What is Sexual Focusing Therapy?
The use of prescribed sexual focus training methods to treat sexual dysfunction in both sexes was the brilliant creation of American sexologists Masters and Johnson, a major innovation and breakthrough in modern sex therapy in the early 1970s that shook the dominance of psychoanalytic therapy in the field of sex therapy for more than half a century. In fact, sexual experiences have been used since ancient times to relieve patients of their sexual problems. Thousands of years ago, a Greek man deprived of sexual power by the “gods” sought help at the temple of Amoroti, where a prostitute trained in the art of sexuality, a nun (the earliest stand-in for a sexual partner in sex therapy), shared with the Greek a sort of religiously ritualistic sexual experience with the Greek, and in so doing, treated the Greek’s erectile dysfunction.
The use of behavioral prescriptions in therapy is not the only method of sex therapy; family therapy and group therapy specialists have also experimented with “homework” or other specially arranged forms of interaction. These developments reflect advances in the level of sex therapy, which tends to repeat and use experiential factors to improve human behavior. This therapeutic approach departs from the traditional apprehension or cognitive approach to psychological conditioning, and the behavioral therapy of sexual experience has become the primary and fundamental therapeutic technique of sex therapy. This designated principle of experiential behavior therapy has been widely disseminated and applied worldwide for the past 20 years.
One of the goals of the therapy is to shift the goal of the partners’ sexual activity from accomplishing sexual response to giving and receiving sexual pleasure and delight from each other. Instead of focusing on erections and orgasms, their attention is focused on the experience of sensual feelings in an effort to improve destructive dissociative tendencies or spectator attitudes, which is known as Sexual Focusing Therapy. It requires both partners to abide by the following principles: recognize that sexual dysfunction is a matter for both partners, not just one as they may think. Both parties should act with the conviction that they have a sincere desire to solve the problem with each other. No sexual relations outside of marriage should take place during the treatment period. To organize work and life, it is better to get rid of work and household worries hospitalization or hotel treatment in order to have time, emotions and a suitable place to complete training assignments. In this way, they will not have any time and work pressure to leave behind all the unpleasantness of the past and make a concerted effort to move forward. Since patients with sexual dysfunction are prone to anxiety and ideological stress, or fear of sex due to failed intercourse, sexual intercourse should be abstained from during behavioral therapy, so that the patient is treated in a very relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. This will give the cerebral cortex a chance to properly adjust and recuperate. The doctor’s decision on when to resume sexual intercourse should be based on the progress of the training, and the doctor’s arrangements should be followed with regard to medication and alcohol consumption.
Training should be done at a time suitable for both partners and under good environmental conditions, such as no interference from others, a warm and comfortable room with soft and dim light (to be able to see each other’s reactions), and can be accompanied by relaxing music. It is best to be nude, but if full nudity will make the patient feel uneasy and uncomfortable, then be less nude or semi-nude at the beginning, and then fully nude after getting used to it. The position to both sides can look at each other’s whole body, and take into account the active side of the touch to act easily and naturally is appropriate. Generally use the passive side of the supine or prone, active fondling side sitting or lying on its side, the two sides to take the face-to-face position. When the male side stroking the female side can also be used without demand position, that is, the male back against the head of the bed or bedding and sitting, legs apart, the female back against the male side sitting between its legs, when both men and women can easily operate, the female back against the male side of the chest can feel a sense of security and reliability. Training time can be long or short, generally an hour a day is appropriate, both sides take turns to act as the active or passive role. A total of 15 – 30 sessions are scheduled, depending on the progress of the treatment. As stroking needs to enhance sensual sensation and reduce the discomfort caused by dry stroking, massage cream or lubricant can be used. The use of these chemically inactive, sticky, slippery, inert lubricants can also eliminate the patient’s aversion and discomfort to genital secretions, as they are similar in physical properties and will no longer be aversive to secretions after getting used to contact with lubricants of similar properties.
The second sexy concentration training therapy
I. Sexual dysfunction
No.1 party
Treatment method
Family sexy concentration training therapy: this therapy, refers to the behavior therapy as the theme of guidance treatment in the patient’s family. This therapy is under the guidance of the doctor self in the sexual behavior to focus on the feeling of pleasure appreciation, so as to eliminate anxiety and worry, so that the natural state of sexual reproduction of the psychological and sexual behavior of the combination of treatment of mental sexual dysfunction. The therapy is simple and easy to use, but skilled techniques are needed to deal with the actual problems of sex encountered by some couples in sex therapy. Sexual concentration training therapy is a technique for the treatment of sexual dysfunction that is not only adapted to the treatment of impotence, premature ejaculation and non-ejaculation in men, but also to the treatment of sexual indifference, difficulty in sexual intercourse, vaginal spasm and lack of orgasm in women.
