Author Archives: sextherapybristol

About sextherapybristol

I am a sex and relationship therapist working in Bristol. I blog on professional and social issues specific to sex and couples therapy and on the politics of psychotherapy and counselling in general. Before switching careers to become a therapist, I spent seven years in the UK Diplomatic Service, four of them in Japan, and thirteen years in financial public relations in Tokyo and the City of London. I gained a Postgraduate Diploma in psychotherapy and counselling from Regents College, City University, in 2008, and a Postgraduate Diploma in psychosexual and relationship therapy from Middlesex University in 2011. In addition to my private practice, I teach on the London Diploma in Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy and the NAOS Advanced Diploma in Couples Therapy.

Sextherapybristol has moved. But not very far.

A Happy New Year to all followers and readers. Just a short post to let you know that the sextherapybristol blog has moved, but not very far. I have just relaunched the sextherapybristol website for 2014 and the new blog … Continue reading

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Play Bad Sex Media Bingo

Cringingly bad documentaries on sex now seem to be a standard of mid-week TV schedules on Channel 4. After last week’s Porn on the Brain, my expectations of C4’s next offering in the genre to be broadcast on Monday, Sex … Continue reading

Posted in Bad Sex Media Bingo, Pornography, Sex Education, Sexualisation, TV Sex Programmes | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Porn on the Brain – Ex-Lad Mag Editor Launders His Soul on TV

God loves a sinner that repents more than ninety-nine righteous men. But when it comes to preaching on TV about the effects of porn, even the Almighty might wince at the hypocrisy demonstrated on Channel 4 this week by Martin … Continue reading

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Big Pharma Pushes Out Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction

Drug treatments for erectile dysfunction (ED) are effective. Millions of men, particularly older men, have been helped to better, more reliable erections. Until the chance discovery less than two decades ago that PDE type-5 inhibitors had a gratifying side impact … Continue reading

Posted in ED, Erectile Dysfunction, Male Sexuality, PDE Type-5 inhibitors, Psychosexual therapy, sex therapy, sildenafil, viagra | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Academies Must Try Harder To Reassure Gay Parents

The recent news that a number of academy schools in the UK had banned the “promotion of homosexuality” in language redolent of the infamous Section 28 policy of the 1980s comes as no surprise to lesbian, gay and bisexual parents … Continue reading

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Female Ejaculation – Fact or Porn Fantasy?

Do some women ejaculate like men? In the twentieth century the experience of female ejaculation was widely believed to be an invention of Victorian pornographers, particularly William Lazenby’s notorious The Pearl, published in 1879 and banned the next year.  Masters … Continue reading

Posted in Female Sexuality | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Sex Education and Faith Communities in the UK: Challenges and Opportunities

Panel Discussion Thursday – 18 July 2013 – 5pm – 7pm Donald McIntyre Building, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education 30 May 2013 – Should sex education in schools be as open as possible and or is it best left to … Continue reading

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The Wrong Trousers: Has a Bristol school got its sex education priorities on backwards?

A Bristol secondary school recently sent a letter to parents of female students regarding school uniform. The letter explains that in the last few months “an increasing number of parents” have been purchasing “tight fitting leggings/trousers or jeans” for their … Continue reading

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Anything Goes. But Keep it In Your Head. Review of “Phone Whore” by Cameryn Moore

Fantasy is an essential component of human sexual desire. That much was recognised by the early pioneers of psychotherapy. However, for much of the twentieth century it was our sexual behaviour rather than our sexual imaginations that occupied the attention … Continue reading

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Phone Sex and the Imagination

Montreal: February 2013 – When I was a kid in 1960s London, my father insisted on installing our first house phone in the unheated downstairs hall. The choice of location was to prevent my mother getting so comfortable she ran … Continue reading

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