Group Sex Therapy

Impotence and frigidity are very private problems that sex therapists usually treat on an individual basis. But they can sometimes best be cured in the company of a group of people with similar problems. That is the opinion of Psychiatrist Herbert Vandervoort, 47, director of the Sex Advisory and Counseling Unit of the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. His clinic in the past two years has been pioneering a program of low-cost sex counseling for mixed groups of as many as 40 people.

Vandervoort and his staff of 24 counselors tackle the full range of sexual woes from premature ejaculation to simple marital boredom. The approach is novel, to say the least. One of the clinic's most controversial innovations is a weekend marathon of sexually explicit education films shown to as many as 20 couples at once. The screening, which includes a few old stag reels (for "historical interest," says Vandervoort), helps reduce anxiety about sexuality while at the same time demonstrating some typical patterns of sexual behavior. Six hours of movies and a lengthy discussion with counselors are enough to help some people. But others find it necessary to continue therapy in smaller groups, usually with a male-female counseling team.

Fantasy Use. Depending on their problems, clients (the word "patient" is never used) have a full curriculum of programs from which to choose. For "pre-orgasmic" women (those who have never achieved orgasm), there is a ten-session course in which they discuss their problems with female counselors, view movies, and receive homework assignments in such subjects as masturbation technique and use of fantasy in sex. Of the 150 women who have taken this program, 90% were eventually able to achieve orgasm.

One of the clinic's most effective innovations is a two-session class for couples. At the initial four-hour meeting, ten to 20 women meet with counselors to discuss female sexuality, history and anatomy; they know that their male counterparts are sitting in a separate room and listening through a closed-circuit television hookup. A week later, the procedure is reversed and the men talk while the women listen.

The economies of group therapy allow Vandervoort's clinic to charge an average of only $30 to $35 for each of the ten visits usually required to complete the treatment. The two-session class for couples costs $20 per person. That cost compares favorably with sex therapy facilities like the famed Masters and Johnson Reproductive Biology Research Foundation in St. Louis, where counseling is private and bills run to $2,500 per couple. There are other benefits as well. While the Masters and Johnson clinic requires a two-week stay in St. Louis, Vandervoort's clients meet just once a week while maintaining their jobs and a normal lifestyle. More important, says Vandervoort, "people working in groups tend to gain support from the group. The educational process comes not only from what they learn in their sessions but also from discovering that they are not isolated, that others have the same troubles."

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