DIANE GLEIM LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPIST AASECT CERTIFIED SEX THERAPIST & SUPERVISOR
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Do Erotic Interests Help Explain Sexuality?

4/15/2022

 
I was reminded of this piece of data recently: that self-identified heterosexual women watch and enjoy lesbian porn yet they do not seem to identify as lesbian, bisexual, or even bi-curious. That watching lesbian porn is not incorporated into the women’s sexual identity and they maintain their (presumed) heterosexuality. And the people around them allow them to watch lesbian porn without challenging their sexual identity or orientation. There have been many articles written about why this may be: that mainstream porn provides for the male gaze and that women are allowed more sexual fluidity are the commonly cited reasons. But I believe this is really just an example of an often-overlooked part of a person’s sexuality: one’s erotic interests.
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To the Wife Upset About Her Husband’s Porn Viewing

1/12/2022

 
Dear Wife,
​
You discovered your husband’s porn stash, looked at the history on his internet browser, looked at his phone, or otherwise discovered that he is watching porn. And it is porn that you dislike, maybe because you find it off-putting, believe it is demeaning to or exploitative of women, or just plain disgusting. Maybe it depicts sexual activities the two of you have never done or you will not do. So the two of you fought about it. Maybe you called him a sex or porn addict. The whole thing got scary and upsetting. And maybe he has already promised not to watch porn again but you found out he watched porn again. Maybe this is now the fourth or fifth time he has made and broken that promise. Cue more fighting and your demand that he go to therapy.
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Why "Happy Wife, Happy Life" Is Baloney

10/6/2021

 
I do not like the old adage, “Happy wife, happy life." And I know many other couples therapists who feel the same way.
​
I realize there is some research from 2014 that supports this idea. Hmph.

What I find troublesome is that we are not looking at why this research supports this adage. What are the couple dynamics at play? How did it come to be that the wife’s emotional state is considered more important than the husband’s? What are the beliefs and values that support this behavior? Where did those beliefs and values come from? How is this working out for both? A deeper dive is necessary. Or, what if the wife has clinical depression? What if the wife is a perfectionist? What if the wife has chronic anxiety? Because in these scenarios, no amount of the husband’s attempts to please her will decrease the effects of those conditions and "make" her happy.
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Sexual Desire Discrepancies: How to Communicate

9/21/2021

 
Let me tell you about a very common sexual dynamic I often encounter in my sex therapy practice.
​
Many couples have what is known as a desire discrepancy, where one partner has a “higher” desire for sex and the other partner has a “lower” desire for sex. After a certain point, this is the norm and not the exception in most long-term relationships despite whatever happened early on in their relationship.
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The Myth of "Sexual Incompatibility"

6/25/2021

 
In graduate school, while studying to become a therapist, I learned that couples fight about predictable issues on which the partners' views differ: parenting, finances, sex, household chores, extended family (like in-laws), and a few scattered other things. I was also taught that while the couple may tell you their fight is about the kids or money or even sex, it’s really about a bigger issue or dynamic, one that’s more subtle and difficult for most couples to identify. Bigger issues can include themes of power and control, autonomy, closeness vs. distance, and boundaries, for example.
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Here We Go Again: Sex Addiction Is in the News

3/31/2021

 
It’s only been two weeks since the mass shootings in Atlanta. Let me repeat that: It’s only been two weeks since the mass shootings in Atlanta.
​
With the speed of the news cycle being what it is and how news stories seem to quickly come and go, I don’t know about you, but to me, it feels like it was longer than that. But to the family members of the victims, it probably feels like it simultaneously just happened and that it happened a lifetime ago.
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Thank you Sonoma County!

3/24/2021

 
Many, many thanks to the readers of the North Bay Bohemian for voting me 2021's Best Sex Therapist in Sonoma County -- for a fourth time.  What a pleasure it is to learn about this during these difficult times.  I hope to continue to support the sex lives of Sonoma County (and beyond -- teletherapy has created a new world for us all) for many years!

