Will Baum, LCSW

A series about herpes is underway at the NYT Consults blog.  First posts:

5 Things to Know About Herpes

Do Stress or Diet Cause Herpes Outbreaks?

Can Oral Sex Cause Herpes?

Couples’ lit spotlight: Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships, by sex/relationship therapist, David Schnarch. The book samples actual sex therapy sessions to make its case.

Don’t care to read 400 pages about how differentiation?  Try the six-point plan linked from Schnarch’s website, posted here minus the explanations:

1. Operate from the Best in Yourself.
2. Sustain eye contact with each other out of bed.
3. Try Hugging ’till Relaxed.
4. Make eye contact in bed.
5. Change your style of sexual interactions.
6. Pay attention to depth of involvement with your partner during sex.

Also via PassionateMarriage.com, here’s a Sex in Relationships Survey, which pretty much communicates what Schnarch is aiming at while rating your sex life on a 11 – 55 scale.

An especially alluring set of news headlines at PsychCentral today:

• Scientists Closer to Finding Cure for Alcoholism
• Your Dementia Risk Rises if Spouse Has Dementia
• Electromagnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for Depression
• Some Mood Disorders Stay with Us As We Age
• Social Media Doesn’t Help in the Classroom
• Older Men Benefit From Talking About Sex
• Exploring Causes for Postpartum Depression
• Insight on Late-Life Depression

A birthday write-up from the Los Angeles Times:

It was supposed to make every child a wanted child, give women control over their bodies and grant couples worry-free sex…

A study shows parents tend to have a skewed views of their teen’s behavior.

“Parents…had a very hard time thinking about their own teen children as sexually desiring subjects…At the same time…parents view their teens’ peers as highly sexual, even sexually predatory.”

A study relayed by the New York Times:

About one in every four Americans married or living with someone say they are so sleep-deprived that they are often too tired to have sex, according to a new study by the National Sleep Foundation. Lack of sleep also keeps many people from work and family functions, the report said…