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Dr. Brotto explains the mindfulness for treating women's sexual arousal disorders.
Dr. Brotto:
Mindfulness is a technique that’s been used for a long time. It’s, we often use the word "meditation" in place of mindfulness, which is increasingly in our Western world we are hearing about mindfulness, we’re reading in the newspaper, there is mainstream books talking about why mindfulness is good for you for a number of medical and psychiatric problems. It comes down to the practice of being present.
So, the opposite of mindfulness is eating your dinner, talking on your phone, texting with the other hand, tending to children, all at the same time, our very busy multi-tasking world. Mindfulness is doing what you do with intent, with presence, and doing one thing at a time and maybe it’s not doing anything, maybe it’s just sitting and being.
So it really is about being in the present moment in a very attentive, very deliberate kind of way. So mindfulness for sexual difficulties involves a number of different exercises in which we teach women how to do that when you’re being sexual.
So we hear from a lot of women that their brains are elsewhere when they’re being sexual. Their bodies may be engaged, but their mind may be thinking about other things, and as a result there is a reduction in pleasure, not a lot of arousal is happening and finally, very difficult to reach orgasm. It can also be painful as a result of that.
So mindfulness is really how does the woman stay engaged, stay in the present, and if her mind drifts and wanders, how do you bring her back into the present moment.
About Dr. Brotto, Ph.D., R. Psych.:
Dr. Lori Brotto is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia and a Registered Psychologist with the BC College of Psychologists. She conducts research on women’s sexual health and difficulties, develops and test psycho-educational interventions for women with sexual desire and arousal complaints, and studies additional sexual health topics including, culture and sexuality, hormones and sexual desire, cancer and sexuality, HPV and sexuality, and asexuality. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of British Columbia and trained at the University of Washington, completing a one-year internship in the Department of Psychiatry, and two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Reproductive and Sexual Medicine.
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