This is much less concerned with the cause or causes but more with the actual problem itself and what can be done to overcome it. To a psychosexual therapist a sexual problem is simply a symptom of some other underlying difficulty or problem, whilst to the sex therapist it is the main focus of attention. But, although the sex therapist may think that the treatment techniques he or she uses are simply concerned with the problem, they may be successful because they unwittingly and incidentally relieve the underlying problem. So, for example, being instructed by the therapist to masturbate or mutually masturbate can undo old harm by removing guilt and anxiety from the act and thereby making it pleasurable. For this reason some psychosexual therapists ‘borrow’ the techniques of sex therapists and incorporate them into their overall treatment plan. Some degree of education, or rather re-education, the relief of anxiety, permission-giving, encouragement and mutual trust are common to both therapies. Both have their successes and failures.

Because sexual and psychosexual problems are often so closely bound up with the person’s personality, there are no potions, magic pills or speedy therapies. Almost all sex problems need time, care, trust and confidence between patient and therapist if they are to be at all successfully treated. It is scarcely surprising that Masters and Johnson, the world-renowned couple who get such good results in the USA, are as successful as they are — they have patients in their clinic for days and even weeks at a time. Such therapy is very expensive and few people outside the USA are able to afford it. Fortunately, slightly less time-consuming adaptations of their methods are available in the UK, which bring their methods within the economic reach of most people.

*105\164\2*