Disclosing your STI status can feel intimidating. So here are some tips on how to have the conversation. When do I tell them? Before any sexual contact has occurred. The reason being is that people need to know what risks they are taking when being sexually active. They are entitled to make an informed decision around their own sexual health, so it’s up to us to be open and honest before hand. At a time where you aren't rushing through the conversation. Create time to have the conversation. Times that are unhelpful to disclose include: when either of you are about to leave, when you’ve alr ..read more

CW: This blog contains descriptions of abusive relationships and statistics about sexual, domestic and family violence. An abusive relationship is an incident or pattern of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading, and/or violent behaviour. In Australia, intimate partner violence is considered a national health crisis. This is because: 1 woman is killed every 6-7 days by an intimate partner. 1 in 4 women, and 1 in 6 men experience emotional abuse. 1 in 5 women, and 1 in 25 men experience sexual violence. A lot of people think abuse looks like physical or sexual abuse, where someo ..read more

How your sexual response works image: Jean Pierrot The body's central nervous system has several stop-and-start mechanisms that help control biological responses to our environment; the dual control model being one of them.  To understand sexual response, we can observe the relationship between the sexual excitation system (SES) and sexual inhibition system (SIS). The Sexual Excitation System (SES) Imagine your sexual response has similar mechanisms to a car. The sexual excitation system is like an accelerator for sexual response.  When your brain receives information about stimuli ..read more

Strategies for Managing Food Guilt During the Holidays It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for the few of you that don’t have body image concerns. For the rest of us, it’s stressful af. This is your guide to navigating the holidays, and any guilt around eating and drinking that might arise.  First of all, food guilt is the emotional experience of feeling guilty for eating or drinking certain foods, or certain amounts. The holiday period can be quite triggering for people as more social events occur, and there is a natural increase in eating and drinking.  Secondly, we need to ..read more

Sex involves one or more bodies. They’re the vessels that facilitate the pleasure we all hope to experience. But often people’s perceptions of their bodies act to distract them, and at times can contribute to performance anxiety. image: @robwoodcoxphoto What is body image? The intersection between your body, and your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about your body determine your body image.  Body image can refer to one’s self-assessment of their appearance, of particular body parts, or bodily function.  Research has demonstrated that when it comes to body image and sexual functi ..read more

Using an intimacy list What is intimacy? And how can we cultivate it? Whether you’re single & making new connections, a new, or well established couples; many people report difficulty navigating intimacy. Intimacy is a form of connection composed of feelings, actions, and shared experiences. It does not just represent sexually explicit behaviours shared between one or more people. Intimacy can be sexual, emotional, physical, and psychological. image: @blueboyphoto Barriers to intimacy can include: Issues around communication: not listening or feeling heard. Emotional needs: a lack of ..read more

The destroyer of erections and orgasms sculpture by: Yoan Capote @yoancapote Performance anxiety is a preoccupation with one’s perceived performance during sex, which distracts from the enjoyment that might be getting from the sexual interaction.  It is usually in regards to erectile function, ability to reach orgasm, or body image concerns. And can directly impact arousal and desire. This is because anxiety redirects our focus away from what is pleasurable and instead focuses on what might go wrong.  As we explored in previous blogs, anxiety is the worry about a perceived threat, a ..read more

This blog is based on a research paper I wrote in my sexology post grad. In this blog adaption, I’m going to introduce you to the subculture of BDSM, and why its features actually make for safer sexual culture than mainstream sex. Bondage, discipline, dominance, submissive, sadism and masochism (BDSM), is a term that describes a variety of sexual and non-sexual behaviours [1]. BDSM is broadly understood as a framework to explore the dynamics in power, eroticism, and sensation [1,2]. BDSM is a subculture founded on people having cultural values that diverge from the mainstream [4]. The nature o ..read more

AND Connecting to Values. Body Image is the combination of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions you have about your body. It can be positive, negative, or neutral. And is influence by internal stressors (e.g. personality, cognitions), and external stressors (e.g. socio-cultural messages about bodies). Becoming concerned about body image is a common experience. In therapy, clients will identify a variety of reasons behind fixating on body image. This can be because while everything else happening to/around us is uncontrollable, our bodies are tangible. We can touch, manipulate, and change our bo ..read more

Written by: Tamiya Gordon International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia, also known as IDAHOBIT Day, recognises the issues within the community as intersectional and raises awareness to the discrimination faced by individuals within the LGBTQIA+ community, while simultaneously celebrating the individuals who exist within these groups. The 17th of May marks the historical moment where the World Health Organisation removed Homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases and Related Problems. With a long history of discrimination and oppression faced by the LGBT ..read more