This self-access class focuses on the different ways the traditional process of sensate focus can be adapted to meet the diverse needs of service users. The training looks at how to adapt sensate focus when:
- there is a history of sexual abuse;
- when the goal is not penetration;
- when the goal is not to reduce anxiety;
- when the couple identifies as LGBTQ+;
- when there are blocks to the traditional sensate focus programme.
Schedule
Part 1: A brief overview of the traditional sensate focus programme and the different issues that can arise with it: clients finding it “boring” and not following the programme, for example.
Part 2: The different lenses in adapting sensate focus: the pleasure-focused lens, the shame-informed lens, the trauma-informed lens, the Queer lens.
Part 3: Examples of the different creative ways sensate focus can be adapted to meet the diverse service user needs, and how to manage the blocks some service users have in following the programme. This will be illustrated by case studies.
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of this self-access class, participants will be able to:
- Utilise clinical creativity and case-based learning to tailor sensate focus interventions and manage common blocks to service user participation.
- Identify the principles and structure of the traditional sensate focus programme, including its intended therapeutic purpose.
- Critically assess the common challenges and limitations clients and couples may face when engaging with sensate focus, such as boredom, trauma history, shame, lack of interest in penetration, or cultural/sexual identity misalignment.
- Differentiate between anxiety-based and shame-based sexual difficulties, and identify appropriate therapeutic responses for each within the context of sensate focus.
- Apply a range of theoretical frameworks to adapt the sensate focus programme to better suit the needs, identities, and relational dynamics of diverse clients and couples.
- Develop trauma-informed adaptations of sensate focus that safely support service users with a history of sexual abuse, using thorough assessment and strengths-based planning.
- Incorporate GSRD (Gender, Sexuality, and Relationship Diversity) perspectives to ensure the sensate focus programme is inclusive and affirming for LGBTQ+ clients, and free from heteronormative assumptions.
About the Trainer
Silva Neves is a COSRT-accredited and UKCP-registered psychosexual and relationship psychotherapist, as well as a trauma psychotherapist. He is a Clinical Associate with Pink Therapy and sits on the editorial board of Sexual and Relationship Therapy, a leading international journal in the field.
Silva is the author of Compulsive Sexual Behaviours: A Psycho-Sexual Treatment Guide for Clinicians and Sexology: The Basics (both published by Routledge). He also co-edited Erotically Queer and Relationally Queer with Dominic Davies, and has contributed chapters to a range of key texts, including The Handbook of Social Justice in Psychological Therapies, Queering Gestalt Therapy, The SAGE Handbook of Counselling & Psychotherapy, and Sexual Minorities and Mental Health: Current Perspectives and New Directions.
His writing also features in journals and professional publications such as New Psychotherapist, Therapy Today, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, The European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, and Attachment.
In recognition of his contributions to the field, Silva was awarded the Sexual Freedom Ally Award in 2023. He is an international speaker and respected voice on psychosexual therapy, trauma, and LGBTQ+ affirmative practice.
