Sex-Positive Approach to Human Sexuality Counseling Handbook

This comprehensive handbook, edited by Angela M. Schubert and Mark Pope, takes a sex-positive approach to human sexuality counseling, providing a strengths-based, developmentally appropriate, psychoeducational, and evidence-based framework for practitioners.

What’s Inside

The handbook features 25 chapters written by counseling and other specialists from the US, who emphasize a non-judgmental and inclusive approach to human sexuality, avoiding pathologizing or discriminating against sexual behaviors and expressions that are not heteronormative, reproduction-focused, or cisnormative.

Foundations of the Approach

• Current issues in mental health and the difference between a sexual wellness and a medical framework
• The history of sex, including cultural taboos, the impact of religion, and cultural differences in sexual norms
• The politics of sex and its intersection with society
• Ethics and professional pitfalls in sexual health counseling

Physiological and Psychological Aspects

• The physiology of sex and its role in human behavior
• The role of the brain in sex and desire
• The role of orgasm and its impact on human sexuality
• Societal messages about sex and sexuality and their influence on individuals

Sexual Wellness and Agency

• The benefits of masturbation and its impact on sexual health
• The impact of chronic illness and pain on sexual attitudes and desire
• Working with individuals with sexually transmitted infections
• Assisting survivors of sexual harassment, assault, trauma, and trafficking
• Sexual agency in later life, disability, race and ethnicity, and religion

Approaches to Sexual Divergence

• Kink, swinging, BDSM, fetishes, and consensual objectification
• Sexual addiction and sexual divergence in relation to the paraphilic section of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Relationship Aspects

• Love, dating, hookup culture, and infidelity in the modern age

Sax Education and Counselor Training

• The importance of comprehensive sex education and counselor training in promoting sexual health and wellness

This handbook is a valuable resource for practitioners, counselors, and educators working in the field of human sexuality counseling, providing a comprehensive and inclusive framework for promoting sexual health and wellness.

Publisher: American Counseling Association
Edition: 1st edition
Publication Date: September 1, 2022
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 472
ISBN-10: 1556203985
ISBN-13: 978-1556203985