Sexual Attitude Reassessment · Reflective Exercise

From Inside Her Framework

The companion to the previous exercise, and harder. The clinician’s concern here is not baseless, and the literature partly supports it.

The case this is built on

A clinician whose commitments are strongly secular and feminist is seeing a client whose religious tradition organises her marriage in a way the clinician finds objectionable. The client is doing well in every respect except the one she came about.

Unlike the other exercises in this chapter, this one asks you to build something. The final third is a piece of clinical work you have to write.

Estimated time to complete this exercise: 25 minutes

1The pull
2The mirror
3Two kinds
4Your words
5The limits
6Close

Before you begin

How this one works

There are no correct answers to most of what follows and nothing is graded. Nothing you type leaves your browser, there is no submission, and reloading discards it. You can copy your own responses at the end.
This exercise is the companion to the previous one and will be harder for most people using this course. The previous case concerned a clinician whose religious values intruded on a client. This one concerns a clinician whose secular and feminist values do the same thing, and the structural features are identical.
The exercise does not ask you to revise your politics, and it does not argue that the clinician’s concern is baseless. It is not baseless, and the literature partly supports it. That is what makes this case difficult rather than obvious.
Unlike the others, this one asks you to build something. The final third is a piece of clinical work you have to write.

If you find yourself wanting to argue with the exercise rather than with the clinician in it, that is worth noting as you go. It is the most common response to this case.

References

  1. van Anders, S. M., Herbenick, D., Brotto, L. A., Harris, E. A., & Chadwick, S. B. (2022). The heteronormativity theory of low sexual desire in women partnered with men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51(1), 391–415. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02100-x