Female sexual dysfunction or not knowing how to ask for what feels good?
The recently published Italian study suggesting women can only have clitoral, rather than vaginal, orgasms raises important questions about the medicalisation of female sexuality and sexual dysfunction. Many women would be happy to have an orgasm any old way, as University of Western Sydney researcher Jane Ussher points out, especially those who experience sexual difficulties. It's difficult to write about the topic of female sexuality without using negative language such as "female sexual dysfunction" or "failure" to orgasm. Much of what has been written about the female orgasm is based on phallocentric assumptions, such as that women "should" have orgasms through penetrative sexual intercourse with men. And if they don't achieve orgasm, there is something wrong with them. Many women have absorbed these culturally acceptable views and the ongoing medicalisation of female sexuality continually reinforces them.
Crafting Practice in Trauma Therapy: A dialogical and relational engagement with ethics and poetic, sacred, spiritual and unnamed moments in therapeutic relationships
This study utilised narrative inquiry to explore trauma therapists' engagement with poetic, sacred, spiritual and unnamed moments in therapy. The research focuses on therapists, their therapeutic relationships and the ways they make their therapy practice and their practice ethics through the making and doing of their therapy. The thesis presents a poetic conceptual frame for the analysis of therapist's experiences of making (poiésis) and the generative discoveries produced within their therapeutic relationships. Interviews were designed as dialogical and relational conversations with colleagues. The study explored: therapist's practices in violence and abuse contexts and poetic, sacred, spiritual and unnamed moments in therapy; whether therapists deliberately include practices to evoke unnamed moments in therapy, and how do therapists make sense of and interpret their experience with vicarious traumatisation. Using Polkinghorne (1995), the analysis produced three configured plots related to: resonance and transformation in the therapeutic relationship; therapy as threshold experience: narratives of self-discovery, practice and identity; and a relational and dialogical engagement with vicarious traumatisation: therapists and their practices. This study has been intimately concerned with the making and doing of therapy practice and identified three practice components from the findings of the research, they are: In the making and doing of authentic therapy practices transformation occurs for both therapist and client and this leads to the emergence of unnamed moments in therapeutic relationships; unnamed moments offer therapist's threshold experiences of self-discovery related to their sense of self, identity and their therapy practices; and therapists' engagement with their ethical commitments and therapy practices are an integral part of the way they account for and live out their relationship to vicarious traumatisation.
Navigating the Challenges of Indirect Trauma: Thriving and sustaining in trauma counselling work
This thesis presents a qualitative study of counsellors' experiences of indirect trauma exposure, the factors that facilitate counsellors to thrive personally and professionally, and sustain their engagement in trauma counselling work. The existing literature details the challenges of indirect trauma exposure in trauma work. However, the ways that counsellors are able to derive rewards and maintain their engagement in trauma counselling work are less well recognised. The current study examines these factors using a grounded theory approach, with semi-structured interviews conducted to explore the issues. The findings of this study demonstrate that multiple interrelating factors influence the impact of indirect trauma exposure on counsellors. These factors were conceptualised into a three-component model linked by the process of self-reflexivity. This model, termed the Self-Reflexive Model, refers to how counsellors manage the impact of indirect trauma experiences, and consists of three main components: 'developing perspectives'; 'empathic balance'; and 'sustaining capacity'. Under these three components, the model encompasses new insights about the influence of the subjective interpretation of indirect trauma experiences, the rewarding aspects of trauma counselling work, the strategies that maintain empathic boundaries, and the pivotal role of self-reflexivity. The model demonstrates an integrated perspective of these influencing factors, and how the risks and rewards of indirect trauma exposure can be effectively managed. This study builds on existing research about the impact of indirect trauma exposure, while offering greater insight into the processes, practices, and strategies that promote the rewarding and sustaining aspects of trauma counselling work. This information may be applicable to counsellors across different areas of practice that may experience indirect trauma exposure, regardless of whether they are employed in trauma specific or non-trauma specific roles. The findings provide important information for the counselling profession as increased knowledge of these issues will guide clinical practice, education and training, and address issues that influence the sustainability of counsellors in trauma counselling work.
Clients as Teachers: Reciprocal Influences in Therapy Relationships
The value of the continuing education industry for therapists is questioned, as is the usefulness of therapy books and journal articles, as a means of engaging therapists in life-long learning. Instead, it is argued that our clients are our best teachers and that therapists learn most effectively from their clients. Drawing on research studies with prominent theoreticians and therapists, and on case studies from clinical work, a number of important themes are identified as ways in which therapists are influenced by their therapeutic encounters with their clients. The themes explored in this article include: (1) intimacy and high emotional arousal with clients as we witness profound change; (2) being challenged by clients; and (3) allowing for boundary 'crossings' in order to develop more flexible ways of working with clients. The implications for professional development are discussed.
Evolving Narratives About Childhood Sexual Abuse: Challenging the Dominance of the Victim and Survivor Paradigm
This research project explored the ongoing process of constructing a narrative, following childhood sexual abuse. Twenty-two men and women aged 25–70 were interviewed about their childhood sexual experiences with adults using narrative inquiry methodology. These experiences occurred in different social and historical contexts, when the theoretical understandings and treatment of the issue of child sexual abuse were significantly different from the present. Many factors made disclosure even more difficult then than it is now including: respect for authority; rigid gender roles; the taboo surrounding sexual issues; lack of supportive adults; and lack of language to describe what was happening. Participants told four differing narratives about their experiences: narratives of silence; narratives of ongoing suffering; narratives of transformation; and narratives of transcendence. These narratives were examined in relation to the changing social and historical context and the current dominance of the victim and survivor paradigm in the child sexual abuse literature.
Working With Australian Families: Invisible Immigrants
As a migrant from England to Australia in 1986, I was delighted to write this chapter. My experiences of immigration are similar in kind, but not in detail, to those of many immigrants who move to the United States from Australia. I have used the term 'invisible immigrant' (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005) to describe the experience of migration between countries with developed market economies, such as from Australia to the United States or from Great Britain to Australia (United Nations, 2002). This term was used to describe the 1.5 million Britons who migrated to Australia in the 25 years after World War II on an assisted-passage scheme (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005). They traveled to Australia for 10 pounds each, and when they arrived, they had the temerity to complain about the Hies, the snakes, the sharks, the mosquitoes, and the food. It had previously been assumed that they "would easily assimilate and thus 'disappear' into such a familiar society" (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005, p. 9), thereby becoming invisible. In fact, large numbers returned home to Great Britain as soon as they were able. Like many other migrants before me, I did not find it particularly easy to assimilate into society when I first arrived in Australia. I had to go through a slow and, at times, painful process of acculturation. I felt desperately homesick for the first five years and unable to speak about this publicly for fear of being labeled a "whinging Pom" (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005). As a result of my personal experience, I feel for other invisible immigrants who are often ill prepared for the shock of migration and have false expectations about fitting in easily. Like me, they may feel guilty when they ask for help because they believe that the needs of many refugees and other, more visible, immigrants far outweigh their own.