Sensate focus therapy is a scientifically proven sex therapy technique and at the heart of what we do. A series of mindful touch exercises, it’s designed to reduce sexual anxiety and provide opportunities for you to explore your own and your partner’s body. By focusing only on the sensations you feel, you learn to keep your mind here in this moment, which gives your body space to respond naturally.
Desire starts in the mind. With the latest in sex psychology and education, you’ll build foundational knowledge for a secure and loving sex life. You’ll learn to manage anxious thoughts that get in the way of desire, as well as how desire and arousal really work, and methods on how to overcome your desire or libido issues.
Through a series of mindful touch exercises you will gradually introduce intimate touch back into your relationship with yourself and your partner. Focusing on the sensations available to you helps you get out of your head during sex and become positively connected with your body to make way for more pleasurable experiences.
You will work together through your expert-made plan. Learning sexual communication skills as well as how to navigate difficult issues between you. Through reframing intimacy, you can become more connected than ever before.
In a 2015 study of the effectiveness of Sensate Focus as a treatment for a variety of sexual difficulties, therapists found it to be 83% effective. (1) Sensate focus was introduced by Masters and Johnson (1970) and refined by Kaplan (1974). We are taking their learnings to the next level.
Recent studies have shown that online therapy interventions are equally as effective as real-life therapy (2). Online or digital therapy also allow you to work on your own time, and at your own pace, without any of the drawbacks of waiting lists, or traveling to appointments.
Through combining sensate focus, psychosexual education, mindfulness, systematic and emotionally focussed therapy, we have been able to create a solution with astounding results.
1) Peter Trigwell, Rachael Waddington, Andrew Yates & Sandra Coburn (2016) The Leeds Psychosexual Medicine Service: an NHS service for sexual dysfunction – review period 2, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 31:1, 32-41, DOI: 10.1080/14681994.2015.1078459
(2) Andersson, G., Cuijpers, P., Carlbring, P., Riper, H., & Hedman, E. (2014). Guided Internet-based vs. face-to-face cognitive behavior therapy for psychiatric and somatic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 13(3), 288–295. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20151
The leading experts in the field, our team of therapists and academics are dedicated to providing the highest quality research-backed therapy.
Dr Hertlein is a world-renowned sex therapist and thought leader. She’s the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy and has dedicated her career to helping couples repair their relationships. She’s been a practitioner for over 15 years, co-authoring ‘A Clinician’s Guide to Systemic Sex Therapy’, the leading textbook for clinicians in sex therapy. With us from the start, Dr Hertlein is integral to the therapeutic approaches we take.
After spending years researching issues around sexual desire and has received several awards for her publications. An expert on the subject, she is working to revolutionise treatment for Sexual Desire Discrepancy.
The brains behind the Blueheart studies that make sure our treatment is at the forefront of sex science.
All of the studies below have been published by our therapy team and go deeper into the latest research around desire, for those who like to nerd out!
This study aimed to identify individual factors predicting sexual desire. Several variables were found to be predictive, among others: sexual satisfaction, romantic love, and more.
READ FULL STUDYThis paper show that using partnered strategies such as communication and engaging in an alternative activity with a partner rather than masturbating alone was better for relationship and sexual satisfaction.
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This paper aimed to understand factors that contribute to desire and desire discrepancy, and talks about the differences and similarities across women from diverse sexual identity.
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