Our guest this week is Terri Clark, an accomplished public health advocate with over 30 years of experience working on issues that advance the field of sexuality and aging, including the sexual health of older adults and working with aging services providers to insure inclusive, responsive services for LGBTQ older adult communities. Terri is co-author/editor of 25 Great Lesson Plans about Sexual Orientation and the expanded version, Orientation: Teaching about Identity, Attraction and Behavior.  She is also part of the Pennsylvania LGBT Commission’s aging workgroup doing advocacy for her state on aging to become more LGBT inclusive. They’ve recently had a huge success getting the PA Dept of Aging to include LGBT older adults as a population of greatest social need. In addition, Terri is a tireless advocate for bisexual visibility. If you’re interested in learning more about her work, please contact Terri at tcterri@hotmail.com. And if you’d like to hear more, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!  

Our Better Half

130: Bisexuality and the Fluidity of Attraction

Dr. Kathryn Ellis frames conversations about sexual pleasure with candor. She is a PhD in Occupational Therapy and an AASECT Certified Sexuality Counselor. She got her start at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where she developed the Occupational Therapy Sexuality and Intimacy Clinic and her book is about giving hope to wounded veterans.  You can find out more about Dr. Ellis at her website and you can order her book, Sex and Intimacy for Wounded Veterans: A Guide to Embracing Change from your local bookstore. And if you’d like to hear more, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

129: Occupational Therapists Talking About Pleasure

Our guest this week, Lucie Fielding (she/they), is a sexuality educator and resident in counseling in Charlottesville, Virginia. They have an MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute as well as a PhD in French from Northwestern University. Their background in literature attunes them to ways narrative and image impact our embodied sexualities.   She talks about the “magically multi-orgasmic polymorphously perverse playground of wonder" and “the off label uses of our bodies". She is quite fond of reimagining our bodies in new and erotic ways.    Lucie just published her first book (which we highly recommend), Trans Sex: Clinical Approaches to Trans Sexualities and Erotic Embodiments (Routledge, 2021). You can find it here or at your favorite local independent bookstore. If you’d like to know more about Lucie, visit her beautiful website here.   And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address.   We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

128: DESIRE-ABILITY: Beyond the Binary

 Dear Listeners,    We are delighted to share that Our Better Half will be returning this September for our seventh season! Big shout-out to our sponsors for making this possible, and to you, listeners, for your ongoing support. In this trailer, hosts Dr. Jane Fleishman and Dr. Rosara Torrisi discuss some of the things they’re looking forward to this fall.     By the way, with six seasons under our belts, Our Better Half has published over 120 episodes, and they are all available for free through our website! As we approach the milestone of a new season, we invite you to explore our archive to find more great content about sex in the second half of life.    And if you’d like to stay up to date on future episodes, please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter and  Instagram. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening! 

127: Season 7 Trailer

Dear Listeners:   This week we offer you a quick episode as we wrap up this season of the podcast. And what a season it's been! Rosara and Jane recall their conversations with Dr. David Whitehead, Dr. Peter Kanaris, Kelly Gordon, Dr. Lee Phillips, Dr. Imani Woody, Joan Price and Jessica Drake, Cyndi Darnell, and give thanks to their new co-hosts, Dr. Jayleen Galarza and Dr. Sabitha Pillai-Friedman. If you haven't heard these episodes yet, feel free to take a listen as we take a much-needed hiatus. And we can't forget our generous sponsors: Gazebo, Modern Sex Therapy Institute, Sex Coach U, and Uberlube. We love them all! We'll be back in the fall with a brand new season. Lots of exciting guests and conversations. And lots to learn. See you in September!   Enjoy the rest of your summer, The Our Better Half Team   And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter and  Instagram. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

126: End-Of-Year Wrap Up

When Wildilisa Silverman talks about sex magick, she says it’s “using the energy of the erotic to make your hopes and desires into a reality. “ She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who received her MFT from Hofstra University. She is passionate about helping others live the life they deserve. Her practice focuses on the various needs of her clients–through individual, couples, relationship and family therapy. She is also a native Spanish-speaker and has experience working with unique cultural backgrounds. She has completed levels 1 and 2 of the Gottman Couples Therapy Method, which can help couples learn how to manage conflict and rekindle fondness and admiration. You can find out more about Wildilisa’s work at The Long Island Institute of Sex Therapy here.   You should also follow her on Instagram at @lovesexwithwildy  Here is an article that explores similar sex magick techniques to the ones that Wildilisa mentions during the episode.  And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter and  Instagram. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

125: Magia Sexual/Sex Magick

Our guest today is Greg Dawson, a licensed clinical social worker who works at the Dallas VA as a case manager and therapist treating veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He treats veterans, family members, older adults, sex offenders, people with disabilities. He also works as a sex therapist at CAYA (which stands for Come As You Are), a sex therapy based private practice. He does education through Come-passion, an education and sexual expression site for all genders, cultures, and races. Greg Dawson describes himself “as a Black man from the South who grew up in a military family.” He is committed to his clients and to his own self-care as a way to create balance as a clinician. Listeners, if you’re interested in contacting Greg, his sex therapy practice is at https://www.cayatoday.com/ and his sex education and party site is https://come-passion.com/.  And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address.   We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

124: Come-Passion

Dr. Sonia Bahlani is one of the world's leading pelvic pain medicine specialists. She graduated magna cum laude from her undergraduate school and then went on to receive her Doctor of Medicine degree from the Virginia Commonwealth School of Medicine. She completed her residency in OB/GYN at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and then went on to a prestigious fellowship at the Smith Institute for Urology. Sonia is invited to present at many different conferences and has published numerous research articles. In addition to her career, Sonia is a mom to two beautiful sons and wife to a fellow physician.  You can find out more about Dr. Bahlani’s work here. And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening! 

123: Managing Pelvic Pain: A Message of Hope

Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd is a Unitarian Universalist Master Credentialed Religious Educator, Aspirant for ministry, and doctoral student at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Greg also works as the Coordinator for More Than Sex-Ed, a Greater LA-based sexuality education collective that brings comprehensive sexuality education curricula and justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accountability frameworks to schools, home school groups, families, educators and the greater community. Greg’s research interests include critical theory, social media, Black liberation theology, effective sex education for Black teens, teacher education, and adult education. You can find out more about Greg’s work with More Than Sex-Ed here. And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

122: BIPOC Sex Ed: Meeting Folks Where They Are

Dr. Imani Woody is the founding director and CEO of Mary’s House for Older Adults, Inc. She has a Ph.D. in Human Services, specializing in non-profit management.  Dr. Imani has been an advocate of women, people of color and LGBT/Same Gender Loving issues for more than 20 years. Dr. Woody is a member of the National LGBT Elder Housing Initiative, and presented on LGBT housing issues at the White House. She is currently the Executive Director of Mary’s House for Older Adults, an LGBTQ-SGