NSEC Workshop Title: YES YOU CAN! Teaching About Sexuality with Older Adults
NSEC Workshop Description: This workshop is intended for sexuality educators who want to begin to implement programming that targets older adults and aging services staff, but may not know where to start. Educators will learn tools to deliver engaging, interactive and easily replicable workshops they can use with their own audiences, including CSE’s publication, ‘Older, Wiser, Sexually Smarter.’
What about your workshop are you most excited about?
TC: Having the opportunity to speak with other sexuality educators about aging sexuality and addressing taboos that surround sex and aging. I’m looking forward to an engaging conversation where I’ll share tips and strategies I’ve learned over the years working with older adults and the staff who serve them. We will talk about some of the ways sexuality evolves and changes as we age. We know that closeness, intimacy and touch are lifelong needs that do not get old, even when people do. Older adults may be graying but their need sexuality is still flickering.
I’m also looking forward to learning from participants who will have the chance to voice their questions, opportunities, and challenges when teaching about sexuality with older adults.
Who do you hope will attend your workshop?
TC: Anyone who is interested in talking about sexuality and aging! This will be a workshop where all are welcome, regardless if they have had experience in talking about sexuality and aging. It is a topic that is gaining more and more interest in the field of sexuality education, and although some folks are already doing the work, many more are wanting to truly embrace educating about sexuality from the “womb to the tomb” and bolster their toolbox with new ideas, skills, and comfort.
What’s the biggest challenge you are struggling with right now professionally?
TC: My biggest challenge in educating about aging and sexuality, which includes talking about the unique needs of our aging LGBT older adults, is getting past staff bias and the attitude that “we don’t need to talk about sex with older adults.”
What do you do when you aren’t working?
TC: I love, love, love the outdoors and spend as much time as I can exploring and adventuring by foot or by bicycle. I just returned from a 3 week vacation in southern UT, exploring our national parks. I think the only time I spent indoors was to shower and sleep!
