Glossary
Sexual biography
The personal story of your sexuality across your whole life, and what it tells about your present.
What is a sexual biography?
A sexual biography is the personal story of your sexuality across your whole life: the experiences, relationships, and messages that shaped how you look at sex now. In therapy a sexologist maps that biography to understand where a complaint or pattern comes from.
| In Dutch | seksuele biografie |
| Also known as | sexual life history |
| What it is | your personal sexual story from young to now |
| Where it turns up | in sex therapy, as a sexual history |
| Not to be confused with | the sexual life course, everyone’s average developmental path |
| Falls under | sexual response cycle |
How a sexual biography works
Your biography is not a file but a line. According to a biographical history-taking, as described in the Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie, such a life story gives information about the factors that mean something in a person’s development and life course. Applied to sex: how you learned to talk about the body and sex at home, your first experiences, a relationship that broke something or actually healed it. That’s your biography, and it differs from the general sexual life course that, according to Rutgers, runs for everyone from conception into old age.
Why a sexual biography is worth it
The gain is insight. When you see where a reaction comes from, it becomes less strange and easier to change. For you it means a pattern gets a cause instead of a reproach. For the two of you together it can explain why something is sensitive for one and not for the other. What it does not do: knowing your biography doesn’t solve the complaint on its own, it’s the first step, not the whole road.
Where this fits on this site
I’m not a therapist and I don’t map biographies. But I do work without judgment, and sometimes someone tells me a piece of that story simply because it’s calm enough. If there’s a real complaint, I point to a sexologist. Just curious how a meeting goes? Then take a look at my services. Want to get your question off your chest first? Then feel free to send a message. No obligation.
Sources
- The biographical history-taking: indispensable or pointless?. Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie. Provides that a biographical history-taking gives information about the factors that mean something in a person’s development and life course.
- Sexual life course. Rutgers. Provides that the sexual life course begins at conception and continues to the end of someone’s life, and describes the average developmental path.
Related terms
- Sexual response cycle. The physiology of arousal, where the biography is the personal history around it.
- Sex therapy. The place where a sexologist maps your sexual biography.
- Sexual self-image. Often the result of everything stored in your biography.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about this term
What is a sexual biography?
A sexual biography is the personal story of your sexuality across your whole life: the experiences, relationships, and messages that shaped how you look at sex now. In sex therapy a sexologist maps that biography, as a sexual history, to understand where a complaint or pattern comes from.
What is the difference from the sexual life course?
The sexual life course is the average developmental path that, according to Rutgers, runs for everyone from conception into old age. Your sexual biography is your personal version of that: the concrete experiences that shaped you. The life course is the map, your biography is your route across it.
Who can you turn to with questions about your sexual biography?
If you want to really work through your sexual biography, a sexologist is the right address; your family doctor refers you on. I myself am Victor, a gigolo, not a therapist, but I’m glad to tell you more about a meeting where you can talk without judgment, with no obligation or through chatting for free.
Learn more
Still have questions about your sexual biography?
I'm Victor, a gigolo, not a therapist. For really working through your story a sexologist is the right place, but talking without judgment is always possible with me. Curious how a meeting goes? Send me a message, I'll message you back whenever suits you.