Abstract
Sexual life is widely considered to be an aspect of human identity, yet there is little written about whether clients' sexual lives play a role in everyday clinical practice for counselling and clinical psychologists. This research study set out to answer this question by adopting a qualitative approach, and conducting semi-structured interviews on a select sample of six clinical and counselling psychologists to gain a nuanced understanding of the topic. Data was analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework and three master themes were found. These were: needing permission to initiate sexual discussion; a relational emphasis; and sexual discussion as a risky endeavour. Clients' sexual lives were found to play a secondary role in participants' everyday practice, being valued for their contributions to changing relational processes. Their presence was dependent on specific contextual factors such as practice setting and length of therapy contract. Sexual discussion also required practitioners to face many risks and stigmas, and appeared to be broadly disintegrated within the discipline of psychology. Findings suggest that more research and experiential training could be important within doctoral programmes, and counselling psychologists were argued to be ideal candidates for furthering research within this field.