Contributions from different disciplines are discussed. Sexual therapy offers a definition by Masters, Johnson, and Kolodny which states intimacy is a close, trusting, and emotionally open relationship in which love is not the principle concern. Marriage and family therapy literature rarely attempts to define intimacy, however it was once referred to as an open, vulnerable experience with a sharing of innermost feelings and thoughts. Descriptions of intimacy do not lead to solutions, clinical problems regarding how to do it, remain (pp. 99-105).

Schnarch focuses on a clinical model of intimacy. The author states that a capacity for intimacy is critical for the development and maintenance of a long-term intimate marriage. Self-differentiation and realistic expectations are important. The literature lacks a clinical model that accounts for the process of human development and relationships. For Schnarch, intimacy includes the ability to display one's inner life to another; sexual intimacy includes the use of sexuality for disclosure of core aspects of the self. Couples typically avoid intimacy and focus on escaping from or finding ones

A crucible is defined as a vessel in which metamorphic processes occur; the therapeutic crucible is a means of therapeutic solution. The goal of this modality is to help the couple go through the drama rather than to end or avoid it; therapy is the crucible containing the couple's drama with the marriage dynamics fueling the crucible. The sexual aspect focuses on ways couples act out individual, dyadic, and family dynamics in the sexual dimension of the marital relationship (p. xv). A crucible participates in the metamorphosis by containing the reaction so changes can occur; the nonreactive therapist and the therapeutic alliance function as the nonreactive container as the patient transforms (pp. 159-160).

Schnarch, D. M. (1991). Constructing the sexual crucible. An integration of sexual and marital therapy. New York: W.W. Norton.

Behavior-modification paradigms in sex therapy focus on anxiety-desensitization; the reduction or absence of anxiety is important rather than the presence of pleasure. Prescriptions are presumed to reduce anxiety, yet commonly have the opposite effect. Most people do not experience pleasure anxiety until they have developed high levels of intimacy, sexual arousal, and eroticism. Treatment with the sexual crucible addresses these issues rather than simply prescribing techniques. Isomorphic cross-modality intervention applies systems theory to sex therapy. Assumptions erroneously imply that interventions in either the sexual or nonsexual syste