Abstract
Like the slogan of the American Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine says, “No injury, no matter how serious, can take away your ability to have a relationship, experience love, and experience the attraction between two people.” However, people with spinal cord injury (SCI) have to fight with their own and societal attitudes and stereotypes that limit sexuality to the physiological functions of genitalia, phallocentric primacy of sexual pleasure, and sexual attractiveness of perfect bodies. The scope of the present study is to evaluate the impacts of a psychoeducational intervention in a personal growth group on the sexual life of seven people with SCI and four of their partners particularly their sexual interest and satisfaction, depression, and anxiety. Due to the small samples size, nonparametric statistical tests were used to compare pre- and post-outcome measures for all participants: patients and the partners group. Possible effects of gender were also considered. The effectiveness of the psychoeducational intervention was clearly apparent, showing a high effect size in improving sexual interest and satisfaction, and the opportunity and ability to enjoy sexuality. A reduction of anxiety was also observed for all participants, although it may not have been related to the psychoeducational intervention. Moreover, the intervention significantly improved the opportunity and ability to enjoy sexuality for the partner and patient group. No effect was found on depression. This was the first initiative in Italy aiming to address the sexual life and not only to cure the sexual dysfunction of people with SCI. The positive, clear evidence of the validity of the Love & Life project’s intervention bodes well for new psychoeducational initiatives that in Italy meet the sexual needs of people with SCI and their partners, providing adequate education and psychological support, involving partners, and creating a space to talk among peers.
Highlights
Can a spinal cord injury (SCI) take away the ability to have a relationship, experience love, and experience the attraction between two people? “No,” says the American Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine (2011), who made this issue a slogan to promote sexuality and reproductive health in adults with SCI
Through the Cognitive-Behavioral therapy techniques (Hollon and Beck, 2013) the participants were guided to overcome misconception and negative myths about sexuality and disability, masturbation, orgasm, sexual fantasy, sexual identity, and the beauty and attractiveness of the body through a process of drawing up thoughts and emotions associated with their own sexuality
Through Gestalt therapy (Perls et al, 1951) and EmotionFocused therapy techniques (Elliott and Greenberg, 2017), the creation of a new thinking on sexuality was strengthened by focusing awareness on bodily feelings, emphasizing both the relationship and the process of reflection on aroused emotions to create new meaning
Summary
Can a spinal cord injury (SCI) take away the ability to have a relationship, experience love, and experience the attraction between two people? “No,” says the American Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine (2011), who made this issue a slogan to promote sexuality and reproductive health in adults with SCI. Like many other people with disabilities, people with SCI have to fight with their own and societal attitudes and stereotypes denying that individuals with disabilities are sexual beings (Tepper, 2005; Hammond and Burns, 2009) These attitudes and stereotypes are consequences of two prevalent and interrelated myths that very often inform human thinking and behavior: the myth of bodily perfection (Stone, 1995) and the myth of asexuality (Tremain, 1996; Tepper, 1999; Milligan and Neufeldt, 2001; Thompson et al, 2001). A model of disability is a categorical representation from which social relations are developed, built, and understood (Meloni et al, 2015) It is a common structure for making sense of the complex phenomena of disability, by helping people to identify and explain social reaction to human, biological, and social diversity. It offers a social frame (Goffman, 1963) in which expected behaviors and social identities are represented, helping people to make decisions and judgments (Federici and Meloni, 2009)
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