Sexual Diversity

Last week we spent much of the class discussing the LGBTQ community and sex. Some of my biggest take aways from the therapy videos were how the therapist presented sexuality to her client in a way that made the possibility of being heterosexual or homosexual completely possible. You could immediately see the hesitancy in her client's as he described feeling off about his attractions. He was vague so she questioned him saying "so are you saying you're attracted to females or are you saying you're attracted to males." This question not only demonstrated the possibility of being attracted to males but also that it would be okay in the therapist eyes. The therapist also did an amazing job of continually checking in with the client regarding the direction their were heading due to initial hesitancy, which I felt was very appropriate. At first I was concerned she'd push this man towards being attracted to males through her questioning, but by continually checking in with him, she made it much more client directed and sensitive to what he wanted at that current time.

Another take away that I hope we answer in class today is around where a clinician draws the line regarding distress related to ones orientation and distress related to one's potential dysfunction. I can't quite remember if thats exactly what I asked in class last week, but it was something in regards to distress and where clinical judgements comes in to assess that distress in regards to individuals in the LGBTQ community.

Paraphilia!

I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation last week on paraphilia and its associated disorders. It always fascinates me as to what people can be attracted to. For example, on the wiki page the diagram showing different paraphilias and one of them is inflatophilia where the individual loves and is aroused by inflated things such as balloons. The diagram even says the people can get turned on by the thought of people inflating, it's so fascinating! Interestingly, my younger brother had an experience with a person that may have been an inflatophile. He works at party city and was asked to fill balloons for a man who he later found out comes in twice a week to watch someone inflate balloons for him. His coworkers mentioned that the man enjoys it a little too much, needless to say my brother no longer inflates balloons.

Other than that, I thought it was interesting to hear that not all pedophiles are child molesters and not all child molesters are pedophiles. This really stood out to me when the group discussed the concept of the gold star pedophile, who are pedophile's but refrain from engaging in any behavior associated with an attraction to children. I can only imagine the daily struggles individuals like these go through and it's unfortunate, due to society and laws surrounding pedophiles, that these individuals are treated to the same degree child molesters are.