Dr. Dean Dauw

Dr. Dean C. Dauw is one of the most unusual sex therapists practicing in the U.S. today. A former Roman Catholic priest with a doctorate in psychology from the University of Minnesota, Dauw quit the priesthood in 1965 and founded Sexual Enrichment Counseling Services Ltd. in Chicago the same year.

Today, as a clinical sexologist, he views his life’s work as being closer to God than his earlier attempts to help humanity within the confines of the church. “Although I no longer have any connection to organized religion, I still think of myself as a priest, a man with a mission,” Dauw says. “I feel a tremendous responsibility within the larger community, to share what I’ve learned and help others.”

More than 100 of his research articles have appeared in professional journals and his 16 books include the best-selling “The Stranger in Your Bed: A Guide to Emotional Intimacy” co-authored with Tom and Joan Watts. Dauw has appeared frequently on various television talk shows including Oprah, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Geraldo and the Tonight Show.

A key to Dauw’s approach to counseling and therapy is that sexual intimacy is essential as a foundation for a fully functioning life. “Sex is not a four-letter word. Today millions of people suffer from a sense of guilt that repressive elements in our society heap upon them. In so many cases, this leads to extremes such as denial of sex on one hand to the frenzied pursuit of unlimited, often impersonal, sex on the other. Both are destructive. Between such extremes lie workable answers that lead to personal enrichment and fulfillment. It is in finding this middle ground that I bring my experience to bear in helping the self-searchers who come to me.

“I call those who choose to listen to me ‘fun-seekers’ and those who study with me ‘thrill-seekers.’ By these terms, I applaud their courage in facing the issues they bring to the process of personal growth and change. So many of us are weighted down with fear, guilt, anger and shame. How can we develop as healthy human beings with this heavy emotional baggage handed down to us through history? It’s hard to live a whole, happy life if the possibility of touch, even touching oneself, yields the blackest anxiety.”