67th Annual Conference

Wednesday, February 24

6:30 – 7:45 P.M.

Mitchell Hochberg Memorial Public Education Event

Featured Speaker: Esther Perel, M.A., LMFT

--Why does great sex so often fade for couples who claim to love each other as much as ever?

--Why does good intimacy not guarantee good sex?

--Why does the transition to parenthood so often spell erotic disaster?

--Can we want what we already have?

The story of sex in committed modern couples is one that often tells of a dwindling desire that includes a long list of sexual alibis, claiming to explain the inescapable death of Eros.  The absence of imagination, the proliferation of pornography and affairs, the overwhelming expectations placed on adult intimacies, as well as a lack of understanding of the nature of erotic desire all contribute to the predicament.

In this lecture, Esther Perel probes the intricacies of love and desire, how they relate and how they conflict. We examine the cultural pressures that shape domesticated sex and the puzzling inverse correlation between greater emotional intimacy and the loss of sexual desire. Bringing a cross-cultural pulse to the paradoxical relation of domesticity and erotic desire, we explore the obstacles and anxieties that arise when our quest for secure love conflicts with our pursuit of passion.

Esther Perel, M.A., LMFT Marriage and family therapist, educator and master trainer, is author of Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence. Translated into 25 languages, this global bestseller took the 2009 Society for Sex Therapy and Research Consumer Award. Fluent in nine languages Ms. Perel is one of the most respected voices on erotic intelligence and an acknowledged international authority on couple therapy, cross-cultural relations and culture and sexuality. She is a member of the American Family Therapy Academy and the International Society for Sex Therapy and Research.

Register to attend this event.