Human Sexuality
Helen Hill MA MFT
Antioch University
hhill@antiochla.edu
Syllabus and Reader Location
• http://helenhill.wordpress.com/workshopsand-outreach/human-sexuality/
Basics
• Respecting boundaries
• Tolerating one’s own feelings and the feelings of
others
• Balance anxiety vs. intellectual pursuits
• Clinical relevancy
• Self-awareness
• Respecting Differences While Not “Selling Out”
– Culture, Religious, Sexual, Trauma
What I Want You to Get…
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Empathy for Clients and Self
Toxicity of Shame
Confidentiality! Confidentiality! Confidentiality!
We all eventually Come Out
Respect for the Power of Sexual Trauma
Sexism and Phobias
Sexual Autobiography
• Due Week 5
• Write a 7-10 page sexual autobiography, describing some of your
important sexual memories, fantasies, experiences, and/or relationships
from birth to the present. Please see some helpful questions below in the
guided meditation description for Week 4, and begin thinking about
possible answers now! You may choose to focus on your romantic
relationships, including challenges you have in that area. Use your sexual
journal to prepare for writing this paper, and you may even find yourself
using passages you have already written in your journal. You must use
proper APA style throughout, including direct quotations from at least
three sources. This project will be evaluated for:
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Your willingness to write authentically about your own felt experience;
Your ability to integrate insights from your chosen theoretical
perspective to make coherent sense of your experience.
You must choose one of three different approaches to apply to your
insights, throughout your paper:
Sexual Autobiography Cont…
A.
Psychoanalytic/object relations approach.
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Schnarchian approach.
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Drawing from theorists such as Freud, Klein, Winnicott, Mahler, and/or
Kernberg, focus on how your developing sexuality has functioned as the
engine of your individuation process. How do you think your early childhood
psychosexual development helped to shape your now-more-conscious
experience of your sexuality? A Jungian/archetypal approach that
incorporates at least one of the theorists above would also work well.
Apply your learning from Passionate Marriage in discussing your sexual
autobiography, where you might focus on your growing (or lessening)
differentiation in relationships, also incorporating other key concepts.
Feminist/postmodern/multiple oppressions approach.
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Emphasize how your experience of sexuality has been shaped and/or limited
by the multiple oppressions of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexism,
and/or racism, etc. Include, if relevant, how you have resisted the
oppressions you’ve experienced (see Wade, 1997). Sources may range form
The Clitoral Truth (Chalker, 2000) to Blum & Pfetzing (1997) (in the reader).
Or you can focus on how the “deployment of sexuality” through limiting
discourses has “constructed” your sexual identity (see Foucault, 1975/1978).
Human Sexuality Trx Plan
• Human Sexuality Treatment Plan—Concurrent with Weeks 6 through 8
– A client vignette will be posted on Antioch’s First Class system on Wednesday,
August 15th and you will then write a basic initial treatment plan for the client
described, which you will post online by November 16, midnight. You will then
comment on the treatment plans posted by your other two group members
no later than August 29th. Please point out the strengths of their efforts, then
offer constructive suggestions for how they might clarify or improve their
treatment plan. If you disagree with their diagnoses or interventions, then
explain why you disagree in a constructive, professional manner. Your
evaluation will based on:
• 1. Your diagnoses and justifications;
• 2.thoroughness of your treatment plan, goals and interventions;
• 3.and the quality and frequency of your online discussion and comments with your
peers. It is important to submit your treatment plan as soon as possible in order to be
able to adequately join in on the discussions.
• Sample treatment plans and guidelines will be provided in class
beforehand.
Final Paper
• Write a 7-10 page final paper, using one of the topics listed below (or a topic
of your choosing that I have approved in advance).
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Although it’s great to do some research and present solid information on your topic, this
is NOT solely a research paper. It is equally important to focus on your own
“countertransference” reactions to the topic, and how the topic is clinically relevant!
