Mindfulness is the practice of intentionally being fully aware of one's thoughts, emotions and physical sensations in a nonjudgmental way. Although mindfulness is rooted in Eastern spiritual practices, it is rapidly being embraced in Western approaches to both physical and mental health care.
The empirical literature testing mindfulness for sexual problems is limited to two non-controlled studies and one qualitative study in non-distressed couples. Among the latter, a mindfulness-based intervention significantly enhanced relationship satisfaction and reduced distress (Carlson, Carlson, Gil, & Baucom, 2004). In the two non-controlled studies, a 3-session mindfulness-based group therapy significantly improved several indices of sexual function and reduced sexual distress in women with iatrogenic sexual desire and arousal difficulties (Brotto, Basson, & Luria, 2008) and in women with sexual arousal disorder associated with gynecologic cancer (Brotto, Heiman, et al., 2008).
The goal of this presentation is to discuss the findings from four controlled trials evaluating a mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral sex therapy in diverse samples of women.
Among different samples of women with:
(1) Provoked Vestibulodynia,
(2) sexual dysfuntion associated with gynaecologic cancer,
(3) iatrogenic hypoactive sexual desire disorder, and
(4) sexual distress associated with a history of childhood sexual abuse,
a 4-session mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral intervention significantly improved several indices of sexual function and significantly reduced distress compared to a wait-list control group. These studies provide further support for the utility of incorporating mindfulness into an array of complex sexual symptom presentations.
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: None disclosed
Recorded at the 20th WAS World Congress for Sexual Health - ‘Forging the Future: Sexual Health for the 21th Century,’Glasgow, United Kingdom, - June 12 – 16, 2011
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