Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy: An Integrative Model for Exploring Desire and Intimacy - Tapa dura

"I was very excited to read Gina Ogden’s book highlighting a new approach to sex therapy, and I strongly believe therapists need more books and training on this topic. After reading Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy: An Integrative Model for Exploring Desire and Intimacy, I had a deeper appreciation for Ogden’s courage and fortitude in addressing a topic that has often been ignored. This book has the potential to open many possibilities for those practitioners with the right clinical background and training who are looking to expand their practice and focus more on their patients’ sexuality. Ogden should be commended for bringing attention to this important part of our humanity and addressing it with compassion, curiosity, hope, and an appreciation for diversity." -Cheri L. Marmarosh, PsycCRITIQUES

This well written guide is a “must have” for seasoned sex therapists, as well as individual and couples therapists who want to become more comfortable in addressing sexual concerns.  Many therapists skirt around this fundamental part of life, feeling uncertain or unequipped about what to do after they have opened “Pandora’s box.”...Incorporating the ISIS Wheel paradigm into your practice provides a great tool for working through some of the most frustrating treatment impasses.  It will truly expand your practice of sex therapy.  -Mass. Association for Marriage and Family Therapy News, September, 2013

Gina Ogden stands out as one of the truly creative minds in the field of sex therapy. In her four decades of practice as a sex therapist, researcher, teacher and author, she has significantly influenced the field by broadening the meaning of sexual health beyond that of physiological function and by creating a space for unconventional treatment methods.... this book is a must read. - Journal of Sexual and Relationship Therapy, November, 2013

Many years of experience in the field are immediately obvious in this wise, erudite and lively book that looks far beyond behavioural sex therapy... The many inspirational and transformative stories of clients who have used [Ogden's] model support my strong recommendation. This book offers new thinking, wisdom, practical support and a sense of energy that is both appealing and compelling. - Yvonne Farley, Therapy Today

Once again Gina Ogden delivers. Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy does exactly that: EXPAND.  It will deepen your understanding, enrich your practice, and texture your overall appreciation of the complexities of sexuality. It is rich, thoughtful, and oh so useful for all therapists. I am immediately adding it to my recommendation list. - Esther Perel, Author of Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence

....Where else would the latest in sexual science and brain science and the poetry of Mary Oliver and Rumi live so comfortably together but in a book by Gina Ogden. True to her impressive reputation as a leading sex therapist, Ogden gives us a fresh paradigm, including both practical detailed guidelines for expanding our creative therapeutic work with individuals, couples, and groups, and a lovely meditation on her own valuable experiences as a sex therapist and teacher. The book is beautifully structured and emphasizes the ISIS wheel―that ultimately we do our best work when we ask new questions about sex that include a client’s mental, emotional, and physical and spiritual stories. In an area where there are too few books to guide us, a real highlight of Ogden’s book is her self-awareness as a therapist and her talent as a supervisor and teacher. Each page is rich with her insight. As a teacher and supervisor, I will be recommending this book enthusiastically to others. - Sallie Foley, Co-author of Sex Matters for Women; Director, University of Michigan Sexual Health Certificate Program

Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy presents a dynamic, innovative approach to helping our clients. This elegant, perceptive, and profound treatment model will furnish counselors and therapists with unique skills to help any relationship. A must read! - Michele Sugg, MSW, LCSW, CST, President, American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT); Sex Therapy Advisor, Alexander Foundation for Women's Health

This book is the essential reference for future generations craving a new way to serve their clients. Gina Ogden’s ISIS model reflects a new paradigm for how to address sexual issues and resolve them through integration of the whole human being. Her contribution to the field of sex therapy will last far beyond the quest for a new pill or the diagnostic search for treatment of pathologies. The cure instead is finding the sexual self, moving through a matrix of discovery in collaboration with the sex therapist or coach, and reaching peace with one’s sexual story. - Patti Britton, PhD, MPH, Author of The Art of Sex Coaching; Past President, AASECT; Co-Founder, SexCoachU; Board-Certified Clinical Sexologist; Master Sex Coach; Adjunct Professor, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality

Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy incorporates the holistic integrative ISIS approach that has helped so many clients to feel better and more accepting of themselves as sensual and sexual beings. Gina incorporates sexual science and brain research into her approach. As a scientist, I respect Gina's ISIS approach and her contributions to sexual health. - Beverly Whipple, PhD, RN, FAAN, Co-author of The G Spot; Professor Emerita, Rutgers University; Past Vice-President and Secretary General/Treasurer, World Association for Sexual Health (WAS): Past President, Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS); Past President, AASECT; Past Director, International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH)