The basic principle of Sexual Concentration Training: Masters and Jodson believe that most people with sexual dysfunction are caused by anxiety, especially due to operational anxiety during the occurrence of sexual intercourse. Because of the fear of failure of sexual intercourse, mental tension during coitus, this anxiety and fear of tension undermines the sexual behavior as a natural instinct, and over time, the wrong behavior pattern of sexual dysfunction is formed. Sexual concentration training therapy is a re-education process that eliminates anxiety in a short period of time and results in the re-emergence of normal sexual behavior as a natural instinct. The patient couple should re-learn the correct sexual behavior pattern from the beginning, starting from mutual contact, touching, hugging, step by step, according to the prescribed time work, after each step feel concentrated to experience the pleasure given by both sides to each other, so that confidence and pleasure increase together, so that anxiety eliminated. In the process of learning the correct sexual behavior pattern, the original sexual dysfunction is naturally overcome.
The basic program of erotic focus training: non-genital erotic focus training; genital erotic focus training; vaginal accommodation; vaginal accommodation and activity.
The purpose of Sexual Focus Training is to provide a method that allows couples to gradually rebuild their sexual relationship, which consists of a series of small steps that couples can use to solve problems in stages. The physician helps the couple identify the specific factors that maintain sexual dysfunction and plans to help the couple address the dysfunction. Special techniques are provided for couples to deal with specific problems.
Principles and instructions for sexual focus training
1. The physician should ensure that the instruction is clear. This includes the couple’s understanding of the methods used and sometimes the need to repeat the instruction and, if necessary, for the patient to reach a level of repeated understanding.
2.Obtain a detailed treatment response. At each stage of treatment, the couple’s response to the treatment should be obtained, asking them how it went, what they felt and what problems they had. Without knowing this, it is difficult for the doctor to be able to continue treatment with the patient couple.
3. Check the reasons for failure. If you can identify the cause of failure, is often the key to achieving my success in treatment. At the same time, the couple can also play a role in enhancing the interest and understanding of the treatment plan.
4, constantly revise the treatment plan. In response to the treatment situation, constantly revise the treatment plan, which is an important principle. Because in behavioral therapy, if a phase of treatment is not successful, you can not move on to the next phase of treatment, but to extend or revise the previous phase of the treatment plan.
5. Establish a “retrospective phase” of treatment. From the very beginning of treatment, a certain time should be designated as a “retrospective phase”. For example, tell the couple that they should review their progress and problems after three treatments. This can help the couple feel emotional and confident about their treatment. The doctor can also use this time to pause and analyze and modify the treatment plan.
6. Follow medical ethics and keep patients’ confidentiality. Most of the issues discussed during the treatment period are related to the patient’s private life, the doctor should follow medical ethics and maintain confidentiality for the patient.
7, the treatment arrangements to consult the couple’s views. Such as how long and how many times the treatment is carried out, what time to schedule a follow-up appointment, etc.
8, the patient’s spouse to participate in the discussion of the treatment plan. The patient’s spouse must participate in the discussion of the development of a new treatment plan is the key to success, should put the previous failure behind, and can treat sexual dysfunction as a major event in life, to ensure that both spouses have plenty of time.
9, face up to the difficulties in treatment. Couples in the treatment process, should anticipate the difficulties encountered in the treatment, not the failure and difficulties as a serious relapse, but should be seen as a good opportunity for the treating doctor to help and understand their difficulties.
Problems related to pre-treatment disharmony and resentment between spouses may often prevent the pleasant sensations brought about by the couple’s physical contact with each other. In such cases, what couples need is general marital therapy rather than sexual therapy. However, some couples with minor relationship problems can simply be resolved before a sex therapy program begins.
One spouse is sexually frigid and has a severe fear of physical contact, which is one reason why non-genital sexual concentration training cannot be performed. Couples with this fear can be instructed to perform relaxation training to relieve fear on a regular basis once or twice a week. Spousal contact can begin with hand-holding and a clear prohibition of any more intimate or extensive physical contact. When both partners are finally able to perform sexual concentration training, they should still wear a small amount of underwear.
Sometimes couples have seemingly limited sexual problems, their sexual relationship is otherwise satisfactory, and if occasional premature ejaculation occurs, then a complete sexual treatment plan is not necessary, and a simple discussion can be taken to resolve the problem. Clinical experience has shown that most couples should be counseled to spend at least 1 – 2 weeks in the early stages of a sexual treatment program on non-genital and genital sex-focused training before special techniques are required to address their particular problem. Sexual concentration training is a method that focuses on making the spouses express love for each other rather than intercourse through several parties such as sight, touch, smell, and meditation. They provide and accept each other’s physical pleasure. It should be clear that the purpose of sensual focus training is to provide and receive pleasurable feelings from each other in caresses. Sexual arousal caused by sexual concentration training can be eliminated by relaxation and rest.
Stages of treatment
Phase I: Non-genital eroticism training
Specific methods and instructions
1, first of all, with the consent of both spouses, during the implementation of this treatment plan, no sexual intercourse, nor mutual fondling of the genitals and the female partner’s breasts, until the completion of several stages of sexy mutual influence.
2, the caressing phase of the treatment should be carried out at the place and time desired by both spouses, and ensure that there is no interference from other parties, not to talk about anything unrelated to the treatment, in order to concentrate on the caressing and experience.
3, the position of the caress can be more flexible, the basic requirement is that both sides can look at each other’s whole body.
4, non-genital sexy concentration training began, one spouse should try to touch each other’s whole body, but not fondle the genitals of both sides and female breasts.
5, the main purpose of touch therapy is to make both spouses begin to build confidence and intimacy, however, can not exceed the scope of behavior allowed by the caressing stage.
6. Depending on the specific response of the couple to decide how many caresses to perform, the progress of the treatment is largely based on the number of caresses that have been performed, and 3 treatments per week is reasonable.
7, A small amount of lubricant can be used on the skin during stroking, such as the use of stroking comfort baby lubricant, talcum powder and other topical aids.
8, the stages of family therapy are artificially divided and arranged, so the length of treatment time can vary depending on the progress, generally the total time of the first treatment is about 1 week.
9, both spouses in sexy concentration training and daily life should try to use the personal pronoun “I”, such as “I want to know, I do this how you feel”, rather than saying “you do not seem to like this “, to avoid vague communication.
After a few sessions, when one spouse feels and enjoys the sensual focus training, the other spouse should be asked for explicit advice, such as “I like to experiment with these caressing exercises, do you need them?” rather than giving vague, ambiguous advice. If one spouse’s attitude toward petting is positive or general, the other spouse should accept the invitation. If one partner is negative about fondling, the other should encourage the other to try to explain the reasons.
After the first session of non-genital eroticism training has been given and the spouse’s completion of the training is known, the treating physician can prepare the couple for the next phase of treatment. Point out that the couple needs to review in detail what progress they made in the first session. This makes it easier for the treating physician to ask questions in the next session that would otherwise be difficult for the physician to ask for fear of causing embarrassment to the patient. As mentioned earlier, the treating physician can make personal predictions about what will happen in the future based on the information obtained during the initial evaluative counseling and the couple’s response to the initial instruction.
After 3 – 4 sessions of non-genital sensual focus training, the couple should communicate their feelings to each other in a straightforward manner, and the doctor should begin counseling at this time. It is best to begin the consultation by asking each partner what progress has been made since the previous session. The treating physician should then ask each spouse for details about what has happened and how they have responded to treatment, including both positive and negative experiences. Care should also be taken to avoid blunt statements such as “that’s good” or “that’s not good”. It is important for the treating physician to know what is going on at the time of treatment, not only to obtain a wealth of information, but also to encourage communication about the sexual relationship between the spouses by discussing family therapy in detail.
Response to therapy: Couples’ response to non-genital sexual focus training may be positive or negative, or more often a combination of both. For some couples, this training provides an impressive and positive experience, which may lead to changes in the behavior of both spouses. In therapy, such changes are common and obvious, such as couples appearing closer and more affectionate. However, the initial response may also be negative, or the couple’s behavior may not remain within the permissible range. At this point, couples should be asked about the following.
1. Is there a lack of spontaneous action in touch therapy, i.e., does it seem artificial and unnatural?
2. Is there sufficient time for treatment into more than one session?
3, is there a violation of the rules for sexual intercourse?
4. Did the touch therapy cause negative feelings? Such as one or both spouses are nervous, easily afraid, bored (trance) or find the spouse stupid, etc.
5. Can one spouse allow the other spouse to make their own demands?
It is important that the treating physician help the couple recognize their reactions and relate their sexual difficulties to the causative factors that can be identified in the evaluation of sexual counseling, and if suggestions for further treatment can be made, the couple can turn to these suggestions for complete treatment. If the couple does not have a good experience and results from the non-genital sexual focus training, it will make subsequent treatment more difficult. In this case, the treating physician should advise the couple not to proceed to the next phase of the treatment plan, but to continue repeating the above treatment until there is a good response, after the physician’s explanation and guidance.
