Sexvangelicals

We are continuing our summer series called Partnership Building, where we are discussing the work of John Gottman. Last week, we discussed how curiosity is the foundation for healthy, sustainable relationships. Gottman uses the term "cognitive room"—the ability to spontaneously recall details about positive qualities about their partner and their relationship. Cognitive room is fueled by curiosity, the strong desire to learn or know something. Cognitive room is something that continually develops; after all, we continually develop as humans. I'm not the same person as I was this time last year, and neither are you. In this episode, we follow an online program of multiple randomly generated questions with everything from "Favorite sex scene from a movie?" to "What do you want your funeral to be like?" The purpose of this game is to inspire curiosity. When we spend every day with our partner, sometimes it is hard to come up with creative and intriguing questions to ask one another and this is a great starting off point for serious and not-so-serious questions. Getting the ball rolling on curiosity is the most important thing. Listen to all the fun and unique questions throughout this episode to find out Julia and Jeremiah's biggest fears and favorite concerts! Marriage Material (5:44): Julia shares, "Ideally the initial stage of a relationship development bonding happens in the first two years. And this involves people determining their common interests and values and sexual preferences, and creating experiences to explore all of those things and more. However, in the EMPish community, the bonding period gets tainted and intensified by the questions: Is this person marriage material, Am I marriage material? And are we not having sex?" EMPish communities push the idea that we have to assess if someone is "marriage material" from the onset of the relationship or that relationship is a waste of time. Rephrasing for the Relationship (19:00): We got the question, "Is there anything I used to do that you miss?" We both did not have an answer; however, instead of getting stumped, we tailored it to your relationship. In changing the question, Julia got to hear a wonderful response from Jeremiah. These questions are building blocks and not set in stone. Curious but Tired (27:00): Julia says, "Being curious about anyone takes work. And I love asking you about your day. And that is something that like takes effort. That is well worth it. And I wonder if something like this is helpful for like days or nights, not just for us, but for folks who like want to be curious but like are tired." We all care about our partner's days and lives but sometimes do not have the energy to figure out where to start the dialogue. These questions also change up the regularly scheduled programming because they open up more doors to a discussion that may have never come up. It goes back to the main idea that curious conversation keeps a relationship sustainable and enjoyable. Playfulness (42:00): Jeremiah shares, "It's important for this curiosity to go beyond how are you, be as specific as you can in your curiosity games like the one that we played can help jog your creative juices and ask about things that. Plus, if you get a question that feels vulnerable or touchy, you can blame it on chance if the question came up. And then you can choose whether or not you want to answer it." These games do not have to be 100% serious; they can just be a fun activity that is a way of bonding. We bond with our partners over serious meaningful moments and conversations, but we also bond with them through jokes and laughter. Playfulness is a great way to spice up an otherwise boring night after work. Check out the free question generator on minimizemymess.com, the app from The And, and a number of other card games with curious questions. Let's heal together!

This summer, we're exploring the seven characteristics to healthy relationships, through John Gottman's Sound Marital House theory of relationships. Gottman suggests that curiosity is the root of a strong foundation for a relationship. Curiosity, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the strong desire to know or learn something. In this episode, we talk about how EMPish (Evangelical, Mormon, and Pentecostal) communities discourage curiosity, and the ways that people can learn and practice curiosity in your relationship. We discuss: Cognitive Room (11:40): Julia summarizes, "The Gottman's suggested that the more facts that a person had about their partner, the more likely they were to understand their partner's psychological or emotional world. They noted that cognitive room is also an ongoing process. This makes sense because the things that a person likes, wants, or needs at any given moment is likely to change throughout the lifespan like sexuality and given other circumstances. Couples who are able to update the other about the cognitive room are much more likely to have a positive relationship." Culture Inhibited Curiosity (16:00): Julia continues, "This whole culture [EMPish Christianity] inhibited curiosity. So if grace was the only way out of an otherwise terrible world, success happens by knowing a ton of facts about God and retrieving and saying those facts perfectly." There was no room for curiosity, only room for answers that matched exactly what the authorities say. After all, in EMPish communities, when we ask questions, we may question God, and, of course, that is blasphemous. Curiosity within Religion (23:00-24:00): Jeremiah muses, "I'm thinking about this binary that's happening in religious circles, religion versus science. Science provides this decision-making process that informs curiosity. You identify a question, you develop a hypothesis, you form a process to test that hypothesis, and you observe what the results are. Now, this process can get hijacked