Michael Perelman’s Fundamental Contribution to Sex Therapy
50m
Michael Perelman
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Sexologist
Trailer
Get AccessFull VideoContent: Professor Michael Perelman’s work has undoubtedly stimulated significant innovations in sex research and therapy. His career journey was inspired by his collaboration with Helen Kaplan back in the 70s, which lasted for 20 years. Kaplan’s work strongly impacted today’s integrated sex therapy, first described by Althof, Leiblum, McCarthy, Rosen, Segraves, and Perelman himself. In 1995, having been appointed Co-Director of the Human Sexuality Program (founded by Helen Kaplan), Perelman refined his mind/body ideas into the well-known Sexual Tipping Point® model (STP). The STP depicts a person’s moment-to-moment sexual response, as regulated by the interaction of their constitutional sexual capacity with biomedical, psychosocial, and cultural determining factors. It is valuable for modeling treatment and can easily be used to explain risks and benefits for patients with sexual disorders.
In this interview by Evie and Francesca, Michael walks us through the evolution of sex therapy during the last 50 years through the eyes of an active witness and agent of change. Michael shares his opinion on what the STP adds to the clinical practice of sexologists, its constant development, how it could be applied across the full spectrum of sexual concerns and disorders, and the most common misinterpretations. Michael also offers his point of view on potential pitfalls therapists should avoid, highlighting the clinical skills that contributed the most to his clinical practice.
Produced in 2022
Michael Perelman
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Sexologist
Distinguished Guest
Dr. Michael A. Perelman is a Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and former Clinical Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Urology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.
For more than 30 years, he co-directed its Human Sexuality Program, founded by Helen Singer Kaplan. The program is among the longest continuously running sex therapy case conferences in the world, providing continuing education for graduates and guest clinicians. A former National Institutes of Health Fellow, Dr. Perelman wrote the first dissertation on sex therapy in Columbia University history in 1976. He completed his clinical internship at Duke University Medical Center, where he served as Chief Intern, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in sex therapy at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. In 2011, he founded the MAP Education & Research Foundation, a public charity dedicated to advancing a biomedical, psychosocial, and cultural approach to sexual health disorders. The Foundation also serves as the steward of his Sexual Tipping Point® (STP) Model and sponsors annual STP Awards recognizing outstanding professional presentations and abstracts.
An international leader in sexual medicine Dr. Perelman has served on the boards of several professional organizations and was President of The Society for Sex Therapy & Research (SSTAR). He is a Fellow of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA), The International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH), and The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS). Dr. Perelman has received Awards for Excellence from the American Psychological Association’s Division 38 (Health Psychology), APA Division 43 (Society for Couple and Family Psychology), AASECT, and the University of Minnesota. He has also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA) and The International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH). He co-edited the textbook Management of Sexual Dysfunction in Men and Women: An Integrated Approach and served as Editor-in-Chief in re-establishing Springer’s Current Sexual Health Reports, where he now holds the title of Emeritus Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Perelman has authored more than 225 publications, including over 70 peer-reviewed articles, more than 25 book chapters in sexual medicine, numerous abstracts, and over 300 invited presentations worldwide. He also writes the invited Psychology Today blog, The Sexual Tipping Point. He also serves on multiple editorial boards and as a consulting editor and reviewer for professional publications.