Week 11 Discussion Response To Classmates

Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resources on your own before you bid. Main references come from Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017) and/or American Psychological Association (2014). You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation regarding treatment. Please respond to all 3 of my classmates with references separately. You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation like peer-reviewed, professional scholarly journals. I need this completed by 05/08/2020 at 4pm.

Expectation:

Responses to peers. Note that this is measured by both the quantity and quality of your posts. Does your post contribute to continuing the discussion? Are your ideas supported with citations from the learning resources and other scholarly sources? Note, that although it is often helpful and important to provide one or two sentence responses thanking somebody or supporting them or commiserating with them, those types of responses do not always further the discussion as much as they check in with the author. Such responses are appropriate and encouraged; however, they should be considered supplemental to more substantive responses, not sufficient by themselves.

Read your colleagues’ postings. Respond to your colleagues’ postings.

Respond in one or more of the following ways:

· Ask a probing question.

· Share an insight gained from having read your colleague’s posting.

· Offer and support an opinion.

· Validate an idea with your own experience.

· Make a suggestion.

· Expand on your colleague’s posting.

1. Classmate (C. Rod)

The professional I interviewed for this assignment was Lana Banegas, a sex therapist located in Marietta, GA. I conducted this interview on March 10, prior to COVID-19 restrictions. Ms. Banegas obtained a Master of Arts in Theology and Master in Marriage and Family Therapy. I took plenty away from Ms. Banegas, she breaks the barrier regarding religion and sexuality.  The professional verbalizes how not all clients seek treatment for sexual dysfunction but some for an internalized shame for not upholding their cultural expectations. Ms. Banegas affirms that many clients express shame, embarrassment, or depression for not “obeying” their God by being homosexual or sex before marriage, a typical Southern, Christian perspective. After the interview I learned that sex therapy is not just about erectile dysfunctions, breaking comfort zones and infidelity, but a true emotional conflict with some. Ms. Lanegas is inspirational to me with her dedication to exploring human sexuality and her clients.

Regardless of sexual orientation, relationship status, age or even those with disabilities, sex affects our lives somehow. I was shocked when researching for a sex therapist to interview and the closest one was in Marietta! I was surprised when discovering not even Dalton or Canton offered those services. Even if not apart of the LBGTQ community it can be challenging to express your sexuality especially living in the South. Living in a quaint town such as Blue Ridge, GA, where there is not even a liquor store, receiving services for sexual related concerns can be daunting. The citizens of Blue Ridge and the surrounding cities such as Blairsville, Ellijay and Jasper, should not have to travel hour and half to receive desired treatment. I believe as Ms. Banegas stated, there needs to be more awareness and acceptance. Gaining the support from the citizens in the community would be first to accomplish. Allowing them to see that sex does not have to be an embarrassing or vulgar topic and it can be expressed in a healthy way. The more “normal” something appears, the more accepted it will be. If I can show proof of support from the community and present reliable research of the benefits from sexual therapy maybe the city officials would support a office for sexual related concerns for adolescents and adults. A safe haven with no judgment, only open discussions about sex can bring a relationship and individually within a more honest, positive outcome. Perhaps then maybe the North East Georgia region will be more accepting of sex therapy.

2. Classmate (C. Pie)

For my professional interview, I interviewed a sex therapist in my area. Her name is Tara Spears. She owns her practice and she works with individuals, couples, and families. Her titles are LMFT, LMHC, and Sex Therapist. Her rationale for continuing her education into sex therapy is because she believes that work enables her to help clients dig deeper into their relationships. Her therapeutic aim is to help normalize topics within the realm of sexuality, therefore decreasing apprehension that can come with discussing such topics while simultaneously increasing clients’ efficacy in engaging in their sexuality and discussing it openly. Over the course of the interview, She discussed several topics worth advocating for: cultural and religious values that may impede the discussion of sexuality or sexual acts, systemic barriers in access to funding for treatments or education, and also debunking the stereotype that sex is an uncomfortable topic to discuss within the family system. She is a major supporter of discussing sex and sexuality with children and adolescents on a continuous basis. She has even published literature on helping parents and guardians talk about sex and sexuality within the family. Her book Talking to Children and Teens About Sex: a Parental Guide (Spears and Sheff, 2018) is a tool for parents and guardians to use to examine their own personal views about sex, what to look for in their children, and also exercises to be used at home to promote healthy conversations about sex and sexuality. Alongside her book, Tara has also published a website: https://tswm.academy/ (Talk Sex With Me Academy) which is a forum for her cumulative curriclum about discussing sex and sexuality within specific domains of individuals, couples, families, children, and LGBTQ+. Each set of curriculum is for purchase electonically.

Tara stated she is a huge advocate for talking with children and adolescents about sex and sexuality. Therefore, that is the topic I have used to build my own advocacy plan. For the purpose of this area of advocacy, I am considering the family unit as the client. The goal of the advocacy plan is to bolster parents and guardians efficacy in talking about sex and sexuality within the family. For the first stage, the parents and guardians will be led to examine their own personal beliefs about sex and sexuality and how their values may help or impede the process of communication. The second stage of advocacy is for parents and caregivers to understand what their children are learning in sex education at school, and what drives the financial funding for sex education within their home state. In this way, parents and guardians can become of aware of financial barriers that may limit school systems to one form of sex education. Through psychoeducation, families can build knowledge and confidence to push for schools to gain more comprehensive sex education curricula. Third, the family can work together to navigate the social/cultural/religious views that may dominate their surrounding environment while maintaining positive communication among the family about sex and sexuality.