by our own biases. Sometimes we're looking for specific things and we can miss out on more pertinent information. But this binary also assumes that religion is inherently a non-curious process." Julia responds: "I think curiosity requires a more mystical approach to religion, which I certainly did not receive in my growing up contexts. The mystical approach assumes that life is about discovering how the world works and allowing yourself to be surprised. Curiosity requires us to see the best in people, and every person has the capacity to teach me something new, both about myself and about the world around me." Performing Gender (28:15): Jeremiah reflects, "The strong desire to perform gender roles shuts down any dialogue in an interaction. Performing gender roles is specifically an individual task. I do my thing. You do your thing. And any conversation about how the other person is performing gender roles can really quickly move into criticisms, sexist ones at that. I would argue that this was one of the biggest ways that I contributed to the demise of my marriage." Julia responds: "Performing gender roles gives a person very few options for how they choose to live their lives." Focusing on the Destination, not the Journey (33:00): Julia shares about our relationship, "So many questions that weren't rooted in deciding whether or not you were going to be my future husband, but were rooted purely in the desire to get to know you. My genuine curiosity about getting to know my ex as a full human being was undergirded with the expectation that I needed to know as soon as possible whether this person would be my future husband" Julia talks about how her curiosity being limited in her marriage was due to the fact that she was focused on getting to know if her ex-husband would be suited to fulfill his gendered role instead of getting to know him, while with Jeremiah she focused her curiosity on getting to know him, not getting to know if he was going to be a good husband. Missing Out (42:00): Jeremiah reminisces about a high school crush, "Now we built this connection online. Hello, AOL Instant Messenger, but there was also a fair amount of sexual tension when we were in the same space. There are all sorts of reasons that I didn't actually ask her out. I didn't have a lot of self-confidence. Oh, I was afraid that she would say no. I didn't perceive myself to be particularly confident, and I thought that she was way cooler than I was. But a major factor was that I was a Christian and she wasn't." Religion taught him not to be curious about what lies outside the binds of Christianity. Next week, we'll continue with our curiosity through Gottman's Love Maps. But until then, Let's heal together!

In the last six months, we had a series called The Seven Deadly Sexual Sins (According to the Church), where we answered the question, "What is the sex education that the church DID want us to have?" And then we talked about the sex education we actually wish we had, centered around the six sexual health principles described by Doug Braun Harvey. And this summer, we're talking about seven principles of healthy relationships from John and Julie Gottman in a series that we're calling Partnership Building: Curiosity Appreciation Turning towards your partner Positivity Conflict management Negotiation of differences Finding a shared meaning" In this episode, we talk about The Four Horsemen (16:00) of unhealthy interactional patterns in a relationship: criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. And we close by describing how focusing on 15 minute increments can help your relationship move out of these unhealthy dynamics. We talk about: Criticism (20:00): Jeremiah explains, "Complaints are typically comments about the relational process, about the dynamic itself. Criticisms are comments about the other person's character." Julia gives the example: "So a criticism would have been, you don't think about my needs, you're a neglectful partner or some version of that. I'm really proud that I was able to focus on the specific behaviors and interaction processes that hurt me. Rather than targeting that frustration at you as a person." Defensiveness (29:00): Jeremiah reflects, "I noticed that I also get really defensive because more than anything in this world, I want you to be happy and I fall into the trap. A lot of thinking that my decisions interfere with or affect your happiness, that you'll be mad at me." Julia responds, "So often we move into these four horseman types of interactions and we forget that our partner was actually trying to help us. If I perceive that you are going to misunderstand me, I can pretty quickly jump into defensiveness by also over-explaining myself and giving reasons for why I do things, even though I don't really need to do that. I wonder if that's an interactional pattern that other people might be able to relate to." Contempt (34:00): Julia warns, "To be super blunt, a relationship cannot survive in which contempt is present on any regular basis. Criticism and contempt have some similarities and they are a bit difficult to distinguish. But ultimately the distinguishing features are one, the prevalence of criticism and defensiveness. And then two, the sense of moral superiority that comes from contempt with a true intent to harm the other person. Contempt is like criticism but on a steroid. Contempt does come with a sense of, I want you to hurt" Contempt fosters resentment and is also a means to feel superior to your partner, and when that is present a relationship cannot and will not survive. Stonewalling (44:00): Jeremiah shares, "Stonewalling often gets shown as dismissiveness. I'm wondering if that's kind of what my ex was referring to was the ways that I would kind of space out when, either my perception of the culture of contempt got significant, or when the actual culture of contempt