Dr. Walter E. Brackelmanns is a couples therapist and certified sex therapist as well as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, who is currently coordinating a lecture series on human sexuality that is designed for mental health professionals but open to the public. Guest lecturers for the series include AIM's Sharon Mitchell, VCA contract-director Veronica Hart, and Topco Sales president Scott Tucker.
The series is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of sexual issues and problems by integrating knowledge from two separate mental health disciplines - sex therapy and couples therapy.
While it may appear to the layman that sex therapy and couples therapy would obviously go together, the two disciplines have divergent histories. Couples therapy comes from psychoanalysis, child therapy and family therapy. Sex therapy comes from behavioral therapy. Noting that 85% of marriages involve sexual dysfunction, Dr. Brackelmanns is suggesting that the two disciplines of couples therapy and sex therapy need to become integrated
"I'm a couples therapist by practice. It's what I mainly do - almost exclusively. It's important that mental health professionals learn how to ask about sexual issues and not be shy about it because sometimes if you don't ask, you aren't told," said Brackelmanns.
"Most people today, including mental health professionals find it uncomfortable to talk about sex and ask questions. 'When exactly do you have sexual intercourse' and 'what do like to do' and 'how much oral sex do you' - that sort of thing. Specific questions such as 'Does he ejaculate in your mouth?' These are very, very difficult questions for a mental health professional to ask," notes Brackelmanns, who feels that including members of the adult entertainment industry in his lecture series will help mental health professionals become more comfortable utilizing what he feels can be a valuable professional and therapeutic tool - especially for help people with alternative lifestyles.
"For mental health professionals, I think its particularly useful for them to watch pornography because of the desensitization it provides them. They get to see all kinds of things and acknowledge that all kinds of things take place.
"There are many heterosexual mental health professionals who really have no idea, or no good idea, what lesbian women do when they make love to each other. More importantly, what gay men do - because if you watch any pornography film you will see a lesbian scene. But watching gay films is the only way some of us can learn how men do it, in what way, and how they treat each other," states Brackelmanns. "We do treat gay people in our practices and for us not to have any understanding of what their sexual activities are just isn't cool."
Not that Dr. Brackelmanns feels that adult entertainment is solely for mental health professionals. He feels that porn has much to offer in the way of education for everyone.
"I think it's a shame, in a way, that pornography has such a negative aura around them. While they are not perfect for the job, they are very good at teaching people about various aspects of sex that many people are not familiar with. If you are heterosexual or homosexual, there films that you can watch that will show you all sorts of things - some of which you may want to do and some which you may not want to do," Brackelmanns said.
Sharon Mitchell will be giving a presentation for the course that will cover her work at the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation, which Dr. Brackelmanns expresses admiration for.
"I'm extremely impressed with what she's done and pleased that she is going to be talking about her program, which is available not only to the adult industry but to the public in general," Brackelmanns said. "She has made a major contribution to controlling if not curbing Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases within the adult movie industry."
Brackelmanns is hoping that professionals such as Veronica Hart and Scott Tucker will be able to comfortably educate his students about alternate sexuality and the role of sex toys respectively.
"I'm hoping to have Veronica Hart talk about what some of the more unusual sexual acts are. I'm not talking about animals or anything like that - I'm talking about anal and vaginal at the same time or double anal - things
I'm sure that many of these people have no idea about all," said Brackelmanns, who is asking Tucker to bring a wide assortment of his novelties and explain to the class what they are for.
The series, " A Lecture Series for Mental Health Professionals," is a twelve-week course already in progress. The course meets every Thursday from 12PM-3PM at UCLA. While currently in its third week, people are still invited to sign up for the class, which while designed for mental health professionals is open to everyone.
Mitchell will be giving her lecture on June 5th. Hart and Tucker will be appearing on June 26.
The course is co-sponsored by the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and the UCLA extension division.
