What is Sexocorporel?
Sexocorporel is a sexological and sex therapy concept developed by Jean-Yves Desjardins (1931-2011) at the Département de séxologie de l'Université du Québec in Montréal and has been continuously developed over the last 30 years in accordance with clinical experience and scientific findings.
The main goal of Sexocorporel is to teach people skills to improve their sexual health based on their sexual concerns.
Basic assumptions of the Sexocorporel concept
1. Body and mind are a fundamental unity
The body encompasses human thinking, experiencing, feeling and interacting. Body, emotions, thoughts and actions are seen as aspects of a unity. Changes in one aspect always represent changes in the other aspects. If I do something with my body, I do something in my brain and in my mind. If I have a feeling, this corresponds to certain neurophysiological and muscular physical conditions. Physical states and sensations have their counterparts in thoughts and feelings, and thoughts and feelings correlate with physical states.
Sexocorporel speaks of the human being as an indivisible whole, as an individual. For the understanding of sexuality and therapeutic work, Sexocorporel focuses on different components of the individual: physical, experience, relationship, and cognitions.
2. Life takes place in the three dimensions of movement
Living people are always in motion. Some muscles are always active - and active muscles cause movement. This movement can be expressed in three dimensions:
- Time (rhythms of movement)
- Amplitude (range of motion)
- Muscular tension (muscle tone)
The three dimensions of movement determine all our actions and enable us to consciously influence our actions, emotions, feelings and perceptions in everyday life and thus also in sexuality. Thanks to these dimensions, we are able to increase and modulate our sexual arousal at will.
3. Experiencing and shaping sexuality is the result of learning processes
Anatomical and physiological factors are involved in sexuality. However, how we experience it and what we make of it is learned. This learning begins in early childhood. All people have acquired skills and resources in their sexuality. Sexual problems arise when these learned skills can only be adapted to new life situations to a limited extent. They can be expanded through new learning processes.