Phase 2: Genital Sexual Focus Training
Specific treatment methods and instructions
During this phase of the treatment plan, both spouses should continue to exchange ideas and requests with each other. Initially, the spouse should also continue to take an active and passive stroking role with the other spouse at each session, and rotate this role. Sexual intercourse should not occur during this phase.
During stroking, the man’s attention should shift from one part of the woman’s body to another, and the woman should let her spouse know how she feels. The couple should adopt the position they want to be in, and the “non-demanding position”, where the woman sits in the man’s arms, is recommended. Patients with impotence can often begin to feel an erection in this position.
It is also necessary for patients with premature ejaculation to learn this training method before using the motion-stop technique or the squeeze technique. Couples who have already used lubricants during non-genital sensual focus training can continue to use them during touching.
When Genital Sexual Focusing Training is successfully performed in family therapy, the active and passive roles of the couple should be maintained in a rotating manner.
Response to therapy Some couples can immediately appreciate the experience of genital erotic focus and quickly become sexually aroused when their doubts are dispelled. In some patients sexual intercourse may occur, which is not true.
Negativity is also common, and even though couples may have had several successful non-genital erotic focused feelings, sexual anxiety may be especially aroused at this stage, which is usually caused by sexual arousal without intercourse. Mild anxiety may disappear after a few strokes, and in severe cases may lead to avoidance or even discontinuation of family therapy, or cause one or both partners to become increasingly bored in therapy. Negative reactions are manifested in two main ways.
1, sexual intercourse open prohibition, which may be a healthy response to sexual desire, but this may also be due to the inability to control sexual excitement and sexual behavior anxiety, boredom and cause a negative reaction to stop genital touching and direct sexual intercourse.
2, negative experiences such as anxiety, irritability, lack of concentration or even pain during touching, which will can lead to avoidance of this phase of treatment.
Treatment of negative reactions
1. It is recommended that couples repeat family therapy. This recommendation is advisable when the negative reactions are mild.
2. If these reactions are not immediately manifested, avoidance may be used in order to reduce negative attitudes and concerns. Some factors may cause negative reactions, including general inhibition, guilt, anxiety about the genital appearance or smell of the sexual act, secretions, and fear that one spouse will not be able to control it.
3, To prevent distraction and improve sexual arousal, sexual fantasy may be recommended.
4.If sexual anxiety is caused by a part of the treatment program that does not seem to play a major role in resolving the couple’s sexual dysfunction, this part of the treatment may be abandoned.
Stage 3: Vaginal Accommodation
Once the genital sensual focus experience is established, the next step in the treatment plan is to gradually engage in sexual intercourse through the intermediate phase of vaginal accommodation. One of the goals of this phase of treatment is how to reduce some of the anxiety that couples experience as a result of sexual intercourse.
Specific treatment methods and instructions for vaginal accommodation can begin once the couple has had experience with genital erotic focus training. The position during vaginal accommodation should be chosen experimentally. A female supine position, or a lateral position with the female partner guiding the activity, is generally recommended. In conclusion, whatever position is chosen, the treating physician should describe it in detail. Vaginal accommodation can be performed for 4 – 7 days, focusing on experiencing sexual pleasure and improving the ability to control orgasm.
Response to vaginal accommodation: It is not uncommon for impotent patients to relapse during this phase, because once the penis is inserted into the vagina, the patient feels the need to maintain an erection and cause anxiety. These problems are usually temporary if the male partner is able to maintain a satisfactory erection during genital sex-focused training and is also able to train the penis to swell and subside. Patients with premature ejaculation often have anxiety and difficulty with penile insertion into the vagina because the penis is often unable to control ejaculation after insertion, leading to a premature end to sexual activity. In fact, premature ejaculation is a problem that most men experience and should be trained repeatedly until they can control themselves. Penile insertion into the vagina is of course an important stage in the treatment of women with vaginal spasms.
Stage 4: Vaginal accommodation and movement
In this stage, the couple can perform penile activity while the vagina is accommodated, which is the final stage of the external behavioral treatment program.
Formula #2
Non-demanding Sexuality Focused Training 7-Day Therapy: This therapy is a complement to the Home Sexuality Focused Training Therapy. Because of the longer time required for home sensual concentration training, it differs from home sensual concentration training in that the basic point is to achieve sexual euphoria without allowing to go beyond the range. This therapy is adapted to the treatment of impotence, non-ejaculation and sexual indifference in women.
