Sexual Attraction in Therapy

Sexual Attraction in Therapy presents new and original theoretical and clinical insights from multiple perspectives into working with the complex phenomenon of sexual attraction in therapy. Challenging practitioners to think about sexual attraction as a normal dynamic developing through the unique intimacy of the therapy encounter, it encourages readers to treat sexual attraction as an opportunity for deeper work, rather than as a dread. This text fills an important gap in the market by moving beyond psychoanalytic theories of transference and countertransference, and discussing views on theory, training, practice and research from relational/integrative, cognitive behavioural, acceptance and commitment, existential, phenomenological, psychoanalytic and systemic approaches.

The contributors to the text – including Doris MIlwain, Michael Worrell, John Sommers-Flanagan and Martin Milton - are highly experienced psychologists and psychotherapists with international reputations as theorists on the erotic in clinical practice. Illustrated with detailed case material and strategies for managing sexual attraction, this book  aims to stimulate understanding and dialogue by bringing theory and practice from a variety of perspectives together in one comprehensive volume.