108: For Goodness Sex with Al Vernacchio

This is a special release on Mormon Mental Health shared by Mormon Sex Info due to the upcoming Rocky Mountain Sex Summit that will be taking place September 22-23, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Natasha Helfer Parker wants to help promote the event and therefore is making this podcast available on this platform for free.

Natasha Helfer Parker interviews Al Vernacchio on the topic of providing the most effective types of sexual education to adolescents. What’s the difference between abstinence and comprehensive sexual education? What’s the history of the importance of virginal status and the impact it has on our culture? How do we teach teens what it means to have sex outside of the mechanical definition? How do we honor our teens as sexual beings? What kinds of sexual options can we offer our teens, so that they are better prepared to make sexual decisions that parallel their values?

Al Vernacchio is the K-12 Sexuality Education Coordinator at Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, PA. A Human Sexuality educator and consultant for over 25 years, Al has lectured, published articles, and offered workshops throughout the country. His work has been featured in “Teaching Good Sex”, a November, 2011 cover story in The New York Times Magazine. In addition Al has given four TED Talks, and has appeared on national programs such as NPR’s “Morning Edition”. He is the author of For Goodness Sex: Changing the Way We Talk to Young People About Sexuality, Values, and Health published by Harper-Collins.

Resources mentioned during podcast:

Action Aids

For Goodness Sex: Changing the Way We Talk to Young People About Sexuality, Values, and Health by Al Vernacchio

Sex Needs a New Metaphor. Here’s One. by Al Vernacchio

The Danger of the Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Rocky Mountain Sex & Intimacy Summit

Natasha Helfer Parker, LCMFT, CST runs an online practice, Symmetry Solutions, which focuses on helping families and individuals with faith concerns, sexuality and mental health. She writes at The Mormon Therapist for Patheos: Hosting the Conversation of Faith, runs Mormon Sex Info and is the current president for the Mormon Mental Health Association.