Class film

I found the film that we watched in class to be informative in seeing a manner of working with couples who are struggling with their sex lives. Although at the beginning of the video I thought that she may take more of a medical perspective due to her medical assessments, I liked that the therapist did not solely focus on the biological component of the partners' sexual functioning. We saw her take a biopsychosocial perspective in assessing the medical aspects of the partners (e.g. when she tested the women for blood flow in their vaginal walls), but she also explored issues related to the individuals (including family of origin concerns such as in the police officer's upbringing with a violent father, as well as the trauma in regards to one of the females) as well as relational interactions between the partners.

I appreciated that not only her assessments covered a broad spectrum but that her treatment did as well. She demonstrated that although couples may present with similar dilemmas, every case is different and couples may need varying interventions, whether it be gaining trust in one another, opening communication, identifying historical barriers, or accepting vulnerability. I appreciated that this occurred in stages and that she worked simultaneously in therapy as well as homework assignments. I did acknowledge, however, that the nature of the video allowed for couples to make progress in quite a short amount of time, whereas I would suspect in everyday life it may take far longer for couples to make change (again, a case to case basis).