What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know About Sex

While sexual issues frequently arise in therapeutic practice, mental health professionals are sometimes uncomfortable and ill-equipped to address the sexual concerns of their clients. Here is a practical guide for mental health practitioners on how to comfortably discuss, assess, and treat sexual issues that arise in practice. It is based on the premise that the therapist must be comfortable with his or her own sexuality in order to offer appropriate treatment. Written by an author who is both a psychologist and sex therapist, the guide provides information, tools, and exercises that will increase the confidence and comfort of mental health professionals called upon to treat sexual issues during the course of therapy. The book discusses the characteristics of healthy sexuality---for both client and therapist--and explores the reasons that may underlie a therapists discomfort with addressing sexual issues. Using case studies and sample dialogues, it explains how to treat a multitude of common and unusual sexual problems, couples issues, questions that parents may have about sex, working with LGBT clients and other forms of sexual diversity, sex for survivors of trauma, and how to assess whether or not an individual needs more extensive sexual therapy. The guide demonstrates how therapists in different modalities can incorporate treatment of sexual problems into their practice, along with coverage of relevant ethical issues. Also included is a downloadable workbook that contains a number of tools and client handouts that can be immediately put to use. Additionally, the book provides resources for more in-depth information and discusses collaboration with other health professionals.