Michael Sytsma
PhD, LPC, CST, C-PST™, CPCS
Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Sex Therapist, and Certified Psychosexual Therapist · Building Intimate Marriages
Dr. Michael Sytsma is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Sex Therapist, and Certified Psychosexual Therapist with over 40 years of clinical experience specializing in marital sexual therapy. He holds a PhD from the University of Georgia with a dissertation focused on sexual desire discrepancy in married couples. His clinical and research specialties include sexual desire discrepancy, marital sexuality, assessment and history taking, theoretical approaches to sex therapy, and problematic sexual behaviors, with work appearing in peer-reviewed journals and multiple professional texts. Dr. Sytsma is the Director and Senior Therapist at Building Intimate Marriages. He developed the graduate sex therapy certificate program for the Institute for Sexual Wholeness and currently serves as adjunct professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Richmont Graduate University, and as visiting professor at several others.
Sessions
United States · Wed 28 Oct · 12:10pm–12:40pm (ET - America/New York)
Rethinking Sexual Desire Distress
Sexual desire concerns present complex clinical challenges that are not always adequately captured by current diagnostic frameworks. This presentation introduces a three-dimensional assessment model designed to improve diagnostic clarity and guide treatment selection by systematically examining desire across three dimensions: desire type (how desire emerges and is experienced), desire level (the relative intensity of desire within the individual and relational system), and desire direction (the targets and qualitative patterns of desire, including arousal patterns, orientation, and sexual interests). Rather than assuming that distress about desire necessarily reflects a disorder of desire, this model helps clinicians identify the specific features contributing to distress and differentiate an individual’s authentic desire pattern from physiological, psychological, relational, and contextual factors that may be disrupting it. This more differentiated assessment can reveal substantially different clinical presentations that may initially appear to be the same “desire problem” but call for different therapeutic approaches. Through clinical case examples, participants will learn to apply the three-dimensional model to clarify the nature and context of sexual desire distress, strengthen differential assessment and diagnosis, and select interventions more closely matched to the clinical presentation.
Italy · Wed 18 Nov · 12:50pm–1:20pm (Europe/Rome)
Rethinking Sexual Desire Distress
Sexual desire distress is among the most common concerns in couples counseling, yet assessment and treatment often fail to account for its complexity. Rather than assuming distress about desire necessarily reflects a disorder of desire, this talk introduces a three-dimensional assessment model designed to clarify what is actually happening in a couple's intimate life by looking at desire type (how desire emerges and is experienced), desire level (the relative intensity within the individual and relational system), and desire direction (the targets and qualitative patterns).
Australia · Wed 18 Nov · 8:10pm–8:40pm (AEDT - Australia/Sydney)
Sexual Desire Types in Married Couples: Frequencies and Correlates in a US Representative Dyadic Sample
Conflict over sexual desire discrepancy is a common sexual issue in therapy. It is often rooted in misunderstanding sexual desire itself, especially in identifying and discussing the types of sexual desire including initiating, receptive, and resistant types. Despite some discussion in the literature, limited research hinders targeted interventions for addressing attribution errors in desire discrepancy conflicts. An initial study using matched-pair data from a representative sample of 502 U.S. married couples provides valuable insights. Males typically endorsed initiating type of sexual desire, females endorsed receptive, and few identified with resistant desire as their primary type. Norms varied with some additional demographic variables like age and race/ethnicity. In addition to presenting the results of the analysis, practical suggestions for utilizing this information in clinical and psychoeducational contexts is provided from the context of a biopsychosocial understanding of sexuality including case examples.
France · Wed 9 Dec · 12:10pm–12:45pm (Europe/Paris)
Attending to the Power Dynamics of Sexual Desire in Relationship
Differences in sexual desire are common in intimate relationships, but the resulting struggles often involve more than mismatched levels of interest. Differences in initiation, receptivity, and resistance both reflect and create power dynamics within the couple relationship, often leaving both partners feeling powerless and pressured. This presentation equips clinicians to identify these power dynamics, attend to their meaning and impact on the relationship, and implement interventions that respect and appropriately rebalance power within the relationship.