Transactional Analysis: A 1960’s Favorite for 21st Century Sex & Couples Therapy

Description:

Brief overview of the tenets of Transactional Analysis (TA) and discussion of how “on the mark” Berne was in developing a simple but powerful approach to re-framing couples sexual transactions, particularly when a couple presents with distressing (to one or both) sexual behaviors or desires or fantasies.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the timelines of how a briefly-popular (more so in pop culture than psychoanalytic circles) treatment modality from the late 20th Century, aptly referring to couples’ communications as “transactions,” and its applicability to even Millennial, Gen Z and “alpha” patients who’ve largely grown up online and learned seemingly only transactional sexual and social interactions.
• Discuss clinical experience with couples, effectively utilizing TA’s relatively simple concepts to help couples “stay lovers” (versus turning into each others’ parent), especially with cases involving infidelity, discovered or revealed kinks & fetishes, “busted” porn use and masturbation, and so-called “sex addiction.”

Speaker Bio:

RICHARD M. SIEGEL, Ph.D., LMHC, CST, is the Director of Modern Sex Therapy Institutes, a postgraduate continuing education institute training sex therapists and sexual medicine specialists at multiple sites throughout the country. Dr. Siegel is a Florida-licensed mental health counselor and Board-certified sex therapist, and is certified by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) as a sex therapist and supervisor. He has a rich experiential background, including over 20 years working in sexuality education and addiction treatment, teaching on college campuses, and maintaining a private sex therapy practice. He enjoys a reputation as a seasoned and in-demand workshop and conference presenter, in addition to his work in training and supervising sex therapists.

Dr. Siegel has served AASECT as conference co-chair for three consecutive years, followed by two elected terms as Board Secretary, and has been appointed as the chair of the Supervisor Certification Committee. He is also a Clinical Member of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research (SSTAR), and served on the Executive Committee of that organization as its Membership Officer from 2015-2017.

He completed his Doctoral dissertation at the American Academy of Clinical Sexologists in Orlando, FL, with a research focus on the integration of healthy sexuality and addiction treatment. He has worked enthusiastically to integrate traditional sex therapy into the emergent specialty of sexual medicine, as well as the addiction treatment field.