65th Annual Conference

Thursday, February 21

Early Bird Open Sessions

7:15 A.M. – 8:15 A.M.

Session 207

Sexual Intimacy: Lost and Found in Group

Chair:     

Allan Elfant, Ph.D., ABPP, CGP, FAGPA, Private Practice, State College, Pennsylvania

Presenters:

Sarah K. Brandel, Ph.D., The Women's Center, Vienna, Virginia

Trish Cleary, LCPC-MFT, CGP, FAGPA, Private Practice, Bethesda, Maryland

Group becomes a powerful catalyst for recovering lost interest in sexual intimacy when it honors losses and fears, reinforces emotional intimacy and sustains hope for change. Members often discover a deepening of desire for intimacy with significant others, family and friends when the group itself becomes the object of desire.

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Identify the ways in which sexual abuse and illness can extinguish sexual intimacy.

2. Explain how the group can best honor members’ losses and sustain hope for change.
3. Describe why group treatment offers the best promise for kindling interest in sexuality and intimacy.
 

Course References:

1. American Psychological Association. (1999). Special Issue on Psychology and Cancer. APA Monitor, 30 (6).
2. Group Psychotherapy for Psychological Trauma. (2000) Edited by Robert H. Klein and Victor L. Schermer. New York: The Guilford Press.
3. Large, Thomas R. (2005). Resistance in Long-Term Cancer Support Groups. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 55(4), 551-573.
4. Livingston, M. (1999). Vulnerability, tenderness and the experience of self-object relationship: A self psychological view of deepening curative process in group psychotherapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 49, 19-40.
5. Nitsun, Morris. (2000). The future of group. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 50: 455-72.
6. Nitsun, Morris. (2006). The group as an object of desire: Exploring sexuality in group therapy. Routledge, London and New York.