Posts Tagged ‘shame’

Sexual Trauma and Men – A Path to Thriving

July 11th, 2014

Talking about sexual assault, sexual abuse, and rape is difficult for anyone. For men, it has it’s own unique challenges – often putting to question a man’s sense of his own masculinity. Men, some think more then women, are quiet about this experience. They often don’t know what path to take in dealing with such challenging memories. And we know that when people don’t talk about the hard stuff, when they hold it in, that they often get depressed, angry, sad, and feel alone and misunderstood.

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Posted Under | Depression, Anxiety & Stress, Sexual/Physical Abuse & Trauma | No Comments »

Sex, STIs, & Being Clean

May 14th, 2014

A clean bill of health. Those are words most of us like to hear from the doc following a visit. There’s nothing wrong with feeling healthy. But this saying has morphed into a stigmatizing way of viewing STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections). If you spend anytime on dating and hook up sites, you’ll see some people write that they’re “clean” and they’re hoping that you’re “clean” too…clean being a euphemism for not having an STI. The implication is that if you have an STI, you are dirty. It sounds awful. And dehumanizing.

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Posted Under | Cancer, HIV and Other Illnesses, Relationships, Couples, Polyamory, Kink & Sexuality | No Comments »

Internalized Racism

June 14th, 2010

anti-racist therapistIn The Noonday Demon – Andrew Solomon’s book on depression – internalized racism is defined as self-doubt predicated on dominant social attitudes (pg. 196, Scribner, 2001).  In other words, the oppressive social attitude of white society that People of Color are less-than can manifest in a Person of Color as a lack of self-confidence.

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Posted Under | Depression, Anxiety & Stress, People of Color | No Comments »

Living Your True Gender

December 15th, 2008

I just read Randi Ettner’s “Gender Loving Care” (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999) and was reminded of many things.  Most importantly, the great courage it takes for folks to live their life according to their true gender, not the one ascribe to them by society.  When a person’s body doesn’t match their internal sense of who they are, a great dissatisfaction and discomfort can occur.  To have the courage to be true to oneself, in the face of a judging culture, is something to be admired.

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Posted Under | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer Concerns | No Comments »