Why Sex Ed?

After three years of working with high school and college students who got “caught” drinking or using drugs, I began to identify two alarming themes. Many teens were 1) using substances to hook up with others and 2) consuming substances in alarming quantities.

As I looked for resources and reasons, another alarming theme began to emerge: the lack of preventative approaches to adolescent sexuality. Conversations around consent were everywhere, yet no one was talking about what happened leading up to those conversations—the years of silence around a changing (and normal) sexual appetite. As society began to wake up and feel the outrage around the epidemic of sexual assaults on college campuses, there was still radio silence around what was leading up to this in the first place: a lack of comprehensive sexual education.  

This ignited me to combine my experience as a licensed addiction counselor with my mental health and educational background. I want to provide adolescents with the language, knowledge, and, most importantly, the felt sensation of their own sexuality so they are empowered to make healthy choices moving forward—without the aid of drugs and alcohol. 

If you are interested in learning more about having a mindful relationship with substances, we offer individual substance abuse counseling sessions.