SEXUAL DISORDERS: TREATMENT METHOD OF HELEN SINGER KAPLAN
The rapid treatment of sexual dysfunctions as formulated by Helen Singer Kaplan is psycho-dynamic and behavioral, and integrates structured sexual experiences into conjoint therapeutic sessions (Kaplan). Kaplan’s treatment method combines behavioral sexual tasks designed specifically for each couple, tailored both to the sexual dysfunction of the individual and the interpersonal functioning of the dyad, with psychodynamic insights and dyadic approaches, including dream interpretations, and gestalt and transactional techniques. Two ways in which the Kaplan method differs from other techniques is that the treatment milieux need not be a sequestered locale but could include performance of the patients in the privacy of their own home, and that a single therapist can be as effective as co-therapists of opposite sexes.
Kaplan states that “all therapeutic maneuvers are mainly at the service of the primary objective of sex therapy: “the relief of the sexual symptoms” (italics in the original) … In the course of sex therapy intrapsychic and transactional conflicts are almost invariably dealt with to some extent” (Kaplan). The latter may be true in a limited sense in other schools of sex therapy; in Kaplan’s method it is much more deliberate and prominent. The resistances that arise in response to the structured sexual tasks often must be treated by other (nonsexual) modalities to allow the sexual aspects of the therapy to proceed. On the other hand, if more profound resistances are evoked, their resolution may have a more profoundly therapeutic effect.
In summary, the Kaplan method may be seen as a “task-centered form of crises intervention which presents an opportunity for rapid conflict resolution. Toward this end the various sexual tasks are employed, as well as the methods of insight therapy, supportive therapy, marital therapy, and other psychiatric techniques as indicated” (Kaplan).
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