Cutting edge research on the neuroscience of infant and child development shows that early parent-child interactions of emotional attunement or misattunement can result in chronic stress patterns, internal working models of relationship, and attachment styles that directly impact an individual’s capacity for intimacy and sexual pleasure as an adult. The objectives of this presentation are to provide a therapeutic model that synthesizes the relevant research from developmental psychoneurobiology and sexology and to offer a bodymind approach to sex therapy. Issues addressed include: How secure, insecure-anxious, and insecure-avoidant attachment styles are related to romantic love and eroticism; how attachment style determines ability to deal effectively with stress in a relationship; how mutually attuned non-verbal communication with a partner nourishes empathy and intersubjectivity and fosters emotionally gratifying sexual experience; and how therapists can orient couples to a more implicit level of relating, utilizing breath and body awareness to enhance emotional attunement, sexual desire, and satisfaction. Concluding remarks show that the sexual self, sexual health, and sexual satisfaction cannot be separated from issues of personal growth, authenticity, and ability to take pleasure in the emotional, physical, and sexual intimacies of a relationship.
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: None disclosed
Sydney, Australia, April 2007
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