Lori A. Brotto Books
Lori A. Brotto, Ph.
Known for: Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
Books by Lori A. Brotto
Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
Many women struggle with a quiet but painful question: why does sexual desire feel unreliable, distant, or absent even in loving relationships? In Better Sex Through Mindfulness, clinical psychologist Lori A. Brotto offers a compassionate, research-driven answer. Rather than treating low desire as a simple hormone problem or personal failure, she shows that attention, stress, self-judgment, trauma history, relationship dynamics, and cultural conditioning all shape erotic experience. Her core argument is both practical and hopeful: by learning mindfulness, women can reconnect with their bodies, reduce distracting thoughts, and create the conditions in which desire is more likely to emerge. What makes this book especially valuable is Brotto’s rare combination of scientific rigor and clinical warmth. As a leading researcher in women’s sexual health, she draws on studies, therapeutic experience, and real-world exercises to explain how mindfulness can improve arousal, pleasure, and intimacy. This is not a book of gimmicks or unrealistic promises. It is a grounded guide for women who want to understand their sexuality more deeply, heal disconnection, and build a more satisfying relationship with desire.
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Understanding Desire as Responsive, Not Broken
One of the most liberating ideas in the book is that sexual desire is often misunderstood. Many women assume desire should appear spontaneously, like a sudden spark out of nowhere. When that spark does not show up on cue, they conclude that something is wrong with them. Brotto challenges this assump...
From Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
Mindfulness Changes How Attention Shapes Arousal
A distracted mind can quietly shut down an otherwise healthy sexual response. Brotto explains that mindfulness matters because sexual arousal depends heavily on attention. If the mind is consumed by self-criticism, to-do lists, worries about performance, or fears about appearance, the body has less ...
From Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
Body Awareness Rebuilds Erotic Connection
Many sexual difficulties begin with a split between mind and body. Brotto shows that women often live so much in thought, responsibility, and self-monitoring that they lose touch with bodily signals entirely. When the body becomes something to judge, manage, or ignore, pleasure grows harder to acces...
From Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
Barriers to Desire Are Often Invisible
Low desire rarely comes from a single cause, and that is precisely why quick fixes so often disappoint. Brotto emphasizes that barriers to sexuality are frequently layered, subtle, and invisible even to the person experiencing them. A woman may assume she has lost desire when, in reality, she is car...
From Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
Mindful Sexuality Means Less Performance, More Presence
One reason sex becomes unsatisfying is that many people approach it as a performance to complete rather than an experience to inhabit. Brotto argues that mindful sexuality offers a radical shift: instead of chasing outcomes such as orgasm, frequency, or proving attraction, women can focus on moment-...
From Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
Relationships Thrive on Attunement and Communication
Sexual desire does not exist in a relational vacuum. Brotto highlights that mindfulness can improve not only individual awareness but also the emotional quality of a partnership. In long-term relationships, desire is shaped by trust, unresolved conflict, emotional responsiveness, and whether both pa...
From Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire
About Lori A. Brotto
Lori A. Brotto, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of British Columbia. She is the Executive Director of the Women's Health Research Institute and a leading researcher in women's sexual health and mindfulness-based therapy.
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Lori A. Brotto, Ph.
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