Mabrouk Mehrez (Lausanne)

What are the most common reasons people turn to a sex therapist?

The most common problems are loss of control (erectile dysfunction, impotence) in men, loss of libido in women, and disorders of sexual identity and orientation.

The Swiss Association of Clinical Sexologists was founded on Friday January 16, 2009 in Lausanne. This reflects the development of this branch," explains the Lausanne-based sex therapist, a member of the committee.

Sexology is nothing new. Why did you decide to set up this association now?

Training in sexology did indeed begin in the 1970s, but nowadays, all this data is much more widely applied to patient care, hence the term clinician. Given that there are more and more of us, that sexual problems are more and more prevalent and that we're in greater demand, we thought it was time to make ourselves known, to show that there are trained specialists (for French-speaking Switzerland, this post-graduate diploma is obtained at the University of Geneva) and that they meet a need.

Why is it increasing?

Untrained therapists don't address these issues with their patients, so they come to us. With the evolution of society, mores, mentalities and the relationship between men and women, there are more and more questions about sexuality and people are looking for answers; it's now possible to talk about it, whereas it wasn't before.