How do cultural changes such as the increasing lustful possibilities of our liquid modernity affect ‘romantic’ values as psychotherapists and counsellors - and, in turn, affect how they work through their clients’ relationships? Do they embody values from a previous era that are inappropriate for the era we are in now, which some term ‘post-romantic’? For example, do they really privilege monogamous relationships? There again, do those psychotherapists who advocate polygamy really want others to legitimize their own desire to have affairs? How wary should one be of accepting such prevailing theories as Freud’s nuclear family romance and his ‘ordinary unhappiness’? Is anyone value-free regarding romanticism/post-romanticism and should they be? Is ‘to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part’ still an ideal worth working towards or more an ideological imprisonment? This book seeks to explore recent research on how notions of romanticism and post-romanticism affect therapeutic practices. Love, Sex and Psychotherapy in a Post-Romantic Era is a significant new contribution to psychotherapy, and will be a great resource for prospective and current clients, trainee and professional therapists, academics, researchers, and advanced students of Psychology, Psychotherapy, Philosophy and Human Behaviour. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling.

This book provides a contemporary exploration of psychoanalytic theory and its application to therapy with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer relationships, challenging heteronormative practice and introducing new perspectives on working with gender and sexual diversity. In this wide-ranging collection, international contributors draw on key aspects of couple psychoanalytic theory and practice, whilst also expanding hetero and mono-normative frames of reference to explore the nature of relating in open, closed and poly relationships. Developments in regard to gender and sexuality within the contexts of family and culture and an examination of same-sex parenting are also included, as are psychosexual considerations and the process of aging. A major focus of the book is the importance of the therapist’s own gender and sexuality in the clinical encounter and how to manage adjustments in approach to counter the dominance of heteronormative thinking in practice. The first book of its kind to incorporate an in-depth examination of same sex, queer, bi-sex, trans and queer relationships in regard to psychoanalytic thinking and practice, Same-Sex Couples and Other Identities is a vital resource for psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists, counsellors and practitioners working with a diverse range of clients.

This book offers a detailed road map for overcoming sexual and relationship impasses originating from painful childhood experiences. Large numbers of adults with histories of childhood trauma and neglect suffer persistent relationship and sexual difficulties. Unfortunately, most have failed to receive adequate help with emerging from these deep and complex problems. Coming Home to Passion: Restoring Loving Sexuality in Couples with Histories of Childhood Trauma and Neglect explores the enduring impacts—physiological, psychological, and behavioral—of childhood trauma and neglect. Author Ruth Cohn, drawing on 25 years of experience working with trauma survivors and their partners and families, lays out a practical and actionable course for recovery in clear, accessible language. This book provides direction and hope to those with trauma backgrounds while also serving as a unique resource for professional readers. Integrating in-depth information on attachment and relationship, trauma and neglect, and sexuality, Cohn details a practical, hands-on treatment approach for revitalizing love, health, and passion.

The sexual revolution: an evocative term, but what meaning can be given to it today? How does 'sexuality' come into being and what connections does it have with the changes that have affected personal life on a more general plane? In answering these questions, Anthony Giddens disputes many of the dominant interpretations of the role of sexuality in modern culture. The emergence of what the author calls plastic sexuality - sexuality freed from its intrinsic relation to reproduction - is analysed in terms of the long-term development of the modern social order and social influences of the last few decades. Giddens argues that the transformation of intimacy, in which women have played the major part, holds out the possibility of a radical democratization of the personal sphere. This book will appeal to a large general audience as well as being essential reading for students and professionals.

This accessible, practical, and thoroughly updated second edition introduces and presents how emotionally focused therapy can be used effectively across all three modalities, couple, family, and individual therapy, with clients from a diversity of backgrounds. Responding to critical updates in the field, this second edition once again follows Emily, an EFT therapist, to demonstrate how EFT can be used in practice. With updated references, research, and terminology throughout, this new edition reflects recent theoretical and practical updates by refocusing the model toward therapist interventions, such as the "EFT Tango," rather than the client change events, making it more accessible for readers to learn. It addresses the current need to integrate explicit socio-cultural sensitivity into EFT by including diverse case studies, explicit discussion of how the model can be applied with a diversity of clients, and how EFT therapists can integrate cultural sensitivity and attunement across multiple and diverse identities, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, neurotypicality, class, and religion. It can also be used alongside a practical new workbook, Workouts for Stepping into Emotionally Focused Therapy, providing therapists with all the tools needed to confidently integrate this approach into their practice. This book is an essential read for all marriage and family therapists in practice and in training as well as counselors who are looking to use EFT with couples, families, and individuals.

This volume makes Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT) widely accessible to therapists of different orientations and to therapists in training. It provides clinicians with practical tools, an experiential tour through case examples, and simple guidance to step into EFT. An overview of the change events includes both client processes and therapist interventions moment-to-moment. 'In Stepping into Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Key Ingredients of Change, each step and stage of EFT is laid out in a practical and theoretically simple manner that extends beyond what therapists need to do, to helping therapists grasp what experiential therapy is, providing moment-by-moment examples of how to engage clients emotionally, and how to foster emotional engagement between partners.'- From the Foreword by S. Johnson and A. Lee

Gender in a Transitional Era addresses a range of issues relevant in current gender and sexuality studies scholarship which span many disciplines. The contributors prioritize the critical thinking that continues to support the notion that we, as a society, still have a ways to go toward full gender equality in all spheres of life. This collection positions marginal voices at the center of complex gender issues in today’s society. Broad thematic topic areas include parental identities, advice, and self-help; gender performances and role expectations in media; interacting within organizational and social spaces; and tensions and negotiations on politics, health, and feminisms. Though there is still much work to be done concerning an array of gender equality issues, scholars in this collection interrogate a transitional era of gender in which changes are evident, yet challenges persist.

A theoretically and empirically rich exploration of universal questions, this book examines the interplay of three distinct behavioral systems involved in romantic love. This integrative volume will be of interest to both researchers and clinicians.

Sex is cheap. Coupled sexual activity has become more widely available than ever. Cheap sex has been made possible by two technologies that have little to do with each other - the Pill and high-quality pornography - and its distribution made more efficient by a third technological innovation, online dating. Together, they drive down the cost of real sex, and in turn slow the development of love, make fidelity more challenging, sexual malleability more common, and have even taken a toll on men's marriageability. Cheap Sex takes readers on an extended tour inside the American mating market, and highlights key patterns that characterize young adults' experience today, including the timing of first sex in relationships, overlapping partners, frustrating returns on their relational investments, and a failure to link future goals like marriage with how they navigate their current relationships. Drawing upon several large nationally-representative surveys, in-person interviews with 100 men and women, and the assertions of scholars ranging from evolutionary psychologists to gender theorists, what emerges is a story about social change, technological breakthroughs, and unintended consequences. Men and women have not fundamentally changed, but their unions have. No longer playing a supporting role in relationships, sex has emerged as a central priority in relationship development and continuation. But unravel the layers, and it is obvious that the emergence of "industrial sex" is far more a reflection of men's interests than women's.

Therapeutic exercises to help couples nurture patience, forgiveness and humour. Here is a workbook containing the very best exercises that any couple can undertake to help their relationship function optimally; exercises to foster understanding, patience, forgiveness, humour and resilience in the face of the many hurdles that invariably arise when you try to live with someone else for the long term. Couples are guided to have particular conversations, analyse their feelings, explain parts of themselves to one another and undertake rituals that clear the air and help recover hope and passion. The goal is always to unblock channels of feeling and improve communication. Not least, doing exercises together is – at points – simply a lot of fun.