Resnick - Body-to-body intimacy: transformation through love, sex, and neurobiology

Stella Resnick has written an invaluable and insightful book that addresses the important issues of the real relationship and that the mind, brain and body are one. Her well-written approach is positive, and the book highly detailed and well researched. She has a positive and healing vision which successfully integrates couples therapy and sex therapy. Dr. Resnick has brought back the concept of corrective emotional experience and effectively weaves the current thinking about attachment theory and interpersonal neurobiology into couples and sex therapy. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in relationships.

Walter E. Brackelmanns, MD,Professor of Psychiatry, Director, Couples and Sex Therapy Training Program, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

Filled with the integrative wisdom of a seasoned relationships therapist, Stella Resnicks new book weaves together interpersonal neurobiology, somatic awareness of the mind-body connection, and attachment dynamics within the couple. Dr. Resnicks emphasis on present-centered experiential processes highlights ways that therapists can access our own body-based wisdom to help couples drop beneath their words to recognize and learn from the deeper meanings in their non-verbal, implicit communications.

Bonnie Goldstein, PhD,Lifespan Psychological Center Director, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, Teaching Faculty

Stella Resnick, author of the classic The Pleasure Zone, has done it again! She has created a compelling case for the need to integrate mind and body, past and present, the individual and the relational in sex and couples therapies. Recommended strongly for novices and the experienced therapist.

Peggy J. Kleinplatz, PhD,Professor and Director of Sex and Couples Therapy, University of Ottawa; editor of New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives

In this new book, Stella Resnick, a highly regarded expert on human sexuality and relationships, uses a vast range of research to create her own model of dealing with sexual concerns and issues. She integrates the Gestalt approach with those of Maslow, Reich, and even Freud. But what is most interesting is her attention to the right brain, describing the large, often unacknowledged role of the sensory, emotional, and kinesthetic in all relationships. At the end, it is her ability to add her wisdom, compassion, and joy to this endeavor, which makes this book so important for all therapists and practitioners.

Joseph Melnick, PhD,founding editor of Gestalt Review, Co-Chair of the Cape Cod Training Program, Gestalt International Study Center

Resnicks work on couples sex therapy is arguably one of the most important contributions to body psychotherapy for couples in recent years. It leverages the experiential wisdom of her Gestalt orientation that is endowed by contemporary neurobiology. This book will help foster embodied intimacy through a contemporary relational approach, and invites us all to experience a greater, more playful and creative form of love.

Christopher Walling, PsyD, MBA,President, United States Association for Body Psychotherapy

With a laser focus on the body/mind connection, Resnicks Embodied Relational Sex Therapy model is an integrated system directing therapists to work with the couple as a living, breathing entity, instead of a problem to be solved. Incorporating cutting-edge neuroscience with Resnicks years of experience and wisdom, this multi-faceted approach situates dyadic regulation where it belongs between the coupleto create deep empathy and change. This book is a must read for the modern couple/sex therapist!

Alexandra Katehakis, PhD,founder of Center for Healthy Sex, author of Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Meditations on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence

Finally, a professional book has arrived that details the primacy of sexual issues to emotional intimacy! Stella Resnicks latest book, Body-to-Body Intimacy, provides couples and sex therapists with everything they need to know about sex but either have been afraid to ask or not known where to get answers. Just as the body is inseparable from the mind, so too is couples therapy inseparable from sex therapy.

Terry Marks-Tarlow, PhD,author of Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy; Awakening Clinical Intuition; Truly Mindful Coloring; and Psyches Veil

This is an important book. Dr. Resnick brings a wealth of knowledge of individual and couples therapy, neuroscience and developmental theory, and brings all of these to her work with couples experiencing difficulties in their sexual relating. The most important aspect of her work is that she does not separate out couples therapy and sex therapy, seeing them as inextricably linked.

Peter Phillipson, MSc,author of The Emergent Self: An Existential-Gestalt Approach, Gestalt Institute of Manchester, UK

This brilliant book by Dr. Stella Resnick is a must read for all who are interested in the intersection of sex therapy with couple counseling. Dr. Resnick uses pieces of her personal story and illuminating clinical examples to illustrate her holistic approach to relational healingan approach which combines the latest findings in the neurobiology of attachment, with positive psychology, sex therapy, and Gestalt therapy.

Elinor Greenberg, PhD, CGP,Gestalt Therapy Institute of New York trainer, author of Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety

In this well-written, engrossing, and trailblazing book, Dr. Stella Resnick integrates a wealth of data from diverse fields of science into her decades of experience as a therapist to expand upon our understanding of the transformative power of pleasure in achieving sensual intimacy. It is destined to become a classic in the study of sexual and relational dynamics and in the practice of couples and sex therapy across multiple disciplines.

Carol Cassell, PhD,former health scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and author of Put Passion First: Why Sexual Chemistry is the Key to Lasting Love

Stella Resnick is a dedicated genius of collaborative exploration. Her new book, Body-to-Body Intimacy, creatively integrates neuroscience, Gestalt psychology, life experience, couples and sex therapy. It instructs those seeking relationship to resist the trigger, ignore the knee jerk, live for moments of presence. Dr. Resnick shows how to ride the wave of right brain to right brain communion. She is a pleasure activist who convinces us pleasure can make us better.

Susan E. Stiritz, MBA, PhD, MSW,President-elect, American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, (AASECT), Associate Professor of Practice Chair, The Brown School Washington University in St. Louis

Stella Resnick has broken new ground with her alchemical integration of the seminal ingredients that will help our clients to repair the damage from their sexual wounds and seize the opportunity for sexual healing and pleasure fulfillment. Professionals of all backgrounds will find this a readable, thought-provoking, evidence-steeped paradigm shift, worthy of acclaim.

Patti Britton, PhD,co-author of Designing and Leading a Successful SAR and co-founder of SexCoachU.com

Stella Resnick presents an integrated, comprehensive, and neurobiologically informed fresh approach to therapy, distilling a brilliant career as a Gestalt couples and sex therapist. Finally, we can stop separating the emotional, sexual, and relational when we practice therapytransferring people from one provider to another. This is the book the field has been waiting for. Every therapist needs to read this book!