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Helping Couples Deal with Intimacy and Sexuality

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Cognitive and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy with Couples

Abstract

Sexual and intimate relationships are often sabotaged by the innate inclinations that have been endowed by evolutionarily ancient tendencies. Specifically, sexual attraction and subsequent bonding tends to be short-lived and predicated on biological tendencies that humans have in common with other primates. Thus, innate human mating tendencies often impact the duration and intensity of love and sexual attraction in virtually all relationships. These intrinsic proclivities are a key predicate of most sexual conflicts between couples. This chapter will help the practitioner become aware of these underlying causes of intimacy conflict and assist them in applying cognitively-based methods to best resolve related barriers to satisfactory relationships.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Mike Abrams Ph.D., MBA, ABPP

  2. William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, USA

    Mike Abrams Ph.D., MBA, ABPP

Authors
  1. Mike Abrams Ph.D., MBA, ABPP
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Correspondence to Mike Abrams Ph.D., MBA, ABPP .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern Iowa, 37721 S. Desert Sun Dr., Tucson, 85739, Arizona, USA

    Ann Vernon

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Abrams, M. (2012). Helping Couples Deal with Intimacy and Sexuality. In: Vernon, A. (eds) Cognitive and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy with Couples. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5137-2_7

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