Adina Silvestri

Human sexuality is one of the most fascinating part of being human. I say this with a grin, because throughout my high school career, the closest I ever came to a sex-ed class was a classroom study in romance led by a priest.

“Sex addiction and the Church” was the title of a new training I recently attended. As you can imagine, the session was standing room only. The title alone is a taboo! The person giving the lecture was a former priest—even more taboo! Filling the seats of the room were clergy and professionals like myself, all there to better understand how we as counselors can work along side clergy more effectively with the goal of helping a very isolated population: sex addicts.

Is there a connection between violent videogames and aggression? A definite Yes. Is there a connection between children who sexually offend and violent videogames? I don’t know. But if this were your client, would you want to take the risk by allowing him/her to continue playing these games?

Young people’s mental health is a topic that has been widely explored, but how many studies have been done regarding sexting, harassment, and mental health? Not many. Gone are the days when talking on the rotary phone to connect is the norm (do they even sell rotary phones anymore?) Texting and connecting via social networks have replaced the phone. Sexting is not new to today’s adolescents, but they still need to be reminded that one’s teenage innocence can be gone with a flick of a finger. Just that simple. Or is it?!

We love stories. We love listening to them, dissecting them, connecting the dots. What if an individual with autism was telling the stories that we love? How do we help the communication skills of children who live in their mind and reject the social world as we know it? One answer: storytelling.