was happening." Stonewalling essentially means blocking out our partner which leads to a lack of initiation in the relationship. Relationship 101 and Antidotes for the Four Horsemen (50:00): Julia describes, "Both of us have some strong leadership energy that can conflict with each other. So I made myself these little flashcards for our next meeting. So one of the flashcards says, you are the greatest source of joy in my life. And I was thinking, I'll play that card and just put it down on the table when I'm really frustrated with you so that I can move into a space of appreciation, which is the antidote for contempt." The antidote for criticism (54:00): "What's important with criticism is to speak from your own experience using classic I statements." Jeremiah says, when working with criticism it is important to frame our complaints through "I feel" statements rather than accusatory "You are." The antidote to defensiveness (57:00): "Part of the antidote to defensiveness is taking the time to understand how something impacted you before I move into sharing my intention." Jeremiah notes it's important to figure out where our feelings are coming from before moving into a defensive space. The antidote to stonewalling (58:00): "The Gottman's suggests that self-soothing is the antidote, which means finding something that can give some sort of psychological and relational relief." Julia talks about how self-soothing (so going on a walk, reading a book, etc.) can relieve some of the frustration and avoid stonewalling. When our minds are calmed and cleared we can re-engage the emotions and conversation at hand instead of blocking our partner out. We're excited to share more about the Gottman's research this summer. Sexual health is relational health, and relational health is sexual health. Let's heal together!

Happy Pride Month from Sexvangelicals! We kick off June by talking with our new Marketing and Communications Director, Maddie Upson, about her experiences navigating queerness inside and outside of religious contexts. This is one of the most riveting conversations we've had about queerness on our podcast. Check out our conversations about: Jenga Pieces (14:00): Julia uses the metaphor that deconstruction is like removing pieces of a Jenga Tower; eventually, it all comes crashing down. Maddie shares, "The first time I went to a party and someone offered me alcohol, I've been prepared my entire life for that. The Church said like, they're gonna try to get you to do drugs and you just gotta stand strong. And they [the partygoers] were like, okay. And they just bopped off. And I was like, well, this wasn't the spiritual haggling that I had expected as they led me to believe. And I started realizing these, like non-believers were way more respectful of my decisions than most of the Christians I grew up with." When Maddie saw that people weren't forcing drugs on her and her Christian values weren't being attacked, a Jenga piece was pulled out. Capacity during Deconstruction (20:00): Julia reflects on Maddie's story and explains how during the deconstruction process it's understandable and normal that she did not have the capacity to explore her sexuality. "So it is such a good point that you just didn't have the capacity to engage bisexuality or queerness and that wasn't a cop-out or, any other negative thing that was just where you were at the time and all your other capacities were utilized in other ways. You didn't have anything else left for that." Deconstruction takes up a lot of our mind's energy and space, and there is no shame in making realizations about ourselves later in life, there is no such thing as "being late." Hair Cutting and Patriarchy (25:00): Maddie shares, "I buzzed my head and I was like, I'm not pretty anymore. But not in a sad way, right? Like I am still attractive, I can be so many other adjectives now. That person in the mirror belongs to me." The Church and mainstream culture seem to agree on a few things: the idea that women need long pretty hair and make-up seems to be one of them. Of course, the amount of make-up and clothing varies, but the expectations set on women by the patriarchy are harmful and limiting to our self-expression. Labels (39:50): Jeremiah summarizes, "Queer is all-encompassing. Whereas bisexual, like still in some ways is a word that centers around the gender binary. You're either attracted to men, you're either attracted to women. Oh, you could be attracted to both. Maddie, what you're talking about that given all these different types of attraction that happen is like my levels of attraction are situational, are circumstantial." Labels can be constricting, and not that they are bad, they're not, but a lot of people do not fall into the gay, straight, or bisexual labels, but find themselves identifying more with the term "queer" or just sexually fluid. It's okay to not have a label. All that matters is practicing safe and consensual sex with whomever it may be. Coming Out (45:00): Maddie shares, "Coming out can imply that this is something really important that you need to tell people and you're gonna have some questions and you're gonna have to be ready for them, instead of just being. It also implies that the default is heterosexuality." Coming out shouldn't be an expectation of queer people; nobody owes anyone an explanation for their sexuality. Coming out may be meaningful and important, however, it should not be the expectation of every queer person to inform everyone in their lives that they are queer. We do not need to divulge every piece of information about ourselves, especially with sexuality, because we may be sexually fluid, and there should not be the expectation that every time we date someone of a different gender an entire announcement has to be made. We hope you have a fantastic Pride Month, however you choose to celebrate. Let's heal together!

