Exploring Desire and Intimacy

This integrative book is like having a wise supervisor in the room with you. Stop "fixing" your clients--engage them in their own healing through the Four-Dimensional Wheel of Sexual Experience. Gina Ogden guides you in helping your clients explore the full range of their sexual issues and challenges-including couple communication, erectile dysfunction, vaginismus, low desire, affairs, trauma, religious proscriptions, pornography use, and more. Part I offers strategies that correspond to the core knowledge areas required for certification as a sexuality professional, while Part II puts these innovative approaches into action through following five case examples from seasoned practitioners. The numerous user-friendly elements, such as quizzes, worksheets, and "hot tips," will help you see the larger picture of an issue, become fluent with a diversity of sexual identities and behaviors, and expand your ability to offer safe, ethical, evidence-based therapy.

Gina Ogden, PhD, LMFT, is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, an award-winning sex therapist, supervisor, researcher, and founder of the 4-D Network for Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit. She conducts retreats, trainings, and online courses in how to use the Four-Dimensional Wheel. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts (www.GinaOgden.com and www.4-DNetwork.com).

I: Innovative Approaches: Strategies for Change and Transformation through the Four-Dimensional Wheel of Sexual Experience 1. Asking New Questions of Our Clients: Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit 2. Creating Safe Space and Effective Rituals for Change 3. Inviting Clients Out of Their Chairs to Access Body Intelligence 4. Helping Clients Concretize Abstract Concepts to Expand Awareness 5. "Re-Membering"--Helping Clients Move from "No!" to "Yes!" 6. Core Knowledge Areas and More: What We Need to Know about Desire and Intimacy 7. Making Your Own Wheel: Adapting it to Your Office and Your Unique Strengths II. Practical Applications: Protocols for Challenging Clients Using the Four-Dimensional Wheel of Sexual Experience 8. Naomi--Discovering the Heart in Sexual Desire 9. Steve--Erectile Dysfunction Meets Two Objects 10. Deborah and Danny--Confronting the Voices of Vaginismus 11. Ben--From Porn Addiction to Conversations with God 12. Marnie--Low Libido, Trauma, and the Wheel 13. Making Your Own Practical Applications--and Handouts for Your Clients Appreciations Index