On the first day, the non-genital sexual concentration training starts with the husband and wife in a “non-demanding position”, with the husband touching the wife, and then after 10 – 20 minutes, switching positions, with the wife touching the husband. -20 minutes, both partners can relax and fall asleep.
On the second day, the couple spends 30 minutes talking about their past and current experiences in sex.
On the third day, the wife strokes the husband for 10 – 20 minutes, and then the husband strokes him for 10 – 20 minutes each time.
On the fourth day, the husband strokes first, at which point attention should be paid to appreciating other parts of the body.
The fifth day, first by the wife caressing the husband, 10 – 20 minutes after the couple change positions, the husband caressing his wife.
On the sixth day, the two sides do not touch, for a second exchange.
On the seventh day, they can touch each other in any way, but no sexual intercourse is allowed. If, through a week of training treatment, both partners do feel euphoric, the purpose of the sensual focus training has been achieved. If there is no progress, the training needs to be repeated for one week.
Formula #3
Treatment method
Analytical diversion therapy: It is itself psychoanalytical method. The doctor understands the patient’s psychology, helps the patient comprehend his or her underlying motives, psychological symptoms, and behavioral roots, and then finds the correct and effective way to channel past mental activity into normal mental activity. Psychoanalytic therapy is suitable for men with sexual dysfunction such as impotence, premature ejaculation and non-ejaculation, but also for women with sexual frigidity and vaginal cramps.
The founder of psychoanalytic therapy was the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, who became a school of psychotherapy around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
Principle: The basic theories of psychoanalysis are: latent intention theory, repression, and sexual desire. Its analysis method is based on psychodynamic theory, and advocates that through introspection, free association, psychic release, and empathy, mental traumas and experiences suppressed in the “subconscious” can be excavated or exposed, and the root cause of the disease can be discovered, and the patient’s self-consciousness can be enlightened to help the patient completely understand and reacquaint himself, thus changing Freud believed that the subconscious mind is the root of the disease. Freud believed that the subconscious is a “giant stream” of forgotten experiences and basic impulses and internal drives, and that it shapes human behavior without the conscious mind being aware of it. What we can experience as conscious thought and awareness is only a small part of the human mental life. Freud compared human mental activity to an iceberg floating in the sea, the small peak of the iceberg exposed on the surface is the conscious part, while submerged under the surface is the majority of the iceberg, that is, the subconscious. Some human emotions, desires and intentions, if reality does not allow them or if they are internally condemned against conscience, can be repressed in the subconscious, easily causing anxiety, fear and guilt. In fact, in clinical practice, unforgotten memories that have occurred in the conscious mind can also cause anxiety and fear.
Analysis and guidance methods
1. Establish a cordial doctor-patient relationship. Patients suffering from yang palsy do not know how to talk to the doctor because it is their “private life” and they want to be treated in a “mysterious” way. Therefore, when they first come to the doctor, they always squeak, stammer, and stammer, and they only want to say something. The first step is to understand the patient’s state of mind and create an environment and atmosphere where he or she can talk freely without any structure. The first step is for the doctor to break the uncomfortable and unnatural deadlock. The doctor should not ask him what kind of impotence he has, but should take the initiative to ask him a few questions, such as how old he is, which unit he is from, what kind of work he does, etc. From these very acceptable conversations, he should slowly move on to the subject of impotence that he initially mentioned, and claim to keep his secret and not to tell others without the patient’s consent. The main purpose is to make the patient trust the therapist and feel more comfortable to confide in him, so as to help in diagnosis and analysis. At the same time, the patient should be guided by the method, so that the patient knows that the therapist will be sympathetic, understand the patient’s situation and psychology, but will not laugh, look down, so do not be shy. Even if it is some weird, unspeakable dilemma, the healer will not be surprised and will help the patient to see what is going on. In this way, the patient can be encouraged to dare to talk and analyze what is the root of his illness.
Of course, the doctor should be aware of the patient’s patience and sensitivity. Adjust the patient’s receptiveness and increase it step by step, so that the patient can gradually adapt. Otherwise, the patient will lose the balance and collapse, making the treatment fail.
2. Establish the initial diagnosis and decide the treatment suitability. Based on the preliminary information, after having a general outline, we can screen out which symptoms are functional and which are organic, and whether we need to do any more tests. Generally speaking, those who have a short onset, have obvious psychological factors, and are young and middle-aged are more likely to have functional symptoms.