New Directions in Sex Therapy

Peggy J. Kleinplatz, Ph.D. is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Please see www.optimalsexualexperiences.com. She is a Certified Sex Therapist and Educator. Her research focuses on optimizing sexual experience, with a particular interest in sexual health in older adults, people with disabilities and chronic illness and other marginalized populations. Kleinplatz has edited or authored six books including New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives, winner of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counsellors and Therapists (AASECT) 2013 Book Award and with A. Dana Menard, Ph.D. Magnificent Sex: Lessons from Extraordinary Lovers, winner of the 2021 Society for Sex Therapy and Research Consumer Book Award. In 2015, Kleinplatz received the AASECT Professional Standard of Excellence Award. In 2021, Kleinplatz received the Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionary Award from the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health of the Medical School, University of Minnesota. In 2021, she became a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Her research, writing, teaching and clinical work have been intended to challenge, expand and diversify the field of sex therapy.

Introduction: The State of the Art in Sex Therapy Part 1: Critiques of Conventional Models of Sex Therapy 1. A Critique of Heteronormativity in Sex Therapy 2. First Do No Harm: A Critique of the Lack of Health Professional Training on Sexuality 3. Ethics and Sex Therapy: Principles, Challenges, and Controversies 4. Capable of Risk: Sexual Risk-Taking and the Dignity of Marginalized Women 5. Teaching Parents to Become Sex Educators: A New Role for Sex Therapists Part 2: New Alternatives/ Innovations in Sex Therapy 6. Taking a Sex-Positive History 7. Concepts and Practice of Intimacy-Based Sex Therapy 8. Approaching Your Highest Sexual Function in Relationship: A Reward of Age and Maturity 9. Walking with a Couple into a Dominatrix’s Dungeon: Therapeutic Presence and the Self of the Therapist 10. The Good Enough Sex (GES) Model: A Couple Approach Focused on Sharing Pleasure 11. Narrative Relational Sex Therapy: Applying an Intersectional Lens 12. Sex Therapy with Survivors of Sexual Abuse 13. Humanistic-Experiential Sex Therapy (HEST) 14. Pleasures and Pressures of Polyamory: A Psychodynamic Perspective 15. Engaged and Alive: Treating Sexual Concerns through Modern Group Analysis 16. Keys to the Sexual Mysteries: An Integrative Model for Exploring Clients’ Stories 17: An EFIT Approach to Sexuality and Physical Disability: Enlivening Eros with the Uniquely-Bodied 18. Promoting Optimal Sexual Experiences in Group Therapy: An Alternative to “Stopping Too Soon and Settling for Too Little”