We have big news! We hired a new Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Maddie Upson, and we're excited to introduce you to her in a two part episode. In this episode, Maddie describes her experience growing up in a homeschool connected with the Evangelical Church in Arkansas, including: Fitting into the Church (8:00): Maddie explains that her church and homeschool had one major goal: to keep people (men and women) in their "godly" roles. "You are assessed at how well you can read the implicit rules and you get rewarded if you stay within those rules and you will get kind of smacked down if you're kind of to out the line. It's really about how well you can read the room and you're rewarded for that." Conversations about Sexuality (14:00): Maddie describes the gender roles she learned: "For men and women, the messages specifically about gender and sexuality was more about what wasn't said. It was very common to like to talk about men and boys are visual creatures. They are addicted to porn. It's on us [women] to not just enforce our purity, but theirs as well, and how we dress, how we act." Maddie speaks about how not only did Church leadership, but parents, expected girls to be the monitors for boys' sexuality. Anger (23:00): Julia talks about how anger can be used and geared towards justice and is not something to be demonized." Certainly like any emotion, people can misuse anger just like they could misuse anything. But I wish that in all spheres, in and outside of the church, we could actually be able to embrace anger for the important role that is necessary, particularly in terms of justice. And it sounds like from a very young age, you had experiences with anger that were demonized, and then eventually you got to the point in which you said, okay, no, I'm no longer going to wait for the boys to bait me." Anger and Boundaries (25:00): Maddie explores the power of anger when someone disrespects your boundaries. "Anger's such a powerful emotion because it allows you to carve out space and hold your boundaries in a way that shame and fear can kind of incapacitate you. While there are pros and cons, anger is one of the few emotions that really, I think, shores you up and you can push it back on things. A boundary's been violated. And so I think I came to have like a really, maybe an unhealthy, but still like very strong relationship with my anger because it protected me and it would help me create space for myself when people were trying to take my breathing room." Anger and Changing the System (33:00): Jeremiah suggests, "While anger has the capacity to bring more immediate change or at least call for immediate change to the systems that exist that aren't working…That's something that 30-somethings, 50 something struggle with. Do I change the system? And if I do change the system, what are the consequences? And do I want to deal with the consequences of that?" Maddie responds, "I think that especially for women, anger is a necessary thing. And I honestly wish in the church, more women were able to feel free, to feel angry because there's a lot to be angry about." The church controls our bodies, our tongues, and our "purity," so why shouldn't we be angry? At the end of the episode, Maddie talks with us about cheese, the black market, Boston, and her love for Wonder Woman. We're so thankful to have Maddie on our team! Let's heal together!

