Erotic Rediscovery Of Self

0:00All right, welcome to erotic rediscovery of self.

0:06I am so happy you found me.

0:08My name is Brittany and I am a licensed clinical social worker and I work in the field of mental

0:15health and I have for over 10 years now, predominantly with trauma and am also a certified sex therapist.

0:24So here we're going to talk about all of these things that you did not learn in the realm

0:33of sexual education.

0:34Now, this course is geared more toward middle-aged men.

0:37So if you are not in that category, perhaps you work with middle-aged men.

0:42Perhaps you are finding that this is showing up in your practice as well.

0:47So the whole purpose of the EROS course is to improve sexual functioning, sexual satisfaction

0:57and education that is geared towards adults, specifically geared toward middle-aged men

1:03age 35 to 55.

1:06Now why is this important?

1:09Sex is an intrinsic part of who you are.

1:14So it's usually the first area that suffers in most relationships and in solo stimulation

1:22or solo play, if any other area is suffering.

1:26If you think about it, you get in a fight with your partner or, you know, some version

1:31of that, probably not going to have sex later.

1:35And it's not saying it always translates directly to that, but if we're looking at it in a linear

1:39way, that's what we're talking about.

1:42If you have some sort of mental health issue going on, chances are you're going to be less

1:47interested.

1:50Chances are that means that your relationship satisfaction and your partner's relationship

1:54satisfaction is going to decrease.

1:57And so these areas of our life are all completely interdependent on one another.

2:04And that makes it crucial that not only do we have education about wellness and about

2:12mental health, which is gaining steam and popularity, obviously, but we need sexual

2:17education that's geared specifically toward adults regarding the stage of life that they're

2:22in.

2:23Now, why middle-aged men versus older or younger?

2:28Well, younger is a captive audience, right?

2:31We're already getting some semblance of traditional sex education or comprehensive sexual education

2:37in more progressive schools in the youth, right?

2:42They also can have a completely different set of life skills, brain development, and

2:48all of those types of things at that age, there's a different goal, right?

2:54And so a lot of those programs, which we'll get into a little bit later on, are about

2:58risk prevention, which is okay for that age group.

3:02However, it doesn't apply to adults, adults who are sexually active, who already have

3:07a family, who want to start a family.

3:10And the statistics that they offer are not geared toward this age group.

3:14Secondly, a lot of the education that happens later in life is around very specific diagnoses,

3:22like something like prostate cancer, or maybe there are some types of studies going on right

3:28now at the VA, and with veterans about how sexual functioning maybe changes as you approach

3:36older adulthood, that's like 55, 65 plus.

3:40So if you're not kind of gaining from what I am saying, there is a gap.

3:47And there is a very clear gap in the literature regarding middle-aged men.

3:52And so most of the information that's available is either only on youth, age up to usually

4:01somewhere in their 20s, or 18 as a cutoff.

4:06And 20s is really because that's when most people are in college, so that captive audience

4:11ends at that point.

4:14Or it's with older adults, and we're talking post-retirement and where we expect erectile

4:21function to actually be completely different and to have been changing over time.

4:27If middle-aged men have been included in the literature or in research that has been done,

4:32most of them have been divided straight down the middle into the younger and older categories.

4:39Literature doesn't really show that information is extracted specifically for that age group.

4:47And so this leaves an interesting gap, not only in the research being done, but also

4:52in the education being offered and what does this group, how does this group differ and

4:57what is unique about their needs?

4:58Because they're not young adults, but they're also not elderly.

5:02And middle-aged men make up some of the largest percentages of the male population.

5:07They are certainly the largest percentage of people having a family as well.

5:14And so part of the reason that this curriculum centers around that is because there's an

5:18obvious gap, there's an obvious need.

5:21But also, there is a very interesting thing happening where men have influence, women

5:32have influence, and if we are talking the highest percentage of reproductive age males,

5:42or females for that matter, they also have the most influence on the next generation.

5:47So it's not just what you learn in school in terms of sexual education, but a lot of

5:52what people learn that sticks with them over time is the messaging that they get at home.

5:56And so we are not talking about it as parents, that is actually part of the problem.

6:01So part of the goal of this course is to address an obvious gap.

6:06But the other part is also to address or help to supplement the education and information

6:11that children are getting or not getting in school in order to help fill in the gap

6:16without any major structural changes or exponentially increasing the budget for sexual education,

6:24because that's just not a realistic goal in terms of most school districts.

6:29So it is an intrinsic part of who you are.

6:33It is related to and dependent on every other area as our physical health, mental health

6:39dependent on your sexual health.

6:43And it's usually the first area that suffers when something is wrong.

6:48Not only is there a clear gap, but there is also a wealth of information out there on

6:55sexual functioning, pleasure based education, and information that men or males want to

7:03know more about.

7:04And so this course is really to address all of those things.

7:09So I hope you stick around for a little bit more information on some of the pioneers of

7:15the field and how their contributions to the field of sexology actually helped us understand

7:25not only what happens in male and female sexual response, but some of the information that

7:31we're not given in traditional and comprehensive sexual education programs as children.

7:38And so I hope you stick around.