Sensate Focus The Foundation Of Sex Therapy - The Role Of Sex Therapy: Womens Sexual Health

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Sensate focus: The foundation of sex therapy

The cornerstone of sex therapy is a series of behavioral exercises called sensate focus exercises. These highly structured touching activities are designed to help you overcome performance anxiety and increase your comfort with physical intimacy. Sensate focus training also helps teach you about your partner's body as well as your own.

Initially, the couple agrees to refrain from intercourse or genital stimulation until the later stages of treatment. This helps dispel anxiety that's built up around sexual performance and allows you to establish new patterns of relating. Couples and therapists also negotiate how frequently the couple will perform the assigned exercises between therapy sessions.

Occasionally, couples are reluctant to complete the homework assignments. This too can be revealing. By delving into the roots of this resistance, the therapist can better understand the origins of the problem.

How it works

Sensate focus techniques progress through several stages. The therapist will provide a detailed individualized scenario for the couple to follow at each level, but here is an overview.

Sensate focus I. To start off, you're encouraged to spend about an hour caressing each other's naked bodies front and back, from head to toe, but avoiding the breasts and the genitals. You and your partner take turns being the giver and receiver of pleasure so you can concentrate fully on each sensation and your reaction to it. However, if this creates too much anxiety or is too intimate for the couple, the therapist may recommend beginning simply by holding hands or giving each other back rubs. During these initial exercises, the emphasis is on the giver touching in a way he or she enjoys, barring anything that is uncomfortable or unpleasant for the receiver.

Sensate focus II. These exercises incorporate the lessons from sensate focus I, but the focus expands to the kind of touch the receiver wants. He or she takes an active role in explaining or showing his or her partner what kind of touch is enjoyable. Partners still take turns being the giver and receiver during each session.

Sensate focus III. Building on the previous sessions, these exercises expand to include touching the breasts and genitals, but not exclusively. The couple is encouraged to continue focusing on the sensations involved and on communicating what they enjoy and want sexually, rather than the goal of orgasm.

Sensate focus IV. At this point, the couple is allowed to enjoy mutual touching and stimulation to the point of orgasm. If all goes well, the couple can proceed to intercourse.

Depending on the needs of the couple, the sex therapist may also use other behavioral techniques and treatment strategies.

Last updated:	January 23, 2007