Dissociation Is a Way of Numbing and Being Disconnected from the Body and Present Moment- is This Interfering With Your Sex Life?
Our San Francisco Sex Therapists Can Help You Learn to Have Embodied, Intimate Sex.
Many of us have had at least one partner or period in our life where we are not having the desired level of enjoyment, the type, or the amount of sex we would like. Additionally, for many of us, to be sexual with another, even if the current partner feels safe and we both have a secure connection, the experience may trigger many past wounds (sexual or not) where vulnerability and intimacy were very harmful to the self. Additionally, due to the culture of sex and identity around us, and the way media portrays how we should all be sexually, we tend to have an ideal of how often and what our sex should be and feel like. Then, for most of us, whether real or imagined, we settle for less.
For those of us who won’t fully settle, there are several industries that make billions of dollars every year off of the fact that we all at least at one time or another, desire more for our sexual identity and sex life. The porn entertainment industry and all of the offshoots of merchandise based around it, Hollywood, lingerie and general clothing industry, self-help literature, and the nightlife industry are just some of the few industries that sell sex or the possibility of sex. But do these avenues actually help us deepen our sexual intelligence or emotional & sexual intimacy and awareness with our selves or our partners? Not likely. Attachment based somatic and trauma informed San Francisco Couples Counseling and Sex Therapy Can Help. We are LBGTQ, poly and kink accepting and aware.
How We Can Help:
At California Relationship Centers, our San Francisco Intimacy & Sex Therapy programs for Individuals and partners or couples can help you develop this true understanding, compassionate and loving relationship to your sexuality.
There are highly effective healing modalities based in specifically helping people find peace around their sexuality and frequency, or type of sexual experiences, their sexual trauma, sexual interests or problematic sexual behaviors or issues. Our San Francisco Bay Area sex therapy, couples counseling and relationship coaching programs are some of the most straight-forward modalities that can effect change and truly help.
Our SF couples therapists and sexologists are trained in diversity and trauma sensitivity and are Sex and empowerment positive and LGBTQ alleys, Poly and Kink accepting. These are safe spaces to address and heal whatever needs to be brought to light, learn about sexuality and expression in a new way, and to gain the confidence and skills to get closer to the sex life you would like.
Many people come to sex therapy, couples counseling or sexual empowerment coaching as a way to deal with their or their own or their partner’s perpetual disappointment with the frequency or type of sex that is/isn’t occurring. Often people want to share about their deepest desires, but need the support of a third party to help them gain the courage to express them. Or, perhaps Sex therapy can assist people who want to learn about why they no longer desire their partner, or why their partner no longer desires them. Our highly specialized practitioners at San Francisco Intimacy & Sex Therapy Centers have the expertise, training, sensitivity and compassion to help you develop sexual and emotional intelligence and intimacy.
WE SPEAK RELATIONSHIP.
How our San FRANCISCO Bay Area Based Couples Counselors & Sex Therapists can help:
Usually, through the course of this treatment process, both couples/partners and individuals learn a lot about how their past sexual histories and traumas are still impacting them, and how to overcome the negative consequences from their past, as well as enjoy the delicious glimmers of delight and desire that are innate to their sexual landscape.
One of the ways people begin to understand how their past is still affecting them, is they begin to learn about why they feel “numb” or “shut down” or “unable to feel anything” towards their partner, or in certain parts of their body. Or conversely they experience a need for constant contact and stimulation. When a person doesn’t feel anything, or too much, it is very possible they aren’t just experiencing a lack of desire or loss of attraction to their partner, it may also be a signal they are experiencing dissociation.
Dissociation is a common psycho-physiological response to trauma, where the nervous system creates a signal that one is facing an inability to escape, or imminent death, and as a result, a person will feel foggy, numb, disembodied, lethargic, shut down, or emotionally cold or distant, in response to the overwhelm (intense fear and anxiety) being triggered by the level of vulnerability in this sexual context. This dissociative process in many individuals, may be so efficient, they may have no conscious awareness of feeling fear or anxiety, or any overwhelm at all, that could potentially cue them into the fact that they are triggered, and thus about to dissociate.
So, the next time you are saddled with despair, guilt or frustration about your sex life and experiences not being as fulfilling as you would like, perhaps consider whether dissocciation is interfering with your sex life. Then, seek help with one of our highly qualified San Francisco Bay Area sexologists, couples counselors, Sex therapists, or sexual empowerment coaches, who can help you begin to learn about, to overcome and heal your dissociative tendencies, so you and your partner(s) might have the sex you always dreamed of.
California Relationship Centers and it’s subdivisions such as North Berkeley Couples Therapy Centers and San Francisco Couples, Intimacy & Sex Therapy Centers can help. We are the Leading Sex Therapy and Couples Therapy Centers in the United States. We acheive this level of excellence by handpicking the best of the best in this highly specialized field. We Can Help.
