Hypnosis in Human Sexuality Problems

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Apr 2005 by Araoz, Daniel

The female patient with either psychogenic vaginismus or deficient vaginal lubrication is invited to recognize the mental images she is using (without conscious awareness) to "explain" her condition. In deep relaxation, she is asked to find metaphors and similes, not reasons, for the VCD. Once she is aware of the negative imagery at work in her condition, she can start changing it. For instance, a simple device is to request that she notice what color seems to predominate in her mental imagery. As she continues to breathe, she is instructed to think of life, energy and positivism on inhaling and of getting rid of things she does not need in her life while exhaling. At the same time she is made aware of any color that may come to mind while she is breathing and how it changes with inhalation and exhalation. If the color does not appear spontaneously, she may choose a color and imagine that it becomes brighter or more beautiful as she breathes in fresh air. This color can become her healing and safe environment. Obviously this hypnotic technique, colorization, may be applied with many patients in different situations (Napier, 1990) but in problems of sexual arousal the gloom of the problem changes into something more cheerful by adding this imaginative detail.

J.C. was a 29-year-old college graduate and the manager of a retail store where many of the customers were young, attractive, affluent, and educated women. He enjoyed moderate pornography with normal and positive sexual reaction. He had no difficulty approaching women and getting dates with them. However, when he was alone with a woman, especially when there was any physical intimacy, he became "numb" and his penis was "dead." Because of this, he had been in bed with a woman only four times in his entire life, even though he started dating at 15.

When he connected to his personality parts in therapy, he discovered one that looked very much like his mother-in fact, he did not know whether this side of his personality was male or female-who kept saying "what I think my mother would say to me about sex." What spontaneously came up included many negative, insulting, and condemning statements referring to sex-and more specifically sexual pleasure-as something dirty, animalistic, base, sinful, and unworthy of a decent person. Therapy helped him center on his "genuine and mature self who vehemently refused to accept his mother's values and views on sex. This mental exercise went on for several weeks, during which he made important changes in his life like abstaining from pornography. All along the gloomy colors he had used in describing the maternal negative injunctions were slowly changed to bright, cheerful, and happy ones.

The mental rehearsal included some of the women he was dating and the therapist added the prescription to practice this in private but not to rush to any form of sexual climax when he became aroused. During this mind activity, the positive colors he had used in the other practice were added. Desire became arousal after less than 2 months in every other week sessions of sex hypnotherapy.