Would Sex Therapy Have Helped the LA Fitness Shooter?

By now most of us have heard about George Sodini, the man who opened fire on a workout class at a Pittsburgh, PA, LA Fitness, killing three women and wounding nine others.

Sodini, 48, apparently had no luck with women. His inability to get a date (he reportedly hadn't had a girlfriend in 25 years) enraged him to the point that he started plotting to attack women at his gym last fall.

He's not alone in floundering with females. Recent letters to Dan Savage, who pens the widely syndicated Savage Love sex column, show there are many men out there who are even worse off than Sodini was--one 45-year-old man has never had a relationship.  

Today, a CNN article reported that Sodini had tried to get help for his ineptitude with women at a Los Angeles self-help dating seminar. Some of the topics included making one's home more attractive to women and selecting the appropriate neck tie.

I wonder, though, if Sodini would have benefited more from something called sexual surrogacy therapy, a topic I  blogged about back in the spring.  

The therapy involves a licensed surrogate spending time or being sexual with someone who has issues with intimacy or in forming romantic relationships. Most often, a psychologist facilitates the partnership.

Perhaps Sodini, and some of the other men in his shoes, would have gotten over some of his issues had he been able to "practice" dating with someone while working with a shrink. It certainly would have been preferable to the tragic outcome.

How do you think we can help the other George Sodinis out there before they go off the deep end?