The place of mindfulness in a sensorimotor psychotherapy intervention to improve women's sexual health

Abstract

Given the gap in the existing literature on body-based, mindfulness-informed approaches to group therapy in sex therapy, we decided to pilot test the feasibility, acceptability and potential effect of a group-based, sensorimotor intervention, with a strong mindfulness component, on women's sexual health. Two case studies were conducted, at a Midwestern, university-based sexuality clinic in the USA. Compared with pre-intervention scores, overall mindfulness scores significantly improved following the intervention. In line with prior studies, our qualitative results indicated that participants found mindfulness skills to be particularly useful and transferable to their daily lives. In contrast, there was no statistically significant improvement in the quantitative measure of body connection. Nevertheless, the qualitative data indicated that the intervention had an impact on both body awareness and connection. Future studies should explore the potential of sensorimotor interventions to improve sexual health for women and other minority populations and assess whether there is a baseline of mindfulness necessary for these interventions to be impactful and successful.