Jun 19, 2006, 14:06 GMT
Prague - Some doctors treat sexual dysfunction with pills and behavioural therapy.
But Czech psychologist Katerina Filasova treats patients with probing questions designed to uncover deeply entrenched beliefs and motivations.
Filasova, who works alongside medical doctors at a Prague clinic, outlined her unique programme recently at a conference of European sex therapists.
She said her goal is to use a series of questions that help each patient discover a 'general principle' that lies 'hidden' in his or her subconscious but which can negatively affect sex life.
'A patient's picture of the world does not always correspond with reality,' Filasova said. 'His point of view can be twisted by various belief systems and conceptions about the world, relationships, etc., that he has adopted.'
Often these sex-belief systems are formed in childhood and are learned from parents or grandparents, she said. But they also may be rooted in personal experience.
Among those treated in Filasova's clinic was a 30-year-old woman whose 'general principle' was that she 'hates sex but cares about her partner,' and a 42-year-old man who thought women do not enjoy intimacy unless it lasts more than 30 minutes.
Some of her questions are simply about definitions of conceptual words that a patient uses but doesn't correctly understand.
Filasova said she got to the core of one lonely man's problem by asking 'What is a partnership?' He replied, 'To have a partner means to be responsible for everything she does.'
That answer showed 'Why he didn't want to have any partnerships,' she explained.
Filasova said combining psychological treatment with classic sex therapy is a 'problem-focused approach' that can help a patient understand any gaps between reality and hidden beliefs 'and get that belief system back under conscious control.'
'This gives him the power to change,' she said.
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