This case involves a 22 year old female suffering from Vaginismus who was raised under a very strict Sharia law environment. Under Sharia law the death penalty is considered adequate punishment for sexual behavior outside of Sharia law guidelines. As a result, fear of religious punishment for having sex was the driving force behind the condition.
I was originally contacted by her husband of 6 months who was seeking help out of desperation. Although they had been married 6 months, he was still unable to consummate the marriage because of his wife’s Vaginismus. He was unable to find any qualified help where he lived, and knew he needed to look elsewhere. After some discussion it was decided that he and his wife should travel to see me as doing therapy of this nature via Skype may itself be a violation of Sharia law. So rather than take the chance, they opted to take a bit of a vacation in Bangkok.
It is important to note that both attended all sessions as Sharia law was once again interfering with their love life even beyond the reach of the law. This itself proved to be therapeutic and it eliminated the first barrier of feeling comfortable. It was her first trip abroad and just by seeing how different things were in Thailand was generating dozens of questions in her head. Together this said it was OK here to talk about her problems.
In this case because of time limitations, spacing between sessions was reduced to every other day and not weekly. As the focus of the therapy was in bed, and they were young enough to make several attempts in a very short period of time, it was an acceptable modification.
The first step was to make her feel comfortable about sex and that unfortunately Sharia law greatly oversteps its welcome in bed between two consenting adults. The second step was to allow her to feel it was OK to enjoy physical pleasure with her husband. Once that was achieved the next step was easy by magnifying the physical pleasure of foreplay with hypnotic suggestion. If she was able to achieve her very first orgasm during foreplay, nature would take over and relax the muscles to her vagina and her husband could achieve penetration. Once that was achieved, simple reinforcement and increasing her desire for sex to make up for lost time is all it took.
Collectively all of these steps worked to eliminate her Vaginismus. Her survival instinct and fear of death by stoning or whatever that was tied to sex had been eliminated thus ending the condition.
