Description

Book Synopsis

Sexual Attraction in Therapy presents new findings from multiple perspectives into the complex phenomenon of sexual attraction in therapy. Detailed clinical examples and strategies from expert contributors demonstrate how therapists can engage with sexual attraction, when it arises, in positive ways that facilitate client progress and ensure appropriate professional conduct.

  • Challenges practitioners to think about sexual attraction as a normal dynamic developing through the unique intimacy of the therapy encounter
  • Presents new findings from research to enrich understanding of the lived experience of therapists and how they confront, avoid, make use of the process of sexual attraction
  • Provides clinical examples to highlight common challenges faced by practitioners, the strategies they use to overcome them and how they normalize the taboo' of sexual attraction to make positive use of it in therapy
  • Makes an important contribution to curren

    Table of Contents

    Notes on Contributors xi

    Acknowledgements xvi

    Editorial Introduction: An Encounter with Erotic Desire in Therapy xvii
    Maria Luca

    Part I Relational Perspectives on Sexual Attraction in Therapy 1

    1 ‘Hot Cognition in Sexual Attraction’: Clarifying, Using and Defusing the Dionysian in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapies 3
    Michael Worrell

    2 Sexual Attraction in the Therapeutic Relationship: An Integrative Perspective 22
    John Nuttall

    3 Existential Psychotherapy and Sexual Attraction: Meaning and Authenticity in the Therapeutic Encounter 38
    Michael D. Berry

    4 Knowing but Not Showing: Achieving Reflective Encounter with Desire – A Relational Psychoanalytic Perspective 53
    Doris McIlwain

    5 The Role of Psychological Proximity and Sexual Feelings in Negotiating Relatedness in the Consulting Room: A Phenomenological Perspective 67
    Paul Smith-Pickard

    6 An Acceptance Commitment Therapy Approach to Sexual Attraction 80
    Richard Blonna

    7 Addressing Sexual Attraction in Supervision 97
    Kirsten W. Murray and John Sommers-Flanagan

    8 Sexual Attraction in Conjoint Couple Therapy 115
    Steven M. Harris and Tina M. Timm

    9 Bound to the Mast: Reflections on Analytic Abstinence 131
    Andrea Sabbadini

    10 Why Can’t We Be Lovers? The Love-Obsessed Clients Who Stalk Their Therapist 137
    Maria Luca and Juliet Soskice

    Part II Research-Informed Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives on Sexual Attraction in Therapy 151

    11 Skilled Handling of Sexual Attraction in Therapy: A Grounded Theory of What Makes the Difference 153
    Anthony Arcuri and Doris McIlwain

    12 The Self-Preservation Society: A Discourse Analysis of Male Heterosexual Therapists and Discourses of Sexual Attraction 173
    John Penny and Malcolm Cross

    13 An Elephant in the Room: A Grounded Theory of Experienced Psychotherapists’ Reactions and Attitudes to Sexual Attraction 193
    Maria Luca and Mark Boyden

    14 Therapists’ Disclosures of Their Sexual Feelings to Their Clients: The Importance of Honesty – An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach 209
    Anna Marshall and Martin Milton

    15 Systemic Family Therapists’ Narratives on Sexual Attraction in Their Clinical Practice: A Narrative Analysis 226
    Desa Markovic

    Epilogue 242

    Index 249

Sexual Attraction in Therapy

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    A Paperback / softback by Maria Luca

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      Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
      Publication Date: 21/03/2014
      ISBN13: 9781118674338, 978-1118674338
      ISBN10: 1118674332
      Also in:
      Psychology: sexual behaviour

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Sexual Attraction in Therapy presents new findings from multiple perspectives into the complex phenomenon of sexual attraction in therapy. Detailed clinical examples and strategies from expert contributors demonstrate how therapists can engage with sexual attraction, when it arises, in positive ways that facilitate client progress and ensure appropriate professional conduct.

      • Challenges practitioners to think about sexual attraction as a normal dynamic developing through the unique intimacy of the therapy encounter
      • Presents new findings from research to enrich understanding of the lived experience of therapists and how they confront, avoid, make use of the process of sexual attraction
      • Provides clinical examples to highlight common challenges faced by practitioners, the strategies they use to overcome them and how they normalize the taboo' of sexual attraction to make positive use of it in therapy
      • Makes an important contribution to curren

        Table of Contents

        Notes on Contributors xi

        Acknowledgements xvi

        Editorial Introduction: An Encounter with Erotic Desire in Therapy xvii
        Maria Luca

        Part I Relational Perspectives on Sexual Attraction in Therapy 1

        1 ‘Hot Cognition in Sexual Attraction’: Clarifying, Using and Defusing the Dionysian in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapies 3
        Michael Worrell

        2 Sexual Attraction in the Therapeutic Relationship: An Integrative Perspective 22
        John Nuttall

        3 Existential Psychotherapy and Sexual Attraction: Meaning and Authenticity in the Therapeutic Encounter 38
        Michael D. Berry

        4 Knowing but Not Showing: Achieving Reflective Encounter with Desire – A Relational Psychoanalytic Perspective 53
        Doris McIlwain

        5 The Role of Psychological Proximity and Sexual Feelings in Negotiating Relatedness in the Consulting Room: A Phenomenological Perspective 67
        Paul Smith-Pickard

        6 An Acceptance Commitment Therapy Approach to Sexual Attraction 80
        Richard Blonna

        7 Addressing Sexual Attraction in Supervision 97
        Kirsten W. Murray and John Sommers-Flanagan

        8 Sexual Attraction in Conjoint Couple Therapy 115
        Steven M. Harris and Tina M. Timm

        9 Bound to the Mast: Reflections on Analytic Abstinence 131
        Andrea Sabbadini

        10 Why Can’t We Be Lovers? The Love-Obsessed Clients Who Stalk Their Therapist 137
        Maria Luca and Juliet Soskice

        Part II Research-Informed Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives on Sexual Attraction in Therapy 151

        11 Skilled Handling of Sexual Attraction in Therapy: A Grounded Theory of What Makes the Difference 153
        Anthony Arcuri and Doris McIlwain

        12 The Self-Preservation Society: A Discourse Analysis of Male Heterosexual Therapists and Discourses of Sexual Attraction 173
        John Penny and Malcolm Cross

        13 An Elephant in the Room: A Grounded Theory of Experienced Psychotherapists’ Reactions and Attitudes to Sexual Attraction 193
        Maria Luca and Mark Boyden

        14 Therapists’ Disclosures of Their Sexual Feelings to Their Clients: The Importance of Honesty – An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach 209
        Anna Marshall and Martin Milton

        15 Systemic Family Therapists’ Narratives on Sexual Attraction in Their Clinical Practice: A Narrative Analysis 226
        Desa Markovic

        Epilogue 242

        Index 249

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