Please make the effort to metabolize the subject and make it your own. Make sure that your
paper follows correct APA format and that you have direct quotations from at least three
sources.
• In addition to information on your research topic, you will be evaluated on
your discussion of ALL the following items:
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5.
Relevance of the topic. How is your topic relevant to clinical work with clients?
Personal meaning. Why did you choose this particular topic?
Countertransference. What aspects of the topic trigger your feelings,
especially toxic shame? How did you work with the toxic shame and other
feelings while preparing to speak in front of the class or in writing your paper?
Treatment methods. Describe practical interventions that can be used to treat
the problem. Incorporate learning from throughout the class that would assist
you in clinical work regarding the issue you are presenting.
Racial/cultural/sexual diversity. Include some learning about how the
phenomenon you are exploring would be viewed, as applicable, by people
from diverse races, cultures, social classes, genders, and sexual orientations.
Final Paper Cont…
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Possible topics to investigate (feel free to consider others not mentioned here):
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Female Sexual Arousal Disorder
Dyspareunia
Retarded Ejaculation
Premature Ejaculation
Sexual Problems in Chronic Illness
Sexual Compulsivity
Relationship with the Shadow
Internet Sex Compulsions
Prostitution
Sex during Pregnancy
Menopause
Asexuality
Specialized issues for LGBT individuals
Sex Toys
Frequency of Sexual Behaviors
Sexual Abuse in Adulthood
Masturbation
Orgasmic Disorders in Women
Vaginismus
Erectile Dysfunction
Gender Dysphoria
Sex Therapy with Aging Adults
Relationship with the Soul-Figure
Sexualities in Mythology
Childhood Sexual Trauma
Ethnic Variations on Sexualities
Sex during Parenthood
Tantra
Sex and Object Relations
Transvestite Identity Leather/Kink/BD-SM/Fisting
HIV and Sex
Sexual Abuse in Childhood
Therapy with Rape Survivors
Fetishes
Materials
Required Readings (Use these citations in your papers.)
• Books:
– Chalker, R. (2000). The clitoral truth: The secret world at your
fingertips. New York: Seven Stories Press.
– Zilbergeld, B. (1999). The New Male Sexuality, Revised Edition. New
York: Bantam.
– Rudacille, D. (2006). The riddle of gender: Science, activism, and
transgender rights. New York: Anchor Books.
– Schnarch, D. (1997). Passionate marriage: Keeping love & intimacy
alive in committed relationships. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
• Plus Reader – Available Through the Bookstore??????
• Optional book:
– Yaber, W. L., Sayad, B. W., & Strong, B. (2009). Human sexuality:
Diversity in America (7th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Schedule
• Week 1 :Philosophical/Psychological Framework,
Multiple Oppressions, Creating a Safe Space, Sexual
Continuums, and Sexual Anatomy
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Racial/Ethnic/Cultural Variations on Sexuality.
Emphasis on Self-Awareness.
Creating a Safe Container for Class Discussion.
Theme of Coming Out.
Sexual Continuums and Identities.
Drawing Anatomy from Imagination.
Schedule Cont…
• Week 2 :History of Sexuality, History of Sexology,
Heterosexual Female Sexuality & Sexism
– History of Human Sexuality.
– History of Sexology
– Postmodern Critique of Sexology. Feminist Critique of
Early Sexology.
– Exploration of Heterosexual Female Sexuality.
Schedule Cont…
• Week 3— Heterosexual Male Sexuality & Schnarch’s Key
Concepts
– Heterosexual Male Sexuality.
– Schnarch’s Key Concepts.
• Week 4— Making Schnarch Practical; Preparation for Writing
Your Sexual Autobiography.
– Making Schnarch Practical.
– Guided Meditation: Preparation for Writing Your Sexual
Autobiography.
– HOMEWORK:
• Your midterm sexual autobiography is due in class next week (see
above).
Schedule Cont…
• Week 5— The Treatment of Sexual Trauma and Rape;
– Interventions for Working with the Trauma of Sexual Abuse.
