Religious Therapists

Non-religious Therapists

Sexuality is perceived by both groups as a discourse with a social taboo.

“I really considered it as very embarrassing, very uncomfortable issues, and I felt both the gap and the conflict of yes and no talk. Yes allowed, or forbidden?”

Religious therapists expect that the program will be in line with their values and culture and that the focus will be on healthy sexuality.

Non-religious therapists express the need to change attitudes to allow for more open dialogue in the clinic.

“I think this is very true and it is a very significant added value that you say the issue should be made accessible to the culture. Maybe there was something insensitive to culture and then it created and maybe it had an impact on the group. I had a very hard time, I did not feel I could speak freely or ask freely…”

“…I think the most important thing I got was the ability to talk about sex and sexuality more openly.”

“This is someone who thus showed depression and very great difficulties in a relationship and I was not ashamed to go down already at the intake meeting.”

Religious therapists discussed the conflict between their religious-cultural values that limit the discourse on sexuality and their role as sex therapists to clients in need.

Non-religious therapists are caught in a conflict between their desire to protect themselves from threatening content and their role as sex therapists.

“My part was very lacking, the reference to the religious public. It is true that the structure of the human body is the same structure but I think the attitudes and values in which everyone grows up, even the physical environment. I do not have to tell you, it is very, very significant, it cannot be disconnected. When you come to study a particular field then also the population for which it is intended, it must be about the way, the theoretical knowledge you knew. But regarding the religious place it was very lacking, maybe one meeting to bring some kind of Torah figure that would bring her unique position. Even asking questions, what to do in cases, even what the law is. On the part of halakha (the collective body of Jewish religious laws), what is allowed, what are the boundaries of halakha in these areas.”

“I think I’m having a hard time and I wrote it down for you in all the questionnaires, something you know I cannot work with and I will not work with, it’s all related. In pedophilia, in the section on pedophiles. Not something I am, something I have a hard time accepting and not something I will take care of. Both because I am not qualified, and also because it goes against my believing self. Nor do I want an issue where children are harmed.”

Sex therapy was perceived by both groups as a variety of challenging sex issues, and participating in the program enabled them to bridge the gaps and gain personal clarity and choice.

“But I’ll say in general that it’s dealing with my sexuality. It opened the door for me to dabble in my sexuality. First of all it was really interesting, I think I was exposed to a field that is not talked about and that I do not talk about and it very much made me open, open to talk about the subject…openness, um…as if a kind of legitimacy that everything is fine.”