Health Q&A: Psychosexual Health

I had a very difficult upbringing in a strict religious household and was told that all sex was bad and to be feared. Consequently, I have grown up frightened of sex and haven’t been able to have a healthy sexual relationship. At nearly 30, I am desperate to find a way to move forwards

THE CONSULTANT PSYCHOLOGIST
As we grow up, we develop thinking patterns (cognitive schemas) that influence our emotions and behaviours significantly. If sex has been a taboo for a long time in your life, it is not easy to make a sudden shift to seeing it as good and to enjoy it. Therapy is one of the only ways of identifying and changing these schemas. I would urge you to discuss the problem with a Schema or CBT psychologist.

THE GP
The first step is finding a professional trained in psychosexual therapy to enable you to separate yourself from your parents’ ‘imprinting’. These beliefs belong to them alone and were either a cultural part of their own childhood, or else they were developed from their own child-rearing model, designed to control teenage behaviour. As we emerge from the confines of our childhood we blossom into our true selves.

THE HYPNOTHERAPIST

Early ‘conditioning’ from parents around sex affects many people into adulthood. Hypnotherapy works on a deep emotional level and can dramatically change such beliefs, so you begin to feel comfortable with your sexual self and understand that it is a very natural human activity. Once clients are relaxed in a hypnotherapy session, they can let go of the control their parents once had and shed old belief