Emotional Intimacy
The Intimacy Expression Exercise: A vacation from sex can be a useful way for survivors of sexual trauma to heal. A vacation from sex provides survivors of sexual trauma (or anyone who is struggling with less sexual desire than they would want for themselves) with an opportunity to process their emotions and feelings about sex, relearn sexual touch in a positive way and rediscover their sexuality in a ne...
Communication in the Bedroom
Intimacy and authenticity:What is intimacy and how do you know when you are being intimate with another person? In basic terms, we at the Center for Growth / Sex Therapy in Philadelphia define intimacy as sharing your authentic self with another person. What exactly is an authentic self and how do you go about sharing that with another person? Most of us reveal information about ourselves slowly as we hav...
Erectile Dysfunction
What to Do When Your Partner Loses an Erection: When Getting Angry is OK What happens when your partner loses his erection? Do you get angry, sad, or hurt? Do you feel hurt and lash out at your partner when this happens? Do you and your partner fight after he has lost an erection? Do the fights end with you still remaining angry? Does the hurt manifest itself in accusations towards your partner and hi...
Wellness and General Mental Health Concerns
Anger Management Techniques Yell, scream, cry, and hit a pillow. Give yourself permission to be angry and stop fighting yourself. Keep a journal. Write down each time you feel angry. What triggered the thought? How long did you feel angry for? What did you do about it and why? After a weeks worth of keeping the journal, can you find a pattern? Some patterns are healthy, others are self destructive? If you ...
Avoidance / Sexual Aversion
The Benefits of Celibacy Celibacy is not the abnormal word it is sometimes made out to be. Individuals and couples make a conscientious decision to be celibate every day for a multitude of reasons. Celibacy takes on a different meaning for different people. Here, we are defining celibacy as lack of exchange of sexual body fluids with a partner. To further clarify what this entails are the following examples...
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Questioning or Intersex
Are you confused about your sexual orientation? If so, you are not alone. Most people, who define themselves as heterosexual, at some point in their life, have sexual thoughts towards someone of the same sex. Furthermore many people who try out sexual behaviors with someone of the same sex will like it, while others will decide that they are more sexually attracted to someone of the opposite sex. Simply ...
Mood Disorders & Sex
Are You Depressed in Philadelphia? How to Spot a Depressive Disorder “Just snap out of it.” For people suffering from a depressive illness, that advice is not only misguided, but hurtful. A person can’t simply “will” away a depressive illness, no matter how hard he or she tries. Most people would not choose to be depressed in Philadelphia. About 9.5 percent of the population – or about 20.9 million American...
Mood Disorders & Sex
Sex and sexuality as a window into your overall health: A fulfilling, mutually pleasurable sex life can be representative of the overall condition of the relationship. Intimacy during sex is a two-way street, as it requires physical contact, as well as being emotionally present with each other. In its most raw form, intimacy can trump having a deep conversation, because to be physically close can induc...
Communication in the Bedroom
Digital Stimulation - Digital stimulation is the act of using the fingers to stimulate the vagina with the purpose of pleasuring your female partner. One key thing to think about during the act of digital stimulation is the goal. Ultimately, the goal is to provide pleasure for your partner and fostering closeness and intimacy. This may or may not end in orgasm. Focusing too much on orgasm as an end ...
Family Planning, Safer Sex & STD's
Emotional Changes for the Couple During Pregnancy In the ideal world, pregnancies would bring all couples emotionally closer together. Pregnancy is an exciting transition period in peoples’ lives. Pregnancy makes relationships “real”. Instead of being two people, there are three. Three or more makes a family. Now the couple has a child to care for. Children link parents together for life. Even in the eve...
Mood Disorders & Sex
Feeling down vs Depression We All Go Through Slumps in Philadelphia...Here’s How You can Tell If It’s Something More Feeling a little off? Listless? Just kind of blah? You’re not alone. Everyone experiences bad days, bad weeks, even a bad month. This can be affected by many different factors. Sometimes we feel bad for what seems like no reason at all, thanks to factors that we don’t really perceive. We can ...
Enhancements for Sex
How to enjoy porn with a lover & Ways to teach your lover to enjoy porn with you If you have a sexual compulsion, this tip is not for you. Learning how to enjoy porn too early in recovery, can make your sexual compulsion worse. Encouraging your partner to use porn with you is destructive. If you have questions about sex compulsion, we recommend the following tips:What is a sex compulsion?, Defining t...
Types Of Therapy
How to get the most out of couples therapy at Sex Therapy in Philadelphia: you have made an important choice: to invest in the improvement of your relationship. By developing appropriate expectations and following a few suggestions, your investment in couples therapy can reap great rewards. This document is designed to help you get the most benefit from our work together in couples therapy. In couples c...
Types Of Therapy
Explanation of Therapist Credentials AAC Advanced Compulsion Counselor AAMFT American Association of Marriage & Family Therapists AAPC Fellow American Association of Pastoral Counselors- Fellow AASECT American Association of Sex Educators Counselors and Therapists ABD “All but Dissertation” = Completed Doctoral Coursework but not the degree ABPP Board Certified Psychologist ACHT Advanced Certified Hypno...
Techniques To Have Great Sex
Improving Relationships - Requires Taking Action Depending on the severity of the imbalance in your relationship, you may want to seek help from a couple’s counselor. Some men see a desire for counseling as weakness, an inability to solve personal problems on your own, but this is not true at all! A counselor is not there to solve problems for you because you can’t — couple’s therapists and marriage counse...
Female Sexual Pain
Interstitial Cystitis What is Interstitial Cystitis? Interstitial cystitis (IC), also known as Painful Bladder Syndrome (PBS), is an inflammatory condition of the bladder. This condition is painful and is caused by inflammation of the tissues of bladder wall. The most common symptoms of IC include: increased frequency of urination, pelvic pain, and urinary discomfort. It is important to note that these...
Open Relationships
Internet and Open Relationships You and Philadelphian Lover may have decided to try pursuing an open relationship and you live in Philly. You have done your homework, including some self help therapy books and you and your Lover understands some of the risks involved. You and your Lover have talked about ground rules for a successful relationship and each of you understands the other person's “non-negotia...
Types Of Therapy
International Sexual Health Organizations British Association for Sexual and Relationship Therapy Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialwissenchaftliche Sexualforschung (DGSS) European Federation of Sexology(EFS) International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Society and Culture International Planned Parenthood Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN) Sociedad ...
Communication in the Bedroom
Initiating Sex Does your partner usually initiate sex? What do you do that you may think it is impossible for you to begin the dialogue and initiate the sex that you desire; after all, sex is not something we usually talk about. If you are reading this tip, it is apparent that you want to have more sex, but you are not sure how to go about getting it. Do not worry, this is common, many people feel awkwar...
Family Planning, Safer Sex & STD's
Information about sex and pregnancy: Talking about sex has become a mainstream concept. Many media sources have devoted time to discussing sexuality. Never the less, there is little information about how sex relates to pregnancy. There is very little data in the medical literature about sex and sexuality and pregnancy. In fact, if one does a search for the phrase sex and pregnancy in ACOG the first relevan...
