Welcome to the Healthy Sex blog. Here we share the latest news and information about Wendy’s media interviews, presentations, and publications. You can find blog posts listed according to topic categories such as Sex & Love, Sex Abuse Healing, Sexual Fantasy, Porn Recovery, Reflections on Sex, and more – as well as by the date posted.
“Reflections on Sex” is a special category of blog posts featured in the Healthy Sex blog. It is sometimes referred to using the abbreviation, RoS. These blog posts serve as a running column, like a newspaper column. In these writings, Wendy shares the most fascinating ideas and insights she gained about sex in her more than forty years of work as a sex educator and therapist. New “Reflections on Sex” blog posts are published periodically and are highlighted on this page. To find out as soon as one is posted follow Wendy Maltz on Twitter or Facebook for announcements.
“Reflections on Sex” provides me an exciting opportunity to examine sex from old and new perspectives and share stories and ideas I haven’t written about before. I’m eager to tell you about the people, experiences, and discoveries that caught my attention and influenced my life. I hope you will find my observations entertaining as well as informative. Perhaps they will inspire you to reflect on your own journey with sex, how your views about it have changed, and what sex means to you.
Wendy Maltz
Why is today’s porn so compelling? What makes it “the Great Sex Spoiler”? How can recovering porn addicts approach sex in new ways that support sexual health and intimate relationships? For answers to these questions and more you are invited to listen to an interview discussion Wendy Maltz LCSW, DST recently had with Joe Ryan of the Freedom from Porn Addiction web site.
CLICK HERE to listen to the interview
Dr. Anne Hallward of Safe Space Radio recently spoke with Wendy Maltz LCSW, DST about the impact of sexual abuse on sexuality, and ways to reclaim pleasure, safety and intimacy. In this 30 minute interview, “Sexual Healing after Sexual Abuse,” Wendy describes techniques for relearning touch that involve staying with and speaking for your inner experience. She reports that taking a vacation from sex is sometimes necessary, because when sex feels like an obligation, it can often trigger difficulties from the abuse. Wendy shares a bit of her own healing history, discusses the impact of sexual abuse on intimate partners, and describes ways that couples can take on the challenge of healing together.
Click here to listen to the interview
A recent article in Newsweek Online by Kate Dailey discusses how the Transportation and Safety Administration’s new body scans and pat downs can create problems for survivors of sexual abuse. In the article Wendy Maltz, author of The Sexual Healing Journey, shares how in addition to the risk of flashbacks and panic attacks to unwanted touch, the procedures take place under time pressures and social constraints that make it difficult to engage healing and stress-coping techniques.
To read the full article: CLICK HERE
Wendy Maltz LCSW, DST was the featured guest Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 on the HealthyPlace TV Show, the online mental health TV show that airs over the HealthyPlace.com website. The program focused on how experiences such as incest, rape and molestation can harm a person’s sexuality. Wendy describes common sexual repercussions of sexual abuse such as avoiding or being afraid of sex, having trouble being emotionally present in sex, engaging in compulsive or inappropriate sex, experiencing negative reactions to touch, having unwanted sexual fantasies, and being troubled with sexual functioning difficulties. Wendy also talks about sexual healing as a dynamic process survivors can employ to reclaim a positive sense of what sex is and develop new skills for experiencing touch and sex in positive, life-affirming ways.
HealthyPlace.com is the largest consumer mental health site, providing comprehensive, trusted information on psychological disorders and psychiatric medications from both a consumer and expert point of view. The show is available on-demand through their permalinks and will play continuously on their site, for one week beginning April 28th, 2010.
The highly popular AlterNet.org website is currently featuring a long and meaty excerpt taken from Wendy’s book, Private Thoughts: Exploring the Power of Women’s Sexual Fantasies (coauthored with Suzie Boss) on their “Sex and Relationships” page. The excerpt describes, and illustrates with examples, nine positive functions of sexual fantasies: enhancing self-esteem and attractivenessincreasing sexual interest and desirefacilitating orgasmcelebrating the presentsatisfying curiosityrehearsing future possibilitiesrelieving stress and tensionpreserving a pleasant memorycoping with past hurts To read the article, go to: http://www.alternet.org/sex/146452/9_reasons_sex_fantasies_are_good_for_you or CLICK HERE
Join Wendy Maltz LCSW DST and Ms. HeartBeat, host Deborrah Cooper, in a discussion of relationship problems caused by pornography. We’ll discuss why it’s so easy to develop a problem with porn, and how relationships are being challenged. You can call in with questions and comments: 347-327-9215.
To learn more and listen
In the May 2009 issue of the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Dr. Jeanne Shaw presents a detailed review of The Porn Trap. She says that as a seasoned therapist it’s rare to find a book that changes her perspective on a sexual topic, but that’s just what The Porn Trap did. Dr. Shaw describesThe Porn Trap as “a guide developed specifically for people whose porn use is spiraling out of control, who want to stop their destructive behaviors and avoid serious consequences and losses. The book provides an opportunity for porn users and their partners to become aware of risks and negative impacts. It focuses on rebuilding self-respect, achieving recovery, improving intimacy, and developing a satisfying sexual relationship without porn. This book is written in a nonjudgmental, compassionate way, making it valuable for therapists and patients, alike. Conversational writing style and progressive organization allows for easy reading and understanding of a dichotomized and controversial topic.” Dr. Shaw concludes her review saying “The Porn Trap lets people who have run into problems with porn use know that their problems are understandable and they are not alone. It also shows the way to healing so they can separate themselves from porn,reclaim their sexuality, and enjoy self-pleasuring and partner sex in ways that are ultimately more rewarding and life-affirming than what porn has tooffer.” The full review can be obtained through Informaworld http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a910358330 Informaworld
You are invited to listen to a fun talk that Wendy Maltz gave a few months ago to a large group of professional women in Eugene. Here she shares key concepts about ensuring healthy sexuality, overcoming common sexual problems, and welcoming life-affirming sexual passion and pleasure.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to the presentation “What I Learned in Thirty Years as a Sex Therapist”.
In a May 20, 2009 NEWSWEEK web exclusive “Rx vs. XXX” journalist Tony Dokoupil examines the pros and cons of using a testosterone supplement to treat problems with low testosterone in men. At issue are whether “Low-T” is a real and significant problem, and whether the potential negative side-effects of medication such as sweating, unseemly hair, an unexplained penis disorder, and breast growth would discourage this type of treatment. Dokoupil also explores a suggestion that regularly watching porn could be used as better alternative for increasing the level of testosterone. He quotesWendy Maltz, coauthor of The Porn Trap, in sharing that using pornography is not a good idea because it carries serious psychological, physical, and relationship risks, as well.
CLICK HERE to read Tony’s article.
Writing in the Fall 2008 issue of the Annals of Behavioral Science and Medical Education Family Medicine and Psychiatry Professor Amy Ellwood LCSW of the University of Nevada recommends The Porn Trap as a groundbreaking self-help guide for individuals with pornography concerns and an excellent resource for students in the medicine and sexuality fields.
