Sexual Shame
Sexual shame is a specific form of shame caused by negative evaluations of one’s sexual identity, behaviors, attractions, thoughts, or feelings (Gordon, 2017). Sexual shame is related to one’s past sexual experiences and behaviors (Pulverman & Meston, 2020), and often encompasses topics related to sex and sexuality, sexual desires, and deeply personal aspects of sexual identity that are not changeable, such as attraction and gender. The need to understand sexual shame better has been clearly established in the literature (Levison, 2012; Shadbolt, 2009). Although past studies have sought to quantify sexual shame by correlating global shame experiences with measures of sexual attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs (Kroll et al., 2007; K. M. Murray, Ciarrocchi, & Murray-Swank, 2007), these efforts overlooked the experiences of people who functioned well overall but who experienced sexual shame with regard to sexual experiences or sexual identity (Billard, 2018). Psychometrically sound measures that assess shame are additionally limited (Rizvi, 2009), and a clear need continues to exist for measures that provide clinical utility and accurately assess sexual shame across genders (Gordon, 2017; Kyle, 2013).
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Sexual Shame
- Factors That Influence Sexual Shame
- Deconstructing Sexual Shame in Counseling
- Developing a Sex-Affirming Counseling Framework
- Common Issues Related to Sexual Shame
- Addressing Sexual Shame in Therapeutic Settings
- Specific Strategies to Enhance Sexual Empowerment
- Referral to Specialists
- Attending to Countertransference
- Conclusion
- References