Human Sexuality

1. Human Sexuality Helen Hill MA MFT Antioch University hhill@antiochla.edu

2. Syllabus and Reader Location • http://helenhill.wordpress.com/workshops-and-outreach/human-sexuality/

4. 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

5. What I Want You to Get… • 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

6. 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: • 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:

7. Sexual Autobiography Cont… • Psychoanalytic/object relations approach. • 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. • Schnarchian approach. • 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. • 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).

8. 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.

9. 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). • 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: • 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.

10. Final Paper Cont… • Possible topics to investigate (feel free to consider others not mentioned here): • Female Sexual Arousal Disorder Orgasmic Disorders in Women • DyspareuniaVaginismus • Retarded Ejaculation Erectile Dysfunction • Premature Ejaculation Gender Dysphoria • Sexual Problems in Chronic Illness Sex Therapy with Aging Adults • Sexual Compulsivity Relationship with the Soul-Figure • Relationship with the Shadow Sexualities in Mythology • Internet Sex Compulsions Childhood Sexual Trauma • Prostitution Ethnic Variations on Sexualities • Sex during Pregnancy Sex during Parenthood • Menopause Tantra • Asexuality Sex and Object Relations • Specialized issues for LGBT individuals Transvestite Identity Leather/Kink/BD-SM/Fisting • Sex Toys HIV and Sex • Frequency of Sexual Behaviors Sexual Abuse in Childhood • Sexual Abuse in Adulthood Therapy with Rape Survivors • Masturbation Fetishes

11. 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.

12. Schedule • Week 1 :Philosophical/Psychological Framework, Multiple Oppressions, Creating a Safe Space, Sexual Continuums, and Sexual Anatomy • 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.

13. 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.

14. 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).

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.”

21. 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