Dr. Kanaris is conducting a workshop this June! Here are the details:

When: 6/1/2018-6/3/2018
Where: New York Marriott East Side
525 Lexington Avenue at 49th Street
New York, New York 10017
Contact: NYSPA Central Office, nyspa@nyspa.org, 518-437-1040

FRIDAY, JUNE 1: 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

SESSION 1:
The Historical Foundation of Sexual Illnesses, and How It Is Reflected in DSM and in Treatment Modalities

Presenters: Jack Drescher, MD & Charles Silverstein, PhD

This first workshop will describe how the medical community historically defined a narrow band of human sexual behaviors as normal, and everything else as deviant, pathological and perverse. Consequently, the capricious act of ejaculation by men during forbidden circumstances became the medical model for suppressing variant forms of sexuality, and female sexuality was forced to conform to this repression.

Eventually, liberalization in society changed medical diagnosis exemplified by the 1973 American Psychiatric Association (APA) removal of “homosexuality.” This presentation reviews some historical scientific theories and arguments that first led to the placement of homosexuality in DSM-I and DSM-II. It will also track how the removal of homosexuality led to changes in the diagnoses of Gender Identity Disorder and paraphilias in subsequent editions.

FRIDAY, JUNE 1: 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

SESSION 2:
Female Sexuality: Assessment and Treatment

Presenter: Suzanne Iasenza, PhD

Intro: Charles Silverstein, PhD

This workshop will cover the essentials about how to assess female sexual issues giving special attention to desire, arousal, orgasm and sexual pain. It will include how to conduct in-depth sexual history-taking focusing on how attachment experiences in early life influence female adult sexual functioning. Case examples will be included.

FRIDAY, JUNE 1: 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM

SESSION 3:
How to Take a Sex History: Some Do’s and Dont’s

Presenter: Steven Snyder, MD

Some people tend to be uncomfortable sharing details about their sexual lives, while others are more forthcoming. Using a systematic approach, this case-based presentation will teach how to take an active role in eliciting a patient’s sexual history. Attendees will be shown how to elicit information about a couple’s “sexual status” (“Who typically does what to whom? How does that feel? Then what happens next, and why?”), how to take an individual’s or couple’s sexual developmental history, how to elicit specific information about desire, arousal, orgasm, pain, trauma, and specific comorbidities (such as anxiety, mood disorders and other conditions), and how to distinguish between “immediate” and “remote” factors in order to guide treatment.

SATURDAY, JUNE 2: 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

SESSION 4:
The Treatment of Contemporary Sexual Problems in Psychotherapy

Presenters: Daniel Watter, EdD, and Peter Kanaris, PhD

Some sexual problems presented by patients in therapy have been shaped by profound existential issues. They are also often influenced by the technologies of our contemporary world. This workshop will illustrate both.

How the fear of death plays a key role in some cases of sexual addiction or out of control sexual behavior will be presented. Additionally, technology’s role in creating a modern form of infidelity or cyber infidelity will be addressed.

Participants will be able to identify strategies that the non-sex therapist psychologist would be able to use in order to work effectively with patients presenting with these sexual concerns. They will be able to describe and apply principles, concepts and methods of a conjoint model for the treatment of infidelity/cyber infidelity.

SATURDAY, JUNE 2: 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

SESSION 5:
Role-Playing the Sexual History of a Patient and a Critique of the Program

Presenter: Charles Silverstein, PhD

Participants will be assigned to teams in order to role-play a patient or couple who present a sexual disorder. After an allotted time in this acted therapy session, all participants will be organized into a “fish-bowl” to discuss their feelings and attitudes about their experience. The fish-bowl will go on to critique both the role-playing experience and the track on sexuality for the convention.