and psychosexual therapy can be used to identify them. The various causes for sexual difficulties may be:

• psychological (depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions)
• physical (illness, disability/chronic illness, surgery, accident or medications)
• emotional (unresolved grief, unhappiness in the relationship)
• situational (certain situations or environments)

Psychosexual therapy can be used to treat a range of common sexual problems. These include:

• Loss of libido
• Painful sex
• Vaginismus
• Vulval pain
• Orgasm problems
• Erectile dysfunction
• Premature ejaculation or delayed ejaculation
• Relationship issues as a result of sexual difficulties
• Tokophobia (fear of child birth)
• Vulvodynia
• Persistent unexplained vaginal discharge
   

What happens in a psychosexual therapy session?

A specialist will listen to you describe your problems and assess whether the cause is likely to be physical, psychological or both.

Each therapy session is confidential and you can decide to see a sex therapist by yourself or with your partner, it may be better for you both of you to attend.

Talking about your experiences will help you get a better understanding of your situation. The therapist may also give you tasks and exercises to do with your partner in your own time.

Sessions usually last for 30 - 50 minutes. You may be advised to have weekly sessions or to see your therapist less frequently, such as once a month.
 

What can be done to prepare for psychosexual therapy?

You may like to write a list of problems related to your sex life and try and identify what may be causing them, prior to beginning your psychosexual therapy sessions.