Welcome to a new feature in OutinPerth! Relationships and sexuality are at the heart of our basic humanity. When things are going well in relationships, we can feel like life is the ultimate rush. When things are going badly however, thoughts of our troubles seem to plague us throughout the day – it can be all that we think about!
In the GLBTIQ community, we also face influences from without and within that further affect our personal lives. It seems politics, social expectations and our sense of identity all form part of the mix in our relationships and sexual expression. Depending on your point of view and experience, it can feel like a playground or a minefield out there!
From March, a qualified Clinical Psychologist and experienced relationship/sex therapist will be available in our On the Couch relationships advice column to respond to issues in regards to relationships, sex and sexuality.
Relationship counselling involves a couple (more or less) learning to communicate, to self-express and to understand one another in a way that leads to a healthy shared perspective of expectations, desires and respect. Our partner (or partners) actions, and the meanings we place upon these actions, can deeply affect the way in which we experience our interactions with them.
Sex therapy can be linked to relationship therapy. It can also be about sexual expression and experience itself, regardless of the participants’ relationship status. Sex therapy occurs also as an individual process in terms of exploring and discovering a sense of sexual self, our desires and the permission we give ourselves to express those desires.
We certainly run the gamut of emotions when it comes to all that is queer splendour, so let’s share our stories and our questions and hopefully get some answers and guidance that’ll bring us further in our enjoyment of life, sex and love.
We hope you will enjoy our look at human relationships and sexuality.
*This column is not intended to be an alternative to therapy. If you feel you need to pursue therapy in person, you can contact our staff at OutinPerth who will be able to put you in touch with our writer, who in turn can offer a range of alternatives for professional assistance.