References:

Spears, Tara, Sheff, Elizabeth (2018). Talking with Children and Teens About Sex: A Parental Guide. Tara Spears March 25, 2018. Amazon.com Services LLC.

Spears, Tara. Talk Sex with Me Academy. Retrieved from https://tswm.academy/ on May 06, 2020.

3. Classmate (A. Smi)

For my final project I interviewed a good friend of mine of 18 years, Dr. Shaughanassee Vines. Dr. Vines is a DNP, certified midwife, and owner of HealthHer in the Tidewater area.  Her practice concentrates on women’s health from the onset of puberty throughout menopause and beyond. When told earlier in the semester I was taking this class and was thinking about possibility becoming a certified sex therapist, she mentioned this was desperately needed in the field of women’s health. I never understood exactly what she meant until we had our Zoom interview. She stated in the field of women health, there is little options available for women experiencing sexual dysfunctions such as female sexual interest/arousal disorder and pelvic pain disorder (Vines , 2020). She reports although there is a medication similar to what is used to help male erectile disorder (for arousal problems), the women taking the medication have to sign paperwork stating they could never drink any form of alcohol for a lifetime and numerous patients disclosed the treatment didn’t work (Vines , 2020). She also stated many treatments were not covered by insurance and were expensive. Another problem she has seen concerning sexual dysfunction with women is in the field of women’s health this is considered a specialized issue. While receiving treatment with her, she also refers the women to a pelvic floor therapist or a sex therapist depending on the need (Vines , 2020). These specialists are rare in our area therefore getting an appointment can be a difficult process.

For my advocacy plan, I would want promote treatment and education of sexual dysfunction of women within the African American community. As seen in the news, social media, etc. women are already fighting for affordable treatment such as with birth control, abortions, infertility treatments (this is a serious one in the military), etc. in which some of things are not covered by insurance and can be seriously expensive. For the African American women, depending on the economic status, some of these treatments would be far out of reach. There is also the issue of the topic of sexuality within the community. According to Dr. Vines, not only do many lack understanding of their bodies, some of the tactics used for treating sexual dysfunctions for women, such as the stretching mechanism use for pelvic pain (Nazarpour , Simbar , Majd, & Tehrani , 2018), goes against their cultural and at time religious beliefs.

When looking into sexual dysfunction and treatment for African American women, I found there was little to no research concerning the community on its own. In majority of the research conducted, there is little representation of the AA woman within the past five years (Labuski , 2017). Not only is sexual dysfunction education and available treatment for women needed in the AA community, research concerning sexual dysfunction within the community is also necessary. All the information I have obtained from both the available research and the interview with Dr. Vines shows the need for a proposal for social change in this area.

* some of the references shown is research I have done concerning this topic.

References

Graham, C. A., Boynton , P. M., & Gould , K. (2017). Women’s sexual desire: challenging narratives of “dysfunction”. European Psychologist, 22(1), 27-38.

Hogue , J. V., Rosen , N. O., Bockaj, A., Impett, E. A., & Muise , A. (2019). Sexual communal mpotivation in couples coping with low sexual interest/arousal: Assoications with sexual well-being and sexual goals. PLoS ONE. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219768

Labuski , C. M. (2017). A black and white issue? Learning to see the intersectional and racialized dimensions of gynecological pain. Social Theory and Health, 15(2), 160-181.

Nazarpour , S., Simbar , M., Majd, H. A., & Tehrani , R. (2018). Beneficial effects of pelvic floor muscle exercises on sexaul functions among postmenopausal women: A randomised clinical trial. Sexual Health, 15, 396-402.

Vines , S. (2020). Sexuality in women health with Dr. Vines. (A. R. Smith , Interviewer) Chesapeake , VA .

Required Resources

Readings

· Course Text: Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

· Chapter 10, “Positive Sexuality: A New Paradigm for Sexuality Counseling”

· Article: Beagan, B. L., & Hattie, B. (2015). Religion, spirituality, and LGBTQ identity integration. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 9(2), 92–117. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Article: Domínguez, D. G., Bobele, M., Coppock, J., & Peña, E. (2015). LGBTQ relationally based positive psychology: An inclusive and systemic framework. Psychological Services, 12(2), 177–185. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Article: Etengoff, C., & Daiute, C. (2015). Clinicians’ Perspective of the Relational Processes for Family and Individual Development During the Mediation of Religious and Sexual Identity Disclosure. Journal of Homosexuality, 62(3), 394–426. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Article: Ratts, M. J., Singh, A. A., Nassar-McMillan, S., Butler, S. K., & McCullough, J. R. (2016). Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies: Guidelines for the Counseling Profession. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 44(1), 28–48. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Article: Ridley, J. (2009). What Every Sex Therapist Needs To Know. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 20(2/3), 95–111. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

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