We wrap up our series on The Sex Ed We Wish We Had by talking about the final sexual health principle from the work of Doug Braun Harvey and Michael Vigorito: Mutual pleasure. And we're excited to have our editor extraordinaire, Nicole Marinescu, share her experiences of navigating mutually pleasurable experiences in an age of Tinder, virtual communication, and the growing influence of EMPish (Evangelical, Mormon, and Pentecostal) communities. Nicole provides a simple definition for mutual pleasure: "Caring about the other person or persons that you are having a sexual experience with." We also talk about the following: Gen-Z and Independence (4:00): Nicole talks about how in growing up with the internet, Gen-Zers have become a 'hyper-independent' generation, which can be great in many aspects; however, hinders us in aspects of community, relationships, and mutual pleasure. "When you have this level of independence, working with one another was not a skill that was taught even in elementary school. Independence is a beautiful thing, but when you're not kind of taught to work with people in your community, the people around you, you're not really gonna apply that as you get older. You're not gonna apply that to dating, you're not gonna apply that to sex." Julia adds "What we know from research is that Gen Z folks are having less partnered sex. Now solo sex and masturbation are fantastic, so keep doing that. But it doesn't sound like your generation has learned good relational skills to move out of the independence into a partnered state in which you can both talk and engage pleasure together." Tinder (8:00): Nicole shares, "Tinder is an app that commodifies not just sexuality, but the people that you are reduced to your height and the one or two pictures that you have, and you are something that you just say yes or no to." Jeremiah responds, "That's not mutual. That is one person asserting themselves, asserting their sexuality at the expense of another person. Social media impacted and inhibited the ways and the skills with which people who use social media at high volumes communicate effectively. It also inhibits the ability to move into empathetic spaces in response." Pleasure (25:00): "I think we find pleasure in the excitement and in this wonderful human connection that you don't have with most people," Nicole says in response to a question about the difference between meeting people virtually versus in person. Excitement is pleasure to a degree because it not only adds to a potential sexual experience, but it aids in our ability to empathize. With sex and romance becoming more virtual, we lose that excitement and in turn, lose some of our ability to empathize. Relationships During Times of Transition (31:00): Nicole explains how she and her partner create space for happiness and mutually pleasurable, not only during times of transition, to connect. "I'm talking about specific things we both like, that make us both happy and we'll do that. We'll cook meals together and that makes us so happy. We get to connect and it's not sexual, but you know, we're laughing, we are both following the recipe really poorly. It's a really good point of connection for us." Julia adds, "The pleasure within sexuality requires a lot of time and intention and communication. That is not easy. Pleasure also exists outside of sexuality." The Church and Community (45:00): Nicole describes, "The community element of church is something that I think we're missing in a lot of other spaces. But the community element of the church also comes with a lot of guilt and shame. And they tell you, oh, you can talk to us about anything. We can give you guidance, but you talk to them about something and it's. 'What? That's wrong. No, no, no.'" The Church can and has damaged many people's ability to be vulnerable by showing them that many of their questions will be met with shame, which in turn can hurt someone's ability to be vulnerable in a relationship. A huge thanks to Nicole for joining us in this episode! Let's heal together!

Today's episode discusses one of the most challenging dynamics that we see when doing sex therapy with couples where one/both grew up in a religious context: How do you navigate value conversion, the paradigm shifting that happens during therapy, when two people convert their values at different paces? Jimmy Bridges, PhD, therapist extraordinaire at This Space Between, joins us for part two of this extremely important conversation. Jimmy, Julia, and Jeremiah talk about their process of value conversion in their former marriages—spoiler alert: it wasn't pretty for any of the three of us—as well as: Empathy (5:20): Jimmy explains, "What I'm mostly encouraging folks to do is both get to a place where they're able to really like step into the shoes of the other person. And then that works both ways because it helps with pacing. I think the biggest issue that leads to harm is we're trying to move too fast. Be cognizant of how it's impacting the people connected to you and learn how to step into the shoes." Finding similarities (10:30): Jimmy continues, "More than not, there's probably more alignment than we think there is in this process of huge transitions, either religiously or like relationally. I think how it gets enacted—behavior versus principle—I think can sometimes confuse us into thinking, oh, my partner's really different than me because they like practice this in a different way. But the value itself might still remain the same." Anxiety and value conversion (15:30): Jimmy describes processes that impacted his separation from his ex, "I wish I would've advocated for what I was wanting more because there was a fear of like, "Ooh, how is this gonna be perceived?" But I didn't even think at that time, about this is why it's important to me. This is what I do with like couples all the time. Connect it to why it's important to you." Navigating gender roles and therapy (18:30): Jeremiah notes that adherence to gender roles can interfere with the process of therapy, to which Jimmy responds, "The dilemma of a therapist is how much do I put myself in a position where I'm actually not being culturally competent? Right. And instead, use my position of power to say, Ooh, okay, I can't actually go forward with respecting all of your cultural values if some of those values are going to go against the treatment goals that you came in here asking me to help you with." The impact of enmeshment (29:20): Jimmy notes, "I think there is quite a lot of enmeshment that occurs relationally because it's being in a way socialized into you from being in an enmeshed church. I think communication skills become more important when you come out of a culture like that are like developing tolerance when you're in the space of tension, so distress tolerance. Find some internal reminders that the family isn't going to collapse. If we're hearing someone talk about something different, that harmony can still be maintained in the face of differences. And what that looks like in communication is something as simple as, "Let me see if I've got you so far, are you saying this, this and this?" At the core of our work at Sexvangelicals is the process of value conversion. If you're interested in working with us, please give this episode a listen! Let's heal together!

