The Sheffield Psychosexual Service moved to the Fitzwilliam Centre on Tuesday 12 November 2024.
Apart from the new location, nothing else about the treatment we provide has changed. If you are already attending therapy sessions, you will continue to be seen by the same therapist and the same arrangements for booking sessions will occur.
You can plan your journey to the Fitzwilliam Centre on Google Maps here.
Based at the Fitzwilliam Centre, the Sheffield Psychosexual Service provides assessment and treatment to service users with psychosexual problems.
Therapy is offered to individuals and partners over the age of 18 years. A variety of therapeutic approaches are used, and treatment is designed to fit the specific needs of service users.
The service is part of Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust.
We are here to work together with you to move towards authentic sexual wellbeing; prioritising pleasure, exploration, understanding and enthusiastic consent.
All referrals, other than internal SHSC ones, should come via the GP. A referral form can be downloaded by clicking here.
GPs can download pre-referral screen guidelines by clicking here.
We do not accept self-referrals.
Occasionally, we receive referrals that are not suitable for our service. When this happens, we will advise the referrer of this. If this only becomes clear during the assessment, we will inform the referrer and service user, with recommended signposts to a service that may be more suitable to meet the service user’s needs.
The Sheffield Psychosexual Service sees service users with sexual dysfunctions as defined by the DSM-V. These are :
Male bodied sexual dysfunctions
Female bodied sexual dysfunctions
Treatment is also provided for:
Service users cannot be seen by the service where:
Once we have received a referral for you into our service, we will send you a background information questionnaire, where you will have the opportunity to provide us more specific information regarding your difficulties.
Once you have returned this questionnaire, we will contact you via text to arrange a brief, 20–30-minute phone call with one of our psychosexual therapists.
The purpose of this phone call is to check that the treatment we provide will be appropriate for you. If it is decided between you and the therapist that it is, you will be placed on our internal waiting list and invited for an initial assessment once your name reaches the top. This initial assessment session is a detailed one and involves the therapist asking questions about the history of the difficulty you are experiencing and how it is impacting you. The appointment can last up to one and a half hours. You will meet your therapist in this assessment and find out more about what psychosexual therapy might involve for you.
After this assessment, you will be offered up to 11 follow-on therapy sessions, which we usually recommend are spaced at fortnightly intervals, to give you time to put into practice some of the in between session tasks your therapist may suggest as part of your treatment. We contact your GP at the start and end of therapy, to let them know that we are working with you and when we are discharging you from our service.
Not all psychosexual difficulties are fully resolved within the 12 sessions that we can offer, but most improve substantially, and there is the option to be re-referred for further psychosexual therapy six months post-discharge.
Psychosexual therapy is a psychological intervention that is aimed to resolve the sexual difficulties that people experience in their lives. A range of different interventions can be used within this therapeutic approach including,
It is important to note that our treatment programmes require you to be motivated and committed to addressing your difficulties through the attendance of regular therapy sessions (usually held every two to four weeks) and the completion of the in between session tasks that you and your therapist will agree together in your sessions. You will never be asked to undertake a sexual task in a session.
As a psychosexual therapy service, we do not prescribe. We may recommend medicines or sexual aids that can be prescribed by your GP.
Katie and Jody explain what psychosexual therapy is:
If you cancel two consecutive appointments, or a number of intermittent appointments, or fail to attend an appointment, we will not be able to offer any further appointments.
If you cannot make an appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your time to someone else.
Individuals we are booking into our service currently have had to wait four to six months for a first appointment.
Individual waiting times are variable, and we cannot give specific times for individual waits.
Please keep us updated of any changes to your contact details to ensure we can offer you an appointment when one is available for you. We would like to sincerely apologise for this situation and for any inconvenience or difficulty this may cause you.
If you are waiting for an appointment please take a look at this letter which outlines the support available while you are waiting.
You can find FAQs for the service here.
Before your appointment with the service you might find it useful to read one of the leaflets below:
Appointments are available Monday – Friday between 9am-5pm.
We provide a hybrid model of face to face and online appointments. You can choose which type of appointment would suit you best.
The Sheffield Psychosexual Therapy Service offers a query line to any health professional who would like to seek consultation or advice regarding psychosexual issues that may be affecting service users they are working with.
The query line can be used for asking information about whether a referral is appropriate for the service, how to work with sexual issues a service user may be presenting with or for a more general enquiry.
If you would like to make use of the query line, please email psychosexualtherapyservice@shsc.nhs.uk or phone 0114 2716979, and we will be in contact to book a time for you to speak with one of our therapists.
Sheffield Psychosexual Service
Fitzwilliam Centre
143-145 Fitzwilliam Street
Sheffield
S1 4JP
United Kingdom
