Weekend Reads and Podcast Picks
Looking to unwind this weekend? We've got you covered! Jeremiah and Julia have handpicked some captivating reads and thought-provoking podcast episodes for your pleasure.
How Men Can Talk with Other Men About Misogyny: A Reflection on the Drama in the US Men’s Soccer Team
What if, rather than the depending on callout culture to “put men in their place” or demanding that men who behave badly step down from their positions of power (though that’s sometimes necessary), we were to invite men to reflect, in public spaces, in virtual spaces, in support groups, in father-son dynamics, in locker rooms, on the questions that I posed above?
Abortion and the Field of Psychotherapy
Our jobs as therapists are hard enough. A collection of non-therapists (be that a government or insurance company) that requires therapists to give information that guilts a person into making a decision, especially when that information is also medically and sociologically inaccurate, creates an ethical dilemma: Follow the law, at the risk of participating in a harmful therapeutic process, or follow what we know and have researched about the therapeutic process, at the risk of getting sanctioned, fined, or, as Texas is threatening, arrested.
Seven Signs You’re Having Great Dialogue
Having a perpetual problem doesn’t mean that you have an unhealthy relationship. It means that you have a relationship. And that these particular themes need special care.
What is the perpetual problem in your relationship?
We encourage you to lean into these conversations, as the ability to explore the core differences at the root at the perpetual problem can help you significantly grow as a person and a relationship.
Three Sexual Scripts
This question may seem a bit voyeuristic at first glance, but humor us for a second.
If a film director were to write a script that notates everything that happens during your sexual experience, what would the final product be?
When We Rely on Porn for Sex Ed
Pornography is about entertainment and exploring fantasy; its intended purpose (unless otherwise stated) is not educational.
Keep in mind: Fantasy is not neutral. The bodies and sexuality represented in mainstream pornography reflect the values that communities hold around what bodies and sexual expressions are most valuable.
However, due to the lack of adequate sex education in our country, many people turn to pornography as a source of education about sex and bodies. This system is at the root of problematic porn usage.
Jeremiah: An Introduction
We often describe change as this revolutionary event, where a person enters into said event as one person and exits as a completely new person. My experience is that, for most folks, including me, change is far more gradual.
Anniversary
June 28 will always be my anniversary. I won’t get the chance to go on vacations to Canada or Europe on future June 28s. I won’t have the space to retell the story of my marriage with the person who has more historical knowledge of me than anyone else.
But I still want to use my anniversary as an annual check-in, where I ask myself: What are my values? What are the characteristics that I want to be in my relationship? How am I doing at being the person that I want to be? How do I communicate this with the important people in my life? “With” is the key word here, as I hope that engaging others in dialogue around my values allows me to hear the experiences of others.
Sex, COVID-19, and Racism: Part 4
My entire childhood was about convincing other people that I belonged in a community that wasn’t designed for people who looked like me. COVID-19 and racism intersect for me because my entire life, I’ve been wearing a mask. A white one.
Sex, COVID-19, and Racism: Part 3
In this blog post, I discuss how do groups, specifically Christianity, gain power. As I mentioned in the last post, folks have created ingroups and outgroups for millennia. I look at ways that Christianity has moved toward the discrimination of bodies. We also recognize that this is not new—the particular brand of discrimination—white, Eurocentric bodies and discourses dictating trends, expectations, and physical expectations for non-White bodies—goes back before the start of our country.