Last week, in our episode with Kara Haug, we talked about honesty as structures that provide accurate information to individuals and groups about sexuality and relationships. This week, we talk about how to navigate honesty within a relationship, where two people may have similar or differing perspectives, needs, and values. The language that we use to describe this sexual health principle is "shared values". Doug Braun Harvey, founder of the Harvey Institute, writes: "Values are a source of identifying one's sexual standards and ethics. Values differences, when honestly and vulnerably shared between partners, can lead to closeness or painful distance. Either way, it is a conversation that brings reality and clarity where couples may have previously chosen avoidance and deception." We invite our colleague Dr. Jimmy Bridges to talk with us about how to discuss values in relationships. In part 1, we talk about the ways that conservative religions discourage discussion of values using our own experiences—ours within Evangelical circles and Jimmy's within the Mormon church. We talk about: Language of Sex Ed (8:00): Jimmy says that he was taught about "plumbing," to which Jeremiah responds, "The language of disgust that's connected with plumbing is where sewage goes. It's where waste goes." Shame around Masturbation (11:00): "I think most folks, most kids feel [shame] about masturbation. Like you don't need any faith tradition to feel shame about masturbation if you grow up in the United States," Jimmy describes. The shame around masturbation led to shame around sexuality, and ultimately, himself: "I got pretty good at repressing a ton of like sexual urge, sexual desire, sexual exploration, sexual identity exploration, to where I thought I was getting a good sense of who I was and building this like really strong identity, but the reality was I was losing myself." Values (23:00): Jimmy shares, "The value of confrontation, self confronting, taking ownership of how I behave and the impact that that has on the world and the people around me actually guides a lot of like what I do in my own personal life and also in my professional life." Jimmy speaks about how his own values have evolved as a person who has moved through many different religions and as a therapist. and Jeremiah notes "So the idea of value conversion then suggests that values aren't static. Values have the capacity to grow, to evolve." Therapy and Power (26:00): Jimmy describes that therapists have to be aware of "power and the influence that a therapist and power or position of privilege holds in guiding and shaping people's values." This can become especially dangerous for folks who grew up in religious contexts, because "coming from religious structures, we are just ingrained in giving our autonomy up to the authority and asking the authority figures to make these decisions for us." Tune in next week for part two of our interview with Jimmy, where all three of us talk about our experiences navigating shifts in values in our marriages. Let's heal together!

