From Sexual Distress

LEARN, FEEL, HEAL

to Sexual Satisfaction:

MENDEDUCATION.COM
Your Foundations for
Sexual Health and Pleasure

©2023 Mend Education, Inc. • From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure
Welcome to MendEd

MendEd is a modern, dynamic, educational experience.

We provide high quality videos and developmental framework for
gaining confidence and connection within yourself
and your relationships.

Our first course, From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your

Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure, is a science-based
approach to pleasurable and satisfying sex.

LEARN, FEEL, HEAL

Meet Your Instructor

Kimberly Keiser is licensed professional

counselor, AASECT certified sex therapist,

MENDEDUCATION.COM
EMDRIA certified EMDR therapist and
trauma expert providing client care, clinical
supervision, and clinical consultation.
Kimberly is a researcher in Dr. Kristine
Jacquin’s clinical forensic neuropsychology
lab at Fielding Graduate University. Kimberly
develops educational training, presentations,
CEUs, and webinars for professional and lay
audiences in the fields of sex therapy and
trauma therapy.

©2023 Mend Education, Inc. • From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure
Attachment Styles - Free Guide

There is an association between relational and sexual functioning. Relational and sexual functioning
are linked in adult romantic relationships, and they reinforce each other. Attachment theory was
originally described by John Bowlby’s work in 1970. Bowlby was a pioneer in developing our current
understanding of how attachment works, and his work focused on attachment development in child-
parent relationships. This relationship was found to inform how children develop internal working
models or thoughts and expectancies about relationships and what to expect out of relationships
in the future. Attachment orientations from childhood are also consistent with adult romantic
attachments. The way that adult romantic partners attach has also been linked to sexual satisfaction
in sexual functioning.

For adults, when you’re securely attached there’s feelings of high self-esteem, trust in your
relationship, and a willingness to seek out others for support. Adults with secure attachment report
being more satisfied with their relationships and have more positive thoughts about sex. Conversely
adults who are insecurely attached feel feelings of anxiety or avoidance. Individuals who have
anxious attachment tend to have obsessive desires for being close and intimate, all while fearing

LEARN, FEEL, HEAL

rejection. This is a direct correlation to early childhood experiences in which their caregivers or
parents didn’t consistently respond to their needs.

Adults with anxious attachment may have jealous or clingy behaviors in their romantic relationships.
Avoidant attachment is the experience of being uncomfortable with intimacy and the belief that

MENDEDUCATION.COM
other people are unreliable. This is the result of childhood caregivers being unavailable or not
responsive to the child’s needs. Adults with avoidant attachment tend to display behaviors that are
distant and independent in romantic relationships. The function of these behaviors is a way to cope
with the cost or perceived cost of getting too close to someone who just won’t be there.

As you might be able to tell, there is significant research on attachment. The findings are abundant
and offer insight into both early childhood and adult experiences. Some interesting findings include:

• It has been found that adolescents who had avoidant attachment were less likely to be in
romantic relationships and engage in less sexual activity than their peers who were more
securely attached.

• Adults who have avoidant attachment are more likely to have casual sex or affairs while in
committed relationships compared to their peers who have lower avoidant attachment.

©2023 Mend Education, Inc. • From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure
(continued)

• Adults who are avoidantly attached have been found to report more aversion to the intimacy in
sexual connection and overall have more interest in having sex with people where emotion isn’t
involved.

• Individuals who are anxiously attached have been found to have more negative views of
themselves and how attractive they are as well as more negative thoughts about sex in general.

• Women with high anxious attachment have been found to have more infidelity and it’s thought
that going outside of the primary relationship may be rooted in trying to meet needs that aren’t
being met with their current partner.

• Adults with insecure attachment they’re more likely to have problems with their sexual
functioning and sexual satisfaction.

• Adults with avoidant and anxious attachment had less sexual satisfaction and more sexual

LEARN, FEEL, HEAL

dysfunctions.

There are differences between men and women regarding attachment style and sexual functioning.
Both anxious and avoidant attachment are found in women to be correlated with less sexual
satisfaction. However, this is not as clear in men. It is thought that the differences between men

MENDEDUCATION.COM
and women could be due to different sexual scripts and gender roles where men are more likely to
grow up in a culture where having avoidance strategies to manage attachment distress is typical
and women are more likely to be socialized to have more anxious strategies as a way to manage
attachment related distress.

©2023 Mend Education, Inc. • From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure
Your Attachment Structures

This application is designed to help you learn more about the way you mentally represent important
people in your life. You will be asked to answer questions about your parents, your romantic
partners, and your friends. When you are finished, the program will analyze your responses and
provide you with a summary of how these different relationships are organized in your mind. This
application takes about 5 to 10 minutes to complete.

Copy and paste this link into your browser to take your attachment assessment:
https://www.yourpersonality.net/relstructures/

Below you will find a general graph with different attachment styles and levels of anxiety or
avoidance associated with each. When you take your attachment assessment you will see where
your attachment scores fall in relation to your mother, father, friend, and partner within each of
these quadrants and how attachment styles may be related or different between these individuals
in your life.

LEARN, FEEL, HEAL

MENDEDUCATION.COM
Dismissing Fearful
Avoidance

Secure Preoccupied

Anxiety

©2023 Mend Education, Inc. • From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure
NOTES

LEARN, FEEL, HEAL

MENDEDUCATION.COM

©2023 Mend Education, Inc. • From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure
 LEARN, FEEL, HEAL

We hope you enjoyed this free guide.

To join the full course, visit us online
at MendEducation.com/GetStarted.

©2023 Mend Education, Inc. • From Sexual Distress to Sexual Satisfaction: Your Foundations for Sexual Health and Pleasure