​https://bohemian.com/best-of-the-north-bay-2021-romance/

Performance Anxiety: It's Not Just for Men Anymore

1/23/2021

 
Often when a penis-having person experiences a sexual dysfunction like the inability to get an erection, the inability to maintain an erection, or problems with orgasm, one euphemism we as a society use to sidestep discussing the embarrassing specifics is to say “he/I/they have performance issues" or "performance anxiety.”
​
Now, if this person is in a sex therapist’s office (or on a Zoom call with a sex therapist during a global pandemic), that is the cue for the sex therapist to conduct a thorough assessment. Questions like “What do you mean by that?” “Do you have problems with getting an erection? Keeping an erection? Both?” “Do you come when you want to?” “Have you always had this problem during your whole sexual life or is this a recent development?” “Do you have this problem with every partner?” “What have you tried to treat this?” are some of the questions the client should be ready to be asked and answer.
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The Myth of Spontaneous Sex

11/25/2020

 
I was reminded recently about a major belief many people have about sex—which is that sex happens spontaneously. “I don't know, it just happens." Shrug.
​

When a sex therapy client of mine reveals they have this belief, I generally like to poke around and ask more questions to get a better understanding of this. Common ideas I hear from my clients include thinking the initiation of sex is effortless; that no communication is required—“we both just know we’re ready”—and that it is basically magic when it happens.
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When It Comes to Sex and Therapy, Do Your Research First

10/31/2020

 
I want to discuss an example that is admittedly stereotypically gendered. Bear with me. People of any gender may identify with this.
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For decades, when a couples therapist was working with a heterosexual couple and the issue was sexual in nature where the woman did not want to have sex when the man did, the couples therapist was trained to tell the woman “Don’t have sex when you don’t want to.” So the woman didn’t. She had permission to say no with the support and validation of the couples therapist, the "expert," and without guilt. And what this did was it led to couples becoming engaged in power struggles over sex—whereby the woman was the sexual gatekeeper and controlled when they had sex. The man often felt powerless and then maybe resentful, angry, or emasculated. Sounds just like our patriarchal culture at large, doesn't it?
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When Sex Feels Awkward

9/18/2020

 
“I feel like a teenager with this stuff.”

“I feel like I shouldn’t still be figuring this out at my age.”


I have heard my clients say these sorts of things about their sexual development. Whether it was a modest adult virgin learning about their body and their partner’s, or another client frustrated with themself for not knowing their body’s sexual response and what turns them on, these expressions of embarrassment and shame surround so many people’s interactions with their own sexuality which I hear almost every day through my Zoom screen.

And it is totally, completely, 100% to be expected.
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Pope Francis, Sex, and Pleasure

9/18/2020

 
​Well well well. 2020 just keeps throwing us all curveballs, doesn’t it? Last week, Pope Francis said the following about sex and sexual pleasure:

“Pleasure arrives directly from God. It is neither Catholic nor Christian nor anything else; it is simply    divine,” Francis reportedly explained. “The pleasure of eating and sexual pleasure come from God.”

Now I know that the Catholic church is not without criticism when it comes to their harmful doctrines about human sexuality. And I also know that the pope’s comment may not be relevant to many of you. But I want to give it a little air, so bear with me.
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Sexual Responsibility: It's What's Sexy

7/31/2020

 
Every week it seems I encounter some harmful message from the culture at large about sex that my clients have internalized. It is these harmful messages that contribute to their sexual dysfunction or their troubled sexual relationships or their outright sexual avoidance. Lately, I have been focusing on the one about who is responsible for what in a sexual encounter and the gendered politics involved in it. Let’s dive in.
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Based on what this client was processing, I recently told a male client in his individual therapy session: “Your erection is not your girlfriend’s responsibility.” He then took a deep breath, paused, and bravely admitted that was painful to hear. (Hooray for honesty!)
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Sex Therapy During a Pandemic: A Check-In

7/16/2020

 
Like actor Leslie Jordan often says on his Instagram Live videos, “How y’all doin’, my fellow hunker downers?” Seems like a good time to check in with my readers.
I am four months into doing video sessions, aka telehealth, with my clients. I quickly (and painfully) converted my sex therapy practice back in mid-March when the first cases of COVID-19 were medically confirmed in my community and we knew so little about this virus. I now continue doing teletherapy because we know more about the virus and it appears in-person psychotherapy, and all that it entails, is a higher-risk activity.
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What's The Difference Between Sexual Wants And Needs?

4/14/2020

 
“You’re not meeting my sexual needs.”

Have you ever thought this about or said this to someone else?  Has anyone ever said this to you?

I have heard, and most likely will continue to hear, clients say this in my office.  Either in an individual session about their partner or in a couples session to their partner.  In a couples session, it generally becomes a high stress and high stakes moment because so many people interpret this statement to have negative implications within the context of whatever is going on in their sexual relationship.  For example, it may be used to: complain about what one partner perceives to be the other partner’s deficiencies; ask (or threaten) to open the relationship; justify the decision to have an affair; or end the relationship all together.
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DIANE GLEIM  
LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPIST 
​​LIC #44429 / AASECT CERTIFIED SEX THERAPIST & SUPERVISOR 
​SONOMA COUNTY, CA
320 10th Street, Suite 302,
​Santa Rosa, California  95401
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