Sexual psychotherapy

Sexual psychotherapy is talking therapy for difficulties in a person's sexual life — and it is one of the nine service areas PHC has named for years, listed here in plain language because a page that is vague about what it offers is no use to the person who needs it.

People bring a wide range of things: difficulty that has appeared after years of none, difficulty that has always been there, anxiety that arrives before anything else does, a mismatch between two partners, distress about desire, and difficulties that began after an illness, a medication change, a birth or a bereavement. A great deal of what presents as a sexual difficulty has anxiety, stress, relationship strain or an untreated low mood sitting underneath it, and a great deal of it is maintained by how difficult the subject is to raise — including with a doctor.

Sessions are conversations. Your psychologist will ask what has been going on and for how long, work out with you what is maintaining it, and structure the work from there. The conversation is as clinical or as gentle as you need it to be, and you set the pace of what you disclose.

What it is not, stated plainly. It is a talking therapy. There is no physical examination of any kind, at any point. Nobody undresses. There is no physical contact. Psychologists do not prescribe and PHC does not provide medication — where a medical cause is possible, you will be told to have that looked at by a doctor, and we will say so early rather than after months of sessions. It is also not a service that will promise you an outcome.

On confidentiality. This page is the one on which people most often stop before booking, so the position is set out here rather than buried. What you discuss with your psychologist is confidential and is handled to the same professional standard as any other clinical work at PHC. Enquiries can be made by WhatsApp or by phone. If you would prefer to be seen at one branch rather than the other, or online rather than in person, say so when you book and it will simply be arranged — you do not have to explain why.

PHC is an assessment-first practice. Nobody begins this work here because they asked for it by name — they begin it because an initial session found it was what the situation called for.

1. An initial session.We ask what has been going on, for how long, and what it is costing you. You disclose what you choose to disclose, and "I would rather not go into that yet" is a complete answer. Where the picture needs more than a conversation, emotional assessment and symptom screening decides which further tests, if any, are clinically warranted.
2. A psychologist matched to what that found.Psychologists at PHC are not assigned on availability. Assignment is based on speciality, your presenting needs and clinical fit. Preferred psychologist gender is one of the six details we ask for when you book, and on this service a lot of people have a clear preference — state it and it is used in the matching. If the fit is not right, tell us and we will move you to someone else.
3. 50-minute sessions, in clinic or online.A standard session is 50 minutes. Where a couple is attending, some sessions may be held jointly and some individually, and you are told which and why. If a session runs beyond 50 minutes and your psychologist has the time, you can extend by an hour at an extra fee — you are told what that is beforehand. Minor overruns of one to five minutes are not charged.
4. Reviewed as it goes, and referred where a doctor is needed.What you are working on is revisited rather than assumed. Where a medical cause is possible, you will be told to have it checked — a psychologist working responsibly in this area does not treat around an unexamined physical cause. Where the wider relationship is the difficulty, marriage and couples counselling may be proposed alongside or instead.

At PHC, sexual psychotherapy is for adults, individually or as a couple, married or unmarried. One partner can come alone — that is common, and it does not require the other's participation or knowledge to be useful work.

It is not the right service where the difficulty is primarily medical and has not yet been looked at by a doctor; the honest sequence there is a medical opinion first, and we will say so. It is not the right service where someone is being harmed — if that is the situation, here is what to do. And it is not a service that will tell you what your relationship should look like.

Not sure whether this is us? Contact us anyway. We will tell you directly whether we can help, and refer you elsewhere if we cannot.

Each of these has a page of its own explaining what PHC does about it. Which route applies to you is decided at the initial session.

• Sexual difficulties
• Marital conflict

See every condition we work with.

No psychologist's supplied profile names sexual psychotherapy as a modality they practise, so this page does not print a name. That is deliberate. Every clinician card on this site is drawn from what that clinician wrote about themselves, and we will not manufacture one.

What is true of the whole team: every psychologist at PHC holds a minimum postgraduate qualification in clinical psychology and completed over 800 supervised clinical hours before joining. Who you would see is decided at the initial session, matched on speciality, presenting needs, clinical fit and your stated preference on psychologist gender.

See every psychologist at PHC.