Speaking of Sex with Suzanne Iasenza: 4-Part Series

This is the first of the Speaking of Sex series.

Sex therapy has been a focus for Dr. Iasenza for many years. Her approach helps therapists guide clients facing intimacy challenges by identifying and rewriting conscious and unconscious negative sexual narratives. As a result, clients can reclaim intimacy in their erotic lives.

Dr. Iasenza integrates psychodynamic systems and cognitive behavioural sex therapy techniques to identify relationships between personal, social, cultural and familial sexual narratives.

In this webinar on sex therapy, you will explore how to expand restrictive models of sexual response and how to conduct a relational sexual history. You will also learn how to help clients expand their sexual repertoire.

Case material will illustrate how to integrate this approach to sexual therapy into general couple psychotherapy.

This is part of the Speaking of Sex series.

LGBTQ+ has become one of today’s most popular acronyms. The latest Gallup Poll finds that 5.6% of Americans overall—including one in six Gen Z people—identify as LGBT. Furthermore, 4% of adults are in open relationships engaging in consensual non-monogamy. And nearly half of adults are involved in some form of ‘kinky’ sex (BDSM) with many more fantasizing about it. In addition, 1% of the population identifies as ‘asexual’.

The typical graduate school experience may touch upon lesbian and gay people, but other ‘non-normative’ populations are rarely discussed. Nor are they framed in pathologizing terms.

In this workshop, we assume that sex/gender/relationship diversity is normal. You will learn about all types of LGBTQ+ clients and how their sexuality and relationship styles differ from heteronormative standards. We will discuss how these different populations came to be viewed as part of the LGBTQ+ community and what they have in common.

After this webinar, you will understand how to approach LGBTQ+ clients respectfully, how to help them, how to find resources, and when to refer to someone with more expertise. You will leave with expanded knowledge about populations that grad school didn’t prepare you for!

This is part of the Speaking of Sex series.

Sexual fantasies can provide clinicians with a window into the workings of the mind. In this webinar, we’ll use a psychoanalytical theoretical model developed by Joseph Weiss, M.D. and the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group. We’ll use this model to explore various ways sexual fantasies are constructed by minds that are singularly committed to safety.

Sexual excitement is inhibited by certain pathogenic beliefs connected to feelings of guilt, shame, and helplessness. Sexual fantasies enable us to disconfirm these beliefs and, as a result, safely allow sexual arousal to emerge.

Therapists can use the details of a patient’s sexual fantasies to infer a great deal about their core pathogenic beliefs. Together, we will delve into and analyze a range of sexual fantasies from ordinary to bizarre. These include sadomasochistic scenarios, exhibitionistic fantasies, and group sex fantasies.

This is part of the Speaking of Sex series.

Talk about sex…in the media, self-help books, everywhere…is happening more today than ever before. And increasingly, clients are comfortable discussing sexual issues in therapy. Though the “presenting problem” might be anxiety, trauma, depression, or couples communication, the related issues around sex may end up being revealed.

Therapists must now have the skills and confidence to address sexual issues in the course of ongoing therapy with all clients and often trauma survivors and their partners.

More details on this series coming soon!