Compassionate passion: Coping with religious trauma countertransference during sex therapy - 2023 WAMFT Conference

Compassionate passion: Coping with religious trauma countertransference during sex therapy

Session Description

Conversations about religious trauma come with the growing recognition of how several religions, particularly those with evangelical emphasis, can have detrimental impacts to a person’s sense of self. This has most noticeably been highlighted in affiliation with the LGBTQIA+ community but can easily be expanded to reflect on all sexualities and genders, including those typically aligned with the heteronormative. A growing body of research shows positive correlation between history of religiosity or exposure to religious ideas of sexuality, shame and abstinence-based sex education, and physical manifestations of distress in people’s sexual expression and identities. This is true not just in clients. It is also present within the therapists who practice sex therapy, coping with their own histories and contexts. This conversation aims to rewrite these without messages of shame, instead emphasizing compassion in our shared efforts for healthy sexual experiences. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Identify 5 common examples of religious trauma and its influence on personal assumptions related to sex and gender
• Define and practice compassionate contextualization, and 
• Apply it in the context of sex therapy as a practitioner aiming to guide clients within their own sexual endeavors.