Helping Couples Navigate Sexual Difficulties: Existential-Humanistic Approaches (4 CE Hours)

This workshop will address the assessment and treatment of sexual difficulties from a couples’ treatment perspective.  The emphasis will be on those sexual difficulties that emanate from relational trauma, and are then triggered and re-created in current relationships.  Such difficulties as disruption in sexual arousal, orgasm, and/or desire will be examined through a sex-positive, existential-humanistic lens.  Assessment and treatment approached from an existential-humanistic lens represents a new model of assisting these couples through the alleviation of the distress that manifests itself within the sexual relationship.  Case examples will be presented to illustrate the efficacy of the sex-positive, existential-humanistic model of treating sexual conflicts within the context of couples’ therapy.

At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Describe the Existential-Humanistic Approach to the assessment and treatment of sexual problems;
2. Describe and list the types of relational traumas that can result in sexual dysfunction;
3. Demonstrate at least two techniques of the Existential-Humanistic Approach that are efficacious in the treatment of sexual difficulties within the context of couples’ therapy;
4. Develop and conceptualize treatment plans for approaching the treatment of sexual problems using couples therapy as the primary treatment modality.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Daniel N. Watter is a founding partner of the Morris Psychological Group, P.A. located in Parsippany, New Jersey. His primary areas of practice focus on the treatment of individuals and couples experiencing sexual and/or relationship problems.

Dr. Watter received his doctoral degree from New York University in 1985, and has also earned a post-graduate certificate in Medical Humanities (with a concentration in healthcare ethics) from Drew University. He is licensed by the State of New Jersey as both a psychologist and a marital and family therapist. In addition, he is Board Certified in Sex Therapy by the American Association of

Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), and the American Board of Sexology (ACS), of which is also holds Fellowship status. Dr. Watter is an AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor, and has been elected to Fellowship Status in the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH).

In addition to his private practice, Dr. Watter has held several faculty appointments. He has served as an adjunct professor of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson, Drew, and Seton Hall Universities, a clinical instructor of OB/GYN and Women’s Health at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Watter is also a member of the medical staff of the Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, and served on the Medical Center’s Ethics Committee.

Dr. Watter is a member of several professional organizations, and has been elected to leadership positions in many. He has recently completed two terms on the New Jersey Psychological Association’s Ethics Committee where he spent two years as the Committee’s chairperson. He has also served two terms as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research (SSTAR), where he previously served as Membership Officer. Dr. Watter is also the former chair of the Diplomate Certification Committee for the American Association for Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT). Currently, he is serving as the President of SSTAR. In 2009, Dr. Watter was appointed by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine to the State Board of Psychological Examiners.

A frequent lecturer at professional meetings throughout the United States, Dr. Watter is also the author of several professional articles and book chapters on topics such as sexual function and dysfunction, and ethics in healthcare practice. He the co-author of the textbook, Health Counseling: A Microskills Approach, which was published by Jones and Bartlett, and is currently writing a textbook for Springer Publishing on using patient narratives to inform sex therapy practice.