Healing Painful Sex covers the following symptoms and conditions: Pelvic floor dysfunctionVulvodynia, pudendal nerve pain, and clitorodyniaPelvic organ problems, endometriosis, painful bladder, and irritable bowelSkin disorders, such as lichen sclerosisHormonal, surgical, and post-cancer causes of sexual pain Millions of women suffer from sexual and pelvic pain in America today, yet it is frequently misdiagnosed?or not diagnosed at all.In Healing Painful Sex, Deborah Coady, MD and Nancy Fish use their combined professional expertise as a doctor and therapist who specialize in sexual pain to provide readers with an understanding of its many causes and how to treat them, from both a physical and psychological standpoint. Organized into three parts?naming the problem, getting a diagnosis, and overcoming pain?Healing Painful Sex includes medical checklists, illustrations, vignettes based on interviews with women and their healthcare professionals, treatment options, and guidance for moving forward after healing. Coady and Fish speak honestly and directly to sexual pain sufferers' experiences, helping them address the problem of chronic pain, understand and prevent misdiagnoses, define medical terms and conditions, and regain sexual joy. Comprehensive, multi-dimensional, and deeply insightful, Healing Painful Sex offers women the tools to successfully take on the many challenges of sexual pain and move toward a healthy, happy future.

For the 20 million people who suffer from pelvic pain: the completely revised and updated guide for making sex feel good again. Pelvic pain can lead to embarrassment, silence, and misdiagnosis. It can hurt your relationship as well as your sense of self. Tackling the stereotypes, myths, and realities of pelvic pain, this easy‑to‑understand, accessible guide will help readers get the help they need and deserve, offering key information on: The most urgent questions about the causes of pelvic pain The more than twenty causes of pelvic pain How to find the right doctor The relationship between pelvic sex and genetics The newest in treatment for pelvic pain and pelvic pain indications How psychological factors can contribute to and reduce pelvic pain Featuring groundbreaking research and stories from people who've lived it, When Sex Hurts provides the tools you need to stop hurting and start healing.

A book for women suffering from vaginismus (painful sex as a result of clenching vaginal muscles) and loved ones who want to help them. What exactly is vaginismus? What causes it? Most importantly: how you can heal from it! This book will help you understand vaginismus and take you through a healing step-by-step process that you can take in your own time. Discover more about your individual situation through exercises, techniques and workbook questions that will guide you towards having an enjoyable sex life. Topics also include: Psychological processes behind vaginismus, understanding sexual arousal and the biology of vagina. You will learn how beliefs and traumatic memories can change. Learn relaxing breathing techniques, explore body-focused exercises and discover ways in which you can share your healing journey with a partner. The author, Maree Stachel-Williamson, includes the extremely honest story of her personal experience of vaginismus and what helped her get rid of it. Comprehensive, informative and straightforward - this book will give you the tools you need to take the matter into your own hands.

Bronze Medal Winner of a 2009 National Health Information Award Stop your pelvic pain . . . naturally! If you suffer from an agonizing and emotionally stressful pelvic floor disorder, including pelvic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, prostatitis, incontinence, or discomfort during sex, urination, or bowel movements, it's time to alleviate your symptoms and start healing--without drugs or surgery. Natural cures, in the form of exercise, nutrition, massage, and self-care therapy, focus on the underlying cause of your pain, heal your condition, and stop your pain forever. The life-changing plan in this book gets to the root of your disorder with: A stretching, muscle-strengthening, and massage program you can do at home Guidelines on foods that will ease your discomfort Suggestions for stress- and pain-reducing home spa treatments Exercises for building core strength and enhancing sexual pleasure

This book is aimed at women readers experiencing unwanted pain with sex who: - Suffer with pain that has been difficult to diagnose - Are interested in resolving their pain - Want to enjoy pain-free sex - Desire more pleasure in their bodies, lives, and relationships - And are searching for ways to help themselves Coauthored by a women's health physical therapist and a sexuality educator, The Pleasure Prescription outlines an approach that many women may find counterintuitive: that their own sexual pleasure may be a pathway to overcoming pain. Research shows that decreasing pain allows for more pleasure; conversely, the stories highlighted in this book suggest that increasing pleasure can help diminish a woman's experience of sexual pain. The Pleasure Prescription is the culmination of more than fifty years of the authors' combined experiences with women in their respective practices. It includes case studies, diagrams, and the latest scientific research. Each chapter ends with "prescriptions" designed to guide readers through the healing process.