• Sexual trauma is ubiquitous throughout our culture amongst all different
sexual orientations and gender identities. Lecture/discussion on the clinical
use of transference and countertransference in working with survivors
articulated by Davies & Frawley (1994), including the eight different
“child/parent” positions they describe in the handout. We will also consider
Allan Wade’s exploration of the healthy aspects of client “resistance.” How is
this use of the term “resistance” different and/or similar from the
psychoanalytic use of the same word? We will focus on sexual trauma in both
childhood and adulthood, including experiences of rape. We will discuss our
own “countertransference” feelings related to sexual abuse, and explore the
challenge of working with clients who have been traumatized while we still
may be processing our own traumas from childhood and/or adulthood. Over
the coming weeks, we will respectfully broaden the concept of sexual trauma
to include the experience of LGBT individuals growing up in a heteronormative
world, as discussed by Rudacille (2006). These explorations will also help
prepare you to write about some of the more painful aspects of your sexual
history for your midterm paper.
• Required Reading for Next Class:
– Bring your DSM-IV if you have one
Schedule Cont…
• Week 6— Learning to Think Clinically: Treatment of
Sexual Disorders, STI/HIV/AIDS Awareness; Preparation
for Treatment Planning Online Exercise
– Learning to Think Clinically About Sexuality and
Intimate Relationships.
– Treatment of Sexual Disorders/DSM-IV Diagnosis.
– STIs/HIV/AIDS.
• HOMEWORK:
– Online treatment planning exercise — Must be posted online
by Wednesday November 16.
– Peer feedback due online by Wednesday November 23.
Schedule Cont…
• Week 7— Gay Male Sexuality & Culture
– Mythological/Historical Foundation for Modern
Gay Identity.
– The Trauma of Growing Up Gay.
– Gay Identity Development and Coming Out.
– Variations of Contemporary Gay Male Sexuality.
– Gay Men of Color.
– Gay Romantic Relationships.
– Gay-Affirmative Psychotherapy.
Schedule Cont…
• Week 8 — Lesbian Sexuality & Culture
– Mythological/Historical Foundation for Modern
Lesbian Identity.
– Finding Lesbian Soul.
– Lesbian Early Childhood Dynamics.
– Lesbian Identity Development and Coming Out
– Variations of Contemporary Lesbian Sexuality.
– Lesbians of Color.
– Lesbian Romantic Relationships
– Lesbian-Affirmative Psychotherapy.
– Preparation for Treatment Planning Online Exercise.
Schedule Cont…
• Week 9— Transgender Identities
– Clarifying terms and concepts.
– Mythological/Historical Foundation for Trans Soul
and Identities.
– Trans Early Childhood Dynamics.
– Trans Identity Development and Coming Out.
– Variations of Contemporary Trans Experience.
– Trans-Affirmative Therapy.
Schedule Cont…
• Week 10 — Bisexual, Fluid, Queer & Undefined Sexualities
• Clarifying terms and concepts. What is the difference between
“bisexual,” “fluid,” and “queer” sexual identities? Discussion about
the positive meaning people experience around particular
identities, such as “bisexual,” as well as the choice that some
individuals make to avoid “labels.”
• Mythological/Historical Foundation for Bisexual Identities.
Lecture/discussion about bisexuality throughout history. Many of
the figures considered important in gay/lesbian history were
actually, by modern standards, bisexual. This includes men in
ancient Greece as well as the Samurai culture of Japan. More
recently, Alfred Kinsey revolutionized thinking about bisexuality
with his Kinsey scale of 0-6, and through his research found most
people somewhere toward the middle rather than at the extreme
ends. He himself identified as a “3.”
Questions?
• Contact Info:
– Helen Hill MA MFT
– hhill@antioch.edu
– Phone: 310-779-7795
– Website: http://www.helen-hill.com
– Blog: http://helenhill.wordpress.com
– Art site: http://www.new-gallery-of-art.com