Over the last few months, I’ve been amazed at how much shame has been heaped upon Tiger Woods. And it just keeps on going. Here’s a blog post from Dr. Howard Samuels, a psychotherapist who runs the Wonderland Treatment Center (an alcohol & addiction center that caters to the Hollywood set). Apparently, he thinks that […]

As you may have heard, the news is all worked up about a study showing that an abstinence-based sex education program is effective at encouraging teens to delay having sex. And, of course, the abstinence-only crowd is jumping on it, too. (Thanks to Feministing for the legwork on digging up the links!) Of course, there’s […]

I’m teaching a couple of workshops at the California Institute of Integral Studies in March. Please help me get the word out! Understanding Sexual Shame and Moving Towards Sex-Positivity March 6 & March 13, 10 am-5:30 pm $125/$235 for both workshops 6 CEUs (MFT, LCSW, RN) available for each day CIIS Minna Street Center 695 […]

This first appeared on the Good Vibrations magazine. San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón is reported to have suggested putting mugshots of men arrested for paying for sex on a web site to shame them in order to discourage other men from doing the same. The use of shame to try to control sexual behavior […]

This also appeared in the Good Vibrations Magazine. Unless you’ve been avoiding the news lately, you’re probably aware that Tiger Woods is in the middle of the latest celebrity sex scandal. And I think that the media kerfulffle over this has a lot to tell us about what we think about sex. The first thing […]

A news report came out today that hits close to home for me. Literally, since it’s about something going on at my hometown high school. It seems that an annual tradition has evolved in which the senior girls create a “slut list” of the incoming first-year girls. According to ABC news, the list names of […]

I’m fascinated by the ways in which guilt and shame play out in our lives, especially our sexual lives. I don’t think there’s a sex educator out there who hasn’t had someone come to them with these feelings and, unfortunately, most of us don’t have much of an understanding of how these emotions work. It’s […]