Gain Confidence in Handling patients’ Secrets and Lies in Couple Sex Therapy (Part 1 & 2)
1h 36m
Francesca Tripodi
Psychotherapist & Sexologist
Trailer
Content and Aim: Secrets between partners in couple therapy have the potential of creating considerable ethical, legal, moral and therapeutic dilemmas, making a therapist’s procedures, policies and perspectives related to them significant considerations. One of the most crucial components to providing couples with a fruitful therapeutic experience is building a solid working alliance between the couple and the therapist. Secrets can place it at the greatest risk. When working with couples, a therapist’s ability to maintain fairness or balance in their relationship with both partners becomes one of many crucial attributes necessary to maintain the fragile relational equilibrium in the counselling relationship and build a strong working alliance. Of the many hazards to be avoided in couple therapy, the inappropriate handling of the revelation of a secret represents one of the greatest.
The consequences of a secret between partners are many and varied depending on the content of the secret, the context of the situation, and the therapist’s response to the secret. Secrets may cause bad feelings to partners, both the secret keeper than the unaware one, such as betrayal, sadness, poor self-esteem, disappointment, emptiness, disconnection or loss of trust. However, keeping something untold can also be interpreted as a hidden, collusive agreement between the two partners, as the truth may potentially force them to take some critical decisions they’re not ready for.
This course will bring participants on a journey. The first step is to recognize in ourselves how many times we keep secrets and which are the pros/cons of this behaviour; the second step is to identify the reasons why secrets can destroy an intimate relationship; the third and most important step is to be aware, as a therapist, on how many variables we need to keep in mind and set when dealing with secrets in couple sex therapy to handle them most appropriately. Clinical examples will be revised.
Learning Objectives: Participants will learn about and get inputs on:
- Different meanings of secrets and reasons not to tell them
- The impact of secrets on couple dynamics
- What is the function of secrets in couple therapy
- Code of ethics and confidentiality
- Clinical strategies to manage secrets in couple sex therapy through examples
Produced in 2021
Francesca Tripodi
Psychotherapist & Sexologist
Lecturer and Supervisor
Francesca Tripodi, PsyD, is a systemic psychotherapist, sexologist, and clinical supervisor working at the Institute of Clinical Sexology in Rome. She attended the Oxford School of Sexual Medicine and is an EFS-ESSM Certified Psychosexologist (ECPS).
With more than 25 years of clinical experience, she covers a wide range of sexual issues, focusing primarily on sexual dysfunction and couple therapy. She is an active Italian Federation of Scientific Sexology (FISS) member. Lecturer at the Training School of Clinical Sexology in Rome and the FISS symposia.
Since 2013, she has been co-director of and lecturer at the ESSM School of Sexual Medicine. Current member of the ESSM Educational and Scientific Committees, the EFS/ESSM Exam Committee, and the European Accreditation of Psycho-sexology (EPSA). From 2014 to 2022, member of the EFS Executive and Educational Committees. Lecturer at the ABC course and the Exam pre-course, held during the ESSM congresses. Lecturer at several ESSM and EFS symposia held during congresses or professional training courses.
In 2019 co-founder and current executive board director of International Online Sexology Supervisors (IOSS), an educational initiative that aims to cover gaps within the field of life-long learning in Clinical Sexology for professionals worldwide.
Author of more than 100 national and international publications in the field, she also contributed and is co-editor of the EFS-ESSM Syllabus of Clinical Sexology (2014), the ESSM Manual of Sexual Medicine (2015), and the Textbook of Rare Sexual Medicine Conditions (2022).
Over the last 25 years, she participated in lectures, oral communications, or posters of the most important conferences and international meetings organized by the main scientific societies of sexology (EFS, WAS, ESSM, ISSM). She has participated in many research projects as a scientific collaborator or coordinator.
Languages
English, Italian