Dr. Gina Ogden has created a completely new way of listening to sexuality concerns. Therapists who learn to use her ISIS Wheel quickly see how interventions–usually suggested by the patients or clients themselves–become crystal clear and are much more effective than those we might suggest from an outside perspective. This book, grounded in ten years of research and more than forty years of experience, is as important to the field of sex therapy as was The Kinsey Report or either of Masters and Johnson's early volumes. - Ginger Manley, MSN, Psychiatric Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist-BC; AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and Supervisor; Associate in Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine; Clinical Professor of Nursing, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing

Every therapist should read Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy.  Gina Ogden’s unique style combined with her ISIS research brings incredible, real-life clinical experience and data into the work to make her message dynamic, innovative, exciting, and practical.   Sex therapy has until now been bogged down with old models of health care, pharmaceutical myths, and misinformation about relationships and couples dynamics.  Gina is at the top of her field and knows what trained, certified sexuality therapists  and couples therapists everywhere need. - Tammy Nelson, PhD, LPC, Author of Getting the Sex You Want and The New Monogamy: Redefining Your Relationship After Infidelity (in press); Board Certified Sexologist; AASECT Certified Sex Therapist; Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor and Certified Imago Relationship Therapist 

There is a critical need for marriage and family therapists and counselors to be able to effectively address questions and issues around sexuality with their clients. Dr. Gina Ogden provides a user-friendly, readable, and practical text that will assist therapists ‘in the room,’ who are striving to provide research-based information and interventions to their clients. A sex therapist, supervisor, and researcher herself, Dr. Ogden takes both novice and experienced therapists, using numerous case illustrations, through the process of understanding and using a model that will enhance clinical practice. - Marvarene Oliver, EdD, LMFT, LPC, Associate Professor of Counseling, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT); Executive Editor of the Journal of Professional Counseling: Practice, Theory, and Research

Gina Ogden is a major spokesperson for the diversity in female sexuality and the importance of spirituality in sexual desire. Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy is her latest and best integration of the ISIS model of sex therapy and is highly recommended for clinicians. - Barry McCarthy, PhD, Workshop Presenter; Professor; Author of Sexual Awareness (5th Edition), Enduring Desire, Discovering Your Couple Sexual Style, Men’s Sexual Health, and Rekindling Desire

From one of the foremost leaders of integrative sex therapy, this tour-de-force of elegant theory, accessible writing, and sound clinical practice is a ‘must-read’ for anyone working with individuals or couples who wants to serve them best. Dr. Ogden's sound, comprehensive, and de-pathologizing approach to the complexity of human sexual experience will surely prove to be a welcome addition to the book shelves of novice and seasoned professionals alike. - Evelyn Resh MPH, CNM, Author of Women, Sex, Power, and Pleasure and The Secret Lives of Teen Girls

This book is a rare combination of clinical skill and the art of caring–engaging, accessible, humorous, and informative. - Ruth Neustifter, PhD, Assistant Professor, Couple and Family Therapy, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Ogden's book is filled with whole-hearted wisdom and creativity. The case illustrations provide insight and inspiration. Clinical gems sparkle throughout! - Peggy J. Kleinplatz, PhD, Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Canada

Who better to advance a model of expanding the practice of sex therapy than Gina Ogden, one of the world’s leading experts in sex therapy? Informed by four decades of practice, as well as her groundbreaking research, Dr. Ogden steers today’s sex therapist away from traditional therapeutic models that focus on deficiency and dysfunction, and toward visualizing and carrying out a new model that integrates the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of sexual health. Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy is one of those MUST-HAVE resources that should find its way onto the required reading lists of sex therapists in training, and of practicing sex therapists looking to stay current in the field. - Bill Taverner, MA, CSE, Editor-in-Chief of American Journal of Sexuality Education

For anyone unfamiliar with Gina Ogden and her wisdom, this book is a must read. For those who eschew concepts such as "shamanism" and "spirituality" as belonging to the realm of woo-woo, this book will offer the opportunity to expand the reader’s comfort zone and learn valuable skills. For those who are already familiar with Ogden and the ISIS Wheel, this book is an additional station on that journey. – Talli Y.Rosenbaum. Department of Physical and Sexual Therapy Inner Stability, Israel in the Sexual and Relationship Therapy Journal, August 2014

Winner of the 2014 AASECT Professional Book Award!

Look beyond behavioral treatments, pharmaceutical interventions, and performance goals to a more comprehensive picture of what your clients want and need when they enter sex therapy. Gina Ogden is a master therapist, supervisor, researcher, teacher, and author with four decades of helping clients and training health professionals. Her ISIS Wheel of Sexual Experience is an innovative template that recognizes the full range of sexual issues: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy offers you new language to discuss sexual issues and creative ways to engage clients in their own therapeutic process–whether or not you are trained as a sex therapist. The text is organized in four practice-oriented sections that introduce the ISIS Wheel, show you how you can use it with individuals, couples, and groups, and encourage you to explore it on your own.