We continue with our series on The Sex Education We Wish We Had by talking about the sexual health principle of honesty. Doug Braun-Harvey, of the Harvey Institute, explains: "Sexual health requires open and direct communication with oneself and every sexual partner. Honesty with oneself involves being open to sexual pleasure, sexual experience, and sexual education. Without honesty, sexual relationships will not be able to have effective communication or be able to uphold any of the sexual health principles." How can we have honest dialogue about sexuality when we've been so dishonest with our kids and adolescents about sexual health? To help us answer this, we invite Kara Haug, co-founder of Reframing Our Stories, a business that provides sexual health education, resources and tools for families and communities to normalize conversations around sex and relationship in Sacramento. Kara talks with us about: Mixed Messaging (9:00): Kara shares, "Something that stood out to me was that even in the affirmation of being a dancer, that there was still a sexualization component of you as either a girl or an adolescent that you could dance in church, but literally, God forbid, your nipples show, that there was still this insidious underbelly of purity culture and gendered messaging." Women's bodies are treated as subjects that must be debated on, ruled upon, discussed, and punished, instead of just being treated like a human body. Role of Sexuality (20:00): Kara discusses her motivation for her work: "The amount that I saw how sexuality played into people's stories and how it shaped their lives and how it touched so much of our lives that I didn't realize before I think overwhelmed me. And then I just became really sad because I'm like, what we are doing is we are continuing negative cycles that don't need to happen." The absence of honest conversations and comprehensive sex education leads to unnecessary suffering and grief. Gut Instincts (33:00): Kara talks about how she was taught to go against her instincts: "I was told not to trust my bodily sensations and things like that. And so that's why now recognizing how I feel like I have made decisions against my gut instinct. Every time I teach anyone, I bring in a body element, like from young to old." To have honest and open conversations about sexuality, we need to be able to trust ourselves, and our bodies first. Grief (34:00): Jeremiah asks, "When families work with you, I imagine that they are often receiving comprehensive sex education for the first time as well. How do you help them navigate the experience in the grief of receiving sex ed for themselves and sharing it with the children at the same time?" We talk about grief quite a bit, and for an important reason: we need to hold space for our younger selves who did have the opportunity to have the same education as our children. It's important to break those cycles for future generations. Triggers (40:00): Kara reflects, "Your children are your biggest triggers and so as soon as you feel triggered about something, you need to think about why was that triggering? And then you need to think about the root of that and then possibly be willing to get help for that," Our children can trigger us, but it is up to us to be honest with ourselves and unpack why we were triggered. We're Going on a Bear Hunt (43:00): "Nobody likes hard feelings. We don't like them. You know, we don't like feeling like garbage. I say that and I go, but just like the book, we're going on a bear hunt. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We have to go through it." Kara speaks about the book, also loved by Julia, for how it is an effective tool for teaching about how we have to push through hardship because we cannot avoid it. Directness and Respect (50:00): Julia summarizes the importance of "directness and respect and not sugarcoating hard things that were happening in or outside of family systems." Children deserve the same honesty and respect as adults. Age-appropriate language and honesty can co-exist, and it is important that children are exposed to honesty young so they can incorporate that into their own mindset and expect the same from others. Learn more about Kara through her podcast Reframing Our Stories. Let's heal together!

April is STI Awareness Month. STIs are commonly discussed in sex ed curricula, but typically as a fear-mongering technique to discourage premarital sexuality. We are excited to have Jenelle Pierce, Executive Director of The STI Project, break down the stigma and provide strategies for discussing STIs with partners. The episode begins with this prompt: "A person is beginning to date and is exploring multiple potential dating, sexual, and or romantic relationships. What are some ways to help set initial conversations around STI or pregnancy prevention?" The Value of Honest Communication (2:00): "It's important to be honest, if you are in any stage of a relationship, even a 'talking stage'", Jenelle says. "First of all, communicating the dynamic of that relationship to all your partners, making sure that those who are involved know and are in the same place and are comfortable with that." Beginning the Conversation (4:00): Julia reflects, "I have many clients who have recently moved out of religious structures that have such specific rules around dating and sexuality and never learned the skills to have a dialogue about sexuality in general and different components about sexuality, including STIs. And those conversations can feel very anxiety provoking for folks." Many folks who grow up in religious structures typically do not even have a starting point for conversations about sex and sexuality, so it can cause fear and anxiety to even begin that dialogue because of the idea that talking about sex is shameful. Misconceptions About Open Relationships (13:00): Jenelle shares, "The assumption is that they're (people in polyamorous relationships) potentially higher risk and that there are more STIs within those communities. […] But it's actually the other way around. So research tells us that those who have known infections are less likely to transmit their infection than someone who has an unknown infection." This shows how vital comprehensive sexual education is. People who are more inclined to have honest and open conversations practice safe(r) sex. The Psychology of Disgust (22:00): Jenelle explains, "Disgust is one of the core central emotions that helps us to navigate life in a way that we can be healthy and productive. And so it's a central emotion that's necessary from an evolutionary standpoint. Your risk assessment and disgust sensitivity changes and is dynamic intentionally also to benefit you because we need those relationships. The actual exchange of bacteria that happens when we're in close proximity to one another is good for our immune system and our overall health." Learn more about Jenelle and The STI Project on Instagram. Let's heal together!