Learning from the Young: Therapeutic Implications of Emerging Sexual Knowledge in Working with Families

ABSTRACTThe lack of formal sex education and informal family communication about sex affects youth, families, educators, and clinicians. This lack limits young people in learning about accurate and developmentally appropriate sexuality in safe and supportive contexts, and inhibits clinicians in helping families provide information and support for youth to develop agentic sexuality. Although parents are expected to be their children’s primary sex educators, peers and media are now likely to assume that role. Guided by a feminist perspective, narratives written by 644 students from an undergraduate course, who reflected on viewing a sexual image for the first time, were examined. Implications for therapists in gaining and sharing sexual knowledge in their work with youth and families are addressed.