The Therapeutic Side of BDSM
This article explores how BDSM can be a therapeutic tool for some survivors of sexual trauma. While research shows that BDSM practitioners do not have higher rates of trauma or psychological dysfunction, survivors who are drawn to kink may find it healing due to its emphasis on constant consent, intentional power exchange and structured intimacy.
The article emphasizes that BDSM is not a cure and should not replace trauma therapy, but when approached ethically with consent, care and emotional literacy, it can be a powerful framework for healing, self-discovery and reclamation.
Real Change Starts Inside: Why Mindset Matters More Than Behavior
Many people try to change their behavior without examining the beliefs that drive it, which leaves the underlying pattern intact. From an existential sex therapy perspective, insight matters but transformation begins in the pause where a person notices the pattern and chooses a different response. Mindset functions as the source of change, because it reshapes how one interprets experience and makes room for agency in the present.
You Can’t Control Others, But You Can Choose Your Response
The essay argues that control in intimate life is an illusion, especially in sexuality and relationships. Stoic thought clarifies what is within our power, existential thought clarifies what meaning we make of that limitation. Rather than trying to change others, the work is to choose how we will engage with them. True freedom comes from responding with integrity rather than managing another person’s behavior, desire or healing.
Choosing a Partner: Beyond “Checking Boxes” and Toward Character
Dating culture encourages selecting partners based on external traits, but from an existential sex therapy view this misses the deeper foundations of intimacy and sexual connection. Erotic and relational vitality emerge less from compatibility checklists and more from character, presence and how two people meet uncertainty together. Choosing partners by values and ways of being, rather than profiles and attributes, creates a more durable basis for intimacy and desire.
When Pleasure Becomes a Chore: An Existential Take on Sex and Intimacy
Many people find that sex shifts from a source of pleasure to a sense of obligation, not because desire is broken but because the meaning around sex has changed. Existential sex therapy focuses on agency and meaning rather than performance, allowing ambivalence and examining what sex represents rather than how often it occurs. When sex becomes chosen rather than required, authenticity and connection tend to return.
When Sexual Avoidance Becomes a Silent Choice
The essay explores how sexual avoidance often feels passive but functions as an active choice that shapes a person’s relational and internal world. From an existential sex therapy perspective avoidance is rarely about low libido alone but about protecting the self from vulnerability, exposure and the burden of freedom. Recognizing avoidance as a choice restores agency and allows individuals to examine the meaning behind their silence rather than assuming time will fix what remains unspoken.