WHAT IS SEXOLOGY?
Sexology is the scientific study of sexuality. A sexologist is someone who has studied all areas of sex including anatomy, physiology, sexual development, sexual orientation, the dynamics of sexual relationships, as well as the mechanics of sexual contact/acts. A sexologist looks to other disciplines to understand human sexuality such as history, sociology, psychology, biology, gender studies, and more, in order to see how sex works in the context of social, cultural and religious environments.
A clinical sexologist focuses on treating sexual dysfunctions, disorders, and variations, including primarily 6 common sexual issues such as:
Pre-orgasmia: difficulty reaching orgasm
Painful or Inhibited Intercourse: including vaginismus
Low Sexual Desire:
Erectile Dysfunction:
Rapid Ejaculation:
Delayed or Inhibited Ejaculation
A clinical sexologist will use psychological counselling methods such as cognitive behavioral techniques to identify dysfunctional myths and beliefs surrounding sexuality, sex education and couple’s counselling to empower clients to experience sexuality in a different way.
A way that allows more confidence and understanding of their own sexuality and freeing them from sexual misinformation and increase intimacy with a couple.
Sexology began as a formal area of study in the 1885 with Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing who published Psychopathia Sexualis and Havelock Ellis in 1897 writings, Sexual inversion.
In 1913, the Society for Sexology, the first sexological academic association, was formed. Famous sexologists such as Alfred Kinsey contributed large amounts of data in the 50′s and 60′s describing what people do sexually, starting to answer the questions of “what is normal sexually”. And Masters and Johnson dedicated their lives to understanding the physiology of what happens to the body during the sexual arousal cycle including sexual arousal and orgasm.
Over the past few decades sexology has become a field in which research has blossomed, with technology such as fMRI’s adding to our understanding of the brain’s role in the sexual experience.