An amazing, proven, 10-point plan that explains noninvasive, life-altering practices to help you permanently heal your mind, body, and spirit. Millions of people suffer from some form of chronic pain (whether it be physical, emotional, or existential), and this discomfort silently drains too many of us of our highest potential and our power. Living in a state of unending pain pushes people to the margins of their own lives and robs them of direct access to their most authentic, essential, worthy selves. Pain, ironically, renders too many beautiful voices mute; it cripples the body, leaving too many dancing souls lost. And nobody knows this better than Peter Bedard. One night, seventeen-year-old dancer, Peter Bedard, died in a traffic accident. The white-bearded messenger waiting at the gate of heaven sent him back to Earth with a task to help others heal. After a decade of debilitating physical and emotional suffering, Peter uncovered an empowered, new way of healing chronic pain without medicine—convergence healing. In his groundbreaking approach, Bedard invites us to look at our pain as the greatest source of wisdom we will ever have. Instead of medicating it, trying to break with it, or somehow outwit it, he invites us to surrender to our pain so that we may finally integrate our losses, our transitions, our heartaches, and our mortality and make peace with the everlasting truth of who, uniquely, we truly are. Through the author’s own near-death experience and other compelling stories and case studies, Convergence Healing offers a whole new body-mind paradigm for those interested in living a balanced, well-integrated life.

Although sexual issues frequently arise in therapeutic practice, mental health professionals are often uncomfortable and poorly equipped to address them. Written by an author who is both a psychologist and sex therapist, this practical guide provides information, tools, and exercises to increase the confidence and comfort of the mental health professional called upon to treat sexual issues during the course of therapy. The book is based on the premise that the therapist must be comfortable with his or her own sexuality in order to offer appropriate treatment. This guide discusses the characteristics of healthy sexuality-for both client and therapist-and explores the reasons that may underlie a therapist's discomfort with addressing sexual issues. Using case studies and sample dialogues, it covers a multitude of common and unusual sexual problems, couple's issues, questions that parents may have about sex, working with LGBT clients, sex for survivors of trauma, sexuality and aging, sexual pain disorders, and how to assess whether more extensive sexual therapy is needed. The guide demonstrates how therapists in different modalities can incorporate treatment of sexual problems into their practice, and covers relevant ethical issues. Included is a downloadable set of practitioner's resources that includes worksheets 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. Key Features: Discusses how to comfortably and effectively discuss, assess, and treat clients' sexual concerns Supported by case studies and therapist/clinician dialogues Includes "Step Into My Office" sidebars taken from the author's own experience Provides downloadable resources including assessments, worksheets, and client handouts

"Fifty percent of adult women have some form of sexual dysfunction at some point of their lives, preventing them from enjoying soul-satisfying sex. Such was the case with Laura Zam, who suffered the blame, shame, and embarrassment of being a terrible lover. For her, sex meant physical pain, zero desire, and emotional scars from being molested in her early years. However, in her late forties, after meeting and marrying the love of her life, Zam was determined to finally fix her sensual self. The Pleasure Plan is what happened when she decided to challenge her hopelessness. In partnership with her initially reluctant husband, she visited a variety of healers and tried an array of pleasure-enhancing methods: from dilators and dildos, to hypnosis and hosting a sex brunch, to cleansing chakras, to making love to her husband in front of a geriatric Tantric goddess. Packed with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of prescriptive advice, this book chronicles Zam's insight as she confronts many issues-from mismatched libidos to female erection enlightenment. Throughout this journey, she and her husband grow as individuals and as a couple, both in and out of the bedroom"--

Pelvic pain is more ubiquitous than most people think and yet many suffer in silence because they don't know there is help or they are too embarrassed to seek it. This book looks at the variety of problems that can lead to pelvic pain, and how to address the issues when they arise.