sExploration
Sexual issues can be as difficult for clinician to address as they are for clients to share. While it is easy to leave these issues unexplored, they are ever present. sExploration is a yearly event that offers students and faculty an opportunity to explore the intersection of human sexuality with culture, identities and clinical practice. sExploration is produced by PASD as a catalyst for discussions (in and out of classrooms) on integrating sexuality issues into all elements of our work as mental health professionals: assessment, consultation, research, practice, education and development. Scroll down to see the events for this year's sExploration, as well as events from previous sExplorations.
sExploration 2020
Sexually Positive 2020: Exploring Strengths, Maximizing Pleasure, Celebrating Diversity
Sexually Positive 2020 advocates for open discussion, nonjudgmental attitudes, freedom, and liberation about sexuality and sexual expression. Sex-positive frameworks assert that sexuality is a critical aspect of the counseling process that is often overlooked or purposely ignored by mental health practitioners (Reissing & Di Giulio, 2010). When it is addressed clinically it is most often in terms of dysfunction and pathology. Sexually Positive 2020 promotes an understanding of sexuality as a potentially positive force in one's life, exploring clinical work that maximizes pleasure and celebrates sexual diversity, differing desires, relationships structures, and individual choices based on consent.
Sexually Positive 2020 events will be held throughout the month of March. Interactive displays start Monday morning in the fourth floor Mart lobby. Our first presentation is on Wednesday examining the impact of intersecting cultures on sexual knowledge. Khyati Patel, M.C. presents Sex Ed: The Lived Experiences of South Asian Canadian Women within their Family of Origin from 12-1 in room 4050. On Thursday we will view clips from “The Sessions” and discuss access to, and the vital roles of, sexual pleasure in disabled populations.
You can download the program for sExploration 2020 here.