Psychosexual Resilience After Coercion, Trauma, Or Assault
Psychosexual resilience is an ability to maintain healthy, satisfying, fulfilling, positive, and productive sexuality despite challenges such as coercion, trauma, or assault. This article explains what promotes it.
Understanding Psychosexual Resilience
To understand psychosexual resilience after coercion, trauma, or assault, we must define key terms. Coercion includes force, manipulation, pressure, or deception used to induce unwanted behavior. Trauma is a response to harmful experiences that causes lasting physical, emotional, mental, social, or spiritual damage. Assault involves touching someone without consent.
Sexual Resiliency
When sexually coerced or traumatized, people may experience anxiety, fear, shame, guilt, anger, helplessness, isolation, self-blame, confusion, loss of trust, difficulty communicating needs and boundaries, relationship problems, low libido, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, vaginal dryness, pain during intercourse, difficulty orgasming, arousal disorders, and PTSD symptoms (flashbacks, nightmares). They can develop unhealthy coping strategies like numbing with drugs/alcohol, avoidance of intimacy/sex, hypersexuality, masturbation, or pornography addiction. Victims of rape or childhood abuse may have body image issues, relationship struggles, depression, postpartum depression, low self-esteem, or trouble parenting.
What Promotes Psychosexual Resilience?
Psychosexual resilience requires healthy relationships and sexual communication skills. The goal is to reduce triggers for flashbacks or compulsive behaviors by managing stress and regulating strong emotions. This takes time and support from loved ones. Therapy helps victims identify and change negative beliefs about themselves and their past. It explores feelings, processes events, resolves conflicts, and learns techniques such as mindfulness meditation, breathwork, and yoga. Education empowers survivors by showing how assault or trauma are not their fault. Survivors need to feel safe in order to heal. Self-care strategies include relaxation exercises, exercise, massage, aromatherapy, journaling, expressive arts, and therapist visits. Sex after trauma involves establishing boundaries, taking it slow, experimenting, and communicating wants and needs clearly.
This article has explained what promotes psychosexual resilience after coercion, trauma, or assault. Maintaining healthy, satisfying, fulfilling, positive, and productive sexuality despite challenges requires healthy relationships and sexual communication skills, education, self-care strategies, and therapy.
What promotes psychosexual resilience after coercion, trauma, or assault?
The promotion of psychosexual resilience after coercion, trauma, or assault involves several factors that may differ depending on the individual's unique experiences and circumstances. One factor is developing a strong sense of self-efficacy and mastery over one's sexuality, which can be achieved through positive body image, self-esteem, and assertiveness training. Another factor is cultivating healthy relationships with others, especially those who support and validate one's feelings and boundaries.