Sep 23, 2020
Introducing Naomi Hutchings, a clinical sexologist currently working in Brisbane, Queensland.
What is a sexologist? A sexologist is someone who has extensively studied, at a university level, the field of human sexuality in all aspects. There are presently three fields of professional practice in sexology: research, sexual education, and clinical practice.
I want to want sex!
“People have unrealistic expectations which gets them down”.
“There is a lot of grief and they think there is something wrong or they're broken is usually another word they'll say because they don't want sex”.
We talk a lot about what that means and why they're so concerned about that.
How do you begin to unpack that and support people through this?
I talk about what they were taught about sex. Were they in a house where sex was not talked about, was it silent? So even though there wasn't anything negative being said as such, it's the silence.
Naomi sees a lot of people who are in different religions where you can't have sex until marriage. “So I see a lot of them who have got together and then waited and then they're in all sorts of bother”.
People are taught sex was not okay from a young age.
Unpacking the messages around sex and how you were raised is a place to begin looking at the relationship you have with sex.
“Even in Australia, whilst we might be ahead in the sense of being more open than some countries, we still have a long way to go” explains Naomi.
Changing those stories that you have around sex and being able to talk about it. Some people find it really difficult to talk about, normalising sex is so important.