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Quaderni di Psicoterapia Cognitiva - Open Access

La sessualità in psicoterapia cognitivo-comportamentale

No. 57 (2025)

Psychotherapeutic assessment process and sexological Anamnesis

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/qpc57-2025oa23108
Submitted
giugno 22, 2026
Published
2026-07-16

Abstract

Psychological evaluation (assessment) aims to achieve, through appropriate procedures, multiple convergent objectives: the construction of a therapeutic alliance, the formulation of descriptive and functional diagnostic hypotheses, and the organization of a predictably effective treatment plan associated with process and outcome indicators. To these essential domains a transversal and instrumental objective is also added: the biopsychosocial anamnesis necessary both to acquire an extensive and indepth understanding of general health conditions and to formulate a model of personality functioning and of the specific disorder/deficit.

International guidelines concerning psychological consultation and assessment (APA, 2020) provide general indications regarding the conduct of a psychosexual anamnesis in psychotherapy framing it as an exploration of the patient’s life domains (APA, 2013). Psychosexual assessment, as a structured method of evaluation, is typically reserved for cases in which the clinical question is associated with the presence of a sexological disorder or, more broadly, with a sexual problem (Veglia, 2006). At the same time, a systematic exploration of the sexual life domain is also important when the case is not strictly sexological (Cavallo, 2025), as it represents a dimension interconnected with identityrelated, interpersonal, affective, and social constructs; indeed, sexual health constitutes an essential component of overall biopsychosocial wellbeing (WHO, 2021).

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