{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T06:05:41Z","timestamp":1775023541288,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":68,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,19]],"date-time":"2018-11-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1542585600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Psychol Psychother"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objectives<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Little research has examined the discourses that shape therapists\u2019 sense\u2010making around heterosex. This paper explores the discourses of sexuality and gender underpinning therapists\u2019 and non\u2010therapists\u2019 responses to a sexual experimentation scenario in a heterosexual relationship. It also considers the value of the novel technique of story completion (SC), in which participants are asked to write a story in response to a hypothetical scenario, for qualitative psychology and psychotherapy research.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Design<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This research used a comparative SC design (Kitzinger &amp; Powell, 1995). Participants were sequentially presented with and invited to complete two story stems: one in which a male character suggested \u2018trying something new\u2019 to his female partner and one in which the female character made the suggestion. The stems were otherwise identical.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A total of 100 SCs were written by 49 (28 female; 21 male) therapists and 51 (29 female; 22 male) non\u2010therapists. Participants were recruited mainly via UK\u2010based email lists and\n                      <jats:italic>Facebook<\/jats:italic>\n                      groups, and therapeutic training organizations, and the data were analysed using a feminist post\u2010structuralist thematic analysis (Braun &amp; Clarke, 2006).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Both groups of participants drew on heteronormative discourses of sexuality and gender to make sense of the stem. Engaging in sexual experimentation was often depicted as a demonstration of being normal. In some stories written by women, sex was framed as a site for negotiating \u2018equality\u2019 and reciprocity in relationships. Therapists were more likely than non\u2010therapists to frame \u2018difficulties\u2019 within relationships as opportunities for personal growth and increased emotional depth, and their stories included greater emotional complexity.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings raise questions about practitioner training and whether it results in therapists drawing on narrow and restrictive discourses of heterosex in clinical practice.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Practitioner points<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:list list-type=\"bullet\">\n                        <jats:list-item>\n                          <jats:p>Training on sexual issues is largely absent from non\u2010specialist practitioner training courses, which potentially means therapists are ill\u2010equipped to respond to clients\u2019 anxiety about sexual issues. Evidence from this and other research indicates that therapists\u2019 sense\u2010making around heterosexual sexual relationships is underpinned by narrow and restrictive discourses that entrench traditional gender relations and limit sexual agency.<\/jats:p>\n                        <\/jats:list-item>\n                        <jats:list-item>\n                          <jats:p>Psychologists are increasingly taking up positions of clinical leadership and are looked to for models of best practice. Drawing on theorizations of sexual difficulties, and of anxieties about sexual practice, that challenge traditional gender and heteronorms, and the commodification and medicalization of sex, is important for effective psychological leadership relating to the treatment of sexual issues and the furthering of social justice agendas.<\/jats:p>\n                        <\/jats:list-item>\n                      <\/jats:list>\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1111\/papt.12203","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,19]],"date-time":"2018-11-19T20:54:16Z","timestamp":1542660856000},"page":"189-206","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":21,"title":["Therapists\u2019 and non\u2010therapists\u2019 constructions of heterosex: A qualitative story completion study"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"93","author":[{"given":"Iduna","family":"Shah\u2010Beckley","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust Bath UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9405-7363","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Victoria","family":"Clarke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health and Social Sciences Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences The University of the West of England Bristol UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zoe","family":"Thomas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health and Social Sciences Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences The University of the West of England Bristol UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_5_2_1","volume-title":"The femme fatale: Erotic icon","author":"Allen Y. 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