Sexual surrogate

The modality in which surrogate partners work is called Surrogate Partner Therapy. This modality is used to address obstacles to physical and emotional intimacy that a client is unable to resolve through traditional therapy and requires the involvement of a partner. Clients’ presenting issues have commonly included sexual dysfunctions, lack of healthy intimate experiences, or traumatic history.

Masters and Johnson introduced the practice in their book Human Sexual Inadequacy, published in 1970. They believed that people could learn about sexual intimacy only by experiencing it. In their research, subjects that were partnered used these partners to aid in a series of exercises designed to help overcome sexual dysfunction. Unpartnered subjects were paired with "surrogates" who would take the place of a partner, working under the direction of a trained therapist and acted as a form of mentor for the client. In their research, all of the surrogates were women who were assigned to work with single men. Today, most surrogates are women, but a few are men.[1] The practice of Surrogate Partner Therapy reached its peak in the early 1980s with a few hundred surrogate partners practicing in the U.S. Since then, Surrogate Partner Therapy's popularity declined but has recently reentered social consciousness after the 2012 film The Sessions, which depicts one surrogate partner's work with a disabled man. Currently, those practicing Surrogate Partner Therapy are still very few in number.[2]

Patients frequently present with these specific problems:[3][4]

There are people who have experienced a change in sexual lifestyle due to an acquired disability (accident, paralysis, disease, trauma), and a surrogate can help them explore and develop sexual potential.[5] The causes of sexual concerns are numerous and the methods a surrogate might use to help improve a client's sexual life are varied.

Since sexual problems are often psychological rather than physical, communication plays a key role in the therapeutic process between a patient and the surrogate partner, as well as between the surrogate partner and the therapist. Surrogate partners offer therapeutic exercises to help the patient. These may include, but are not limited to relaxation techniques, sensate focusing, communication, establishing healthy body image, teaching social skills, sex education, as well as sensual and some sexual touching. Surrogate partner therapy begins with a meeting between client, therapist, and surrogate partner in which the goals of the client are discussed and the scope/duration of the therapy are established. Throughout the process, communication between surrogate partner-client, client-therapist, and surrogate partner-therapist is maintained. [6]

Some couples attend surrogate partner therapy sessions together, while some people (either single or in a couple) attend them alone.[7] The surrogate engages in education and often intimate physical contact and/or sexual activity with clients to achieve a therapeutic goal.[7] Some surrogates work at counseling centers, while others have their own offices.[8]

The 2003 Salon.com article "I was a middle-aged virgin", by Michael Castleman, discusses a middle-aged American virgin (Roger Andrews) and his therapy with the sex surrogate Vena Blanchard.[9]

• This Is Life with Lisa Ling dedicated an episode to "Sexual Healing" (Season 4, Episode 1).
• The 1985 documentary Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate explored the relationship between a sex surrogate (Maureen Sullivan), her clients, and her clients' therapists.
• The National Geographic show Taboo's episode "Forbidden Love" (Season 7, Episode 6, first aired 2011) featured a professional sex surrogate (Cheryl Cohen-Greene) in one of its segments.[10]
• The Discovery Fit & Health documentary My Sex Surrogate, first aired in 2013, follows a woman and a man as they each work with a sex surrogate. The sex surrogate who worked with the man was Cheryl Cohen-Greene.

• My Therapist (1984), an American TV movie starring Marilyn Chambers, is about a sex surrogate. It was based on her one-woman show Sex Surrogate, which in 1979 caused controversy in Vegas as it featured full-frontal nudity, which was banned from all casinos.[11][12] In 1983, that one-woman show was spun off into a 26-part syndicated soap opera called Love Ya Florence Nightingale. It was broadcast on cable television channels such as the Playboy Channel.[13][14]
• In the episodes “Party Girl (Part 1)” and “Party Girl (Part 2)” of Season 9 of Night Court, both first aired in 1992, the character Dan works as a sex surrogate after meeting a woman (in Part 1) who is one.
• In the Season 3 (2006) premiere of Boston Legal, titled, "Can't We All Get a Lung?," Aspergian attorney Jerry Espenson sees sexual surrogate Joanna Monroe (Jane Lynch) at his counsel and compadre Alan Shore's (James Spader) behest.[15]
• The Israeli movie Surrogate (2008) is about a female surrogate (Lana Ettinger) treating a man (Amir Wolf) who was sexually abused as a child. The film was directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer and is based on research at Dr. Ronit Aloni's clinic in Tel Aviv.
• In Franklin & Bash (2011-2014): the character of Peter Bash's mother, played by Jane Seymour, is a sex surrogate.
• The American movie The Sessions (2012) stars Helen Hunt as Cheryl, a sexual surrogate who helps polio survivor Mark (John Hawkes) lose his virginity at the age of 38, based on the true story of Mark O'Brien and Cheryl Cohen-Greene. O'Brien wrote about his experience in 1990.[16]
• In an episode of Anger Management, “Charlie and the Virgin” (2013), a friend of Kate (Selma Blair) is a 32-year-old virgin who is looking for her first-time sexual encounter with a man. Charlie Goodson (Charlie Sheen) decides to be her first encounter as a faux sex surrogate (not being professional or licensed), and she becomes attached to him.[17] Later on she finds out that he (Charlie) was taking the place of a professional sex surrogate for a real one provided to her.
• The American movie She's Lost Control (2014) is about the professional and personal life of a sexual surrogate.[18]
• In season 1 episode 10 of Backstrom (2015), "Love Is a Rose and You Better Not Pick It", the S.C.U. investigates when a young female sex surrogate is found dead.[19]
• Masters of Sex episodes 03-07 and 03-08, “Monkey Business” and “Surrogates” (both 2015) feature sexual surrogacy; the show is a TV-series based on the work of Masters and Johnson.

• Surrogacy
• Surrogate marriage

• "IPSA — International Professional Surrogates Association".
• Sex Surrogates: A Clarification of Their Functions Raymond J. Noonan, Ph.D, SexQuest/The Sex Institute, NYC. Master's thesis for New York University, February 1984.