Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - (Page 6) Member Spotlight Christine Henny, PhD (Bethesda, Md.) Member Spotlight is a monthly column offering an opportunity for AASECT members to get to know more about each other. Each month, a different member’s story will be introduced. If you would like to recommend someone to be interviewed for this column, please contact Hani Miletski, PhD, MSW, Membership Steering Committee chair, at Hani@DrMiletski.com. “My background in Holland enabled me to be more progressive and liberal when it came to sexual problems. My worst moments were naturally when I felt helpless and realized that I was up against sexual prejudices and discrimination as well a puritanical lifestyle.” C hristine Henny joined AASECT in 1983 when she started working with the Fogel Foundation, also known as the Human Sexuality Institute, in Washington, D.C. For over two years she was exposed to a range of psychosexual disorders as well as some paraphilias, and in 1985, she was certified as an AASECT sex therapist. Henny was born and raised in the Netherlands and has always been very interested in politics and foreign affairs. Before she started her career as a psychologist and sex therapist, she earned a master’s degree in psychology and social anthropology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Henny worked for 15 years in the Dutch Foreign Service in the Hague (the Netherlands), Ottawa (Canada) and Washington, D.C. Henny is fluent in Dutch, French, German, Spanish, and of course, English. “In my mid-life crisis, I decided to switch to ‘the affairs of the heart,’” she says, “and thus started a whole new career, by embarking on the study of psychology at the tender age of 40.” Henny obtained her PhD in psychology at American University in 1981. She then worked for a year at a Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. and another year at Eastern Shore Hospital Center in Cambridge, Maryland, one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the state. Henny then returned to Washington, D.C., obtained her license as a clinical psychologist and established her own private practice focusing on family and couples work and sex therapy. It was during this period that she also worked at the Human Sexuality Institute and became a consultant psychologist to Dr. Novello, a local psychiatrist, and she participated in his radio talk shows as a sex therapist. Henny worked with many GLBT clients over the years, and later consulted with GAMMA (Gays and Married Men Association). She became very involved in working with the trans- gender population and remembers vividly her first case: “A married couple with two sons that were off to college. Daddy, a lawyer and businessman had waited with transitioning. The whole family knew and was very supportive. Daddy had been dressing as a woman at home. The sons were OK with everything, but did not want to call him/her ‘Mommy.’ The wife was extremely flexible and said she would not mind if he lost his penis. She loved the person, not the genitals or the gender. They had made love like lesbians for a long time and she was okay with that. I learned a lot about acceptance, adaptability and tolerance from this case. I felt honored to know them and guide them through the process.” “The biggest influence in my professional career,” Henny says, “was my training under Jay Haley where I became a strategic family therapist. I found the system approach most helpful in my family and couples work.” She goes on to say, “I have also been aware of the fact that my background in Holland enabled me to be more progressive and liberal when it came to sexual problems. My worst moments were naturally when I felt helpless and realized that I was up against sexual prejudices and discrimination as well a puritanical lifestyle.” Henny still has a private practice where she sees transgender clients as well as gay and straight couples with sexual problems. Due to her foreign language proficiency, her clientele includes many international individuals. She travels to the Netherlands every year to visit family and old friends. While there, Henny likes to keep up with transgender research and sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) at the University of Amsterdam. In the Netherlands, transgender counseling and SRS are subsidized by the government, and therefore free of charge for Dutch nationals. “It is also interesting to know,” she adds, that in the Netherlands, “gays and lesbians have social clubs and counseling services which are subsidized by the government.” Henny is an ardent sailor and used to own a yacht with her partner of eight years. Once, they even lived on board for six months and sailed along the East Coast to the Bahamas and the Caribbean Islands. “Quite an adventure for two women,” she says. Henny loves all water sports including kayaking, rowing and swimming. She also loves theater, jazz, cooking and entertaining. She is a “true bisexual,” Henny says. She’s had long-term relationships with both men and women, one heterosexual marriage and now she is single. — Hani Miletski 6 Contemporary Sexuality www.aasect.org | October 2008 Vol. 42, No. 10 http://www.aasect.org
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 Contents President's Column Member Profile Quick Hits: Sex in the News News of Members Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - Contents (Page 1) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - Contents (Page 2) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - President's Column (Page 3) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - President's Column (Page 4) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - President's Column (Page 5) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - Member Profile (Page 6) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - Member Profile (Page 7) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - Quick Hits: Sex in the News (Page 8) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - Quick Hits: Sex in the News (Page 9) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - News of Members (Page 10) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - News of Members (Page 11) Contemporary Sexuality - October 2008 - News of Members (Page 12)
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