Introducing compassion focused psychosexual therapy

Abstract

Psychosexual therapy has undergone numerous developments since the introduction of behavioural therapy for sexual difficulties by Masters and Johnson in the 1960s. We argue that theory and practice from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) offers a novel and relevant development to existing approaches to psychosexual theory and practice. CFT presents a theory driven, flexible, transdiagnostic and integrative way of understanding, formulating and treating general mental health problems. In this paper we propose that the underlying theory from CFT integrates well with existing approaches to psychosexual therapy, and offers some helpfulways of formulating sexual problems to present a coherent rationale for treatment strategies. We also argue that some additional CFT treatment strategies already used in general mental health settings are appropriate and helpful for those experiencing sexual difficulties. This paper outlines how CFT can be theoretically integrated with existing psychosexual therapy.