Exploring therapists' and psychology students' constructions of sexual refusal in heterosexual relationships: A qualitative story completion study

Abstract

AbstractAnxieties about sex and sexual problems are widespread and are often brought to counselling and psychotherapy. Research has found that even practitioners without specialist training often work with sexual difficulties because of the prevalence of such problems. Some of the most common concerns brought to therapy centre on desire discrepancies between male and female partners and a lack of sexual desire. In this paper, we ask the question what understandings of “heterosex” might await women and men bringing concerns about desire discrepancies and a lack of desire to the therapy room? We report the findings of a qualitative study exploring the discourses underpinning therapists' and psychology undergraduates' constructions of women and men repeatedly refusing sex in the context of an ongoing heterosexual relationship. Data were collected from 71 participants (33 therapists and 38 students) using the innovative story completion method, in which participants are presented with the opening sentences of a story centred on a hypothetical scenario and asked to complete it. The resulting stories were analysed with thematic analysis. Participants drew on heteronormative discourses of masculinity, femininity and heterosex to make sense of sexual refusal and its consequences. However, the stories written by male and, especially, female therapists included less problematisation of the absence of sex and more possibilities for overcoming sexual and relational problems. The data potentially raise questions about whether professional training allows therapists to access discourses that subvert dominant understandings of heterosex, as we argue it ideally should.