When It Comes to Sex and Therapy, Do Your Research First

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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