Intimacy Training in a Forensic Psychiatric Setting: An Experiment

Abstract

This article is about intimacy training in two forensic psychiatric hospitals. This training is an experiment in which patients are trained in skills relating to intimacy and sexuality through real physical contact with a therapist. It is a way of treatment in those cases in which other, usually verbal methods, have failed to accomplish (sexual) behaviour change, and it can feed or revitalise verbal therapy. The purpose of the training is (a) to make the patient aware of the feelings intimate contact with a woman provokes and (b) to increase the patient’s social and sociosexual skills so that he learns how to handle his intimate and sexual wishes, needs, and limits, and those of his partner. The training aims at diminishing the risk of new offences. The experiment is intended to provide answers to questions about the effectiveness of this kind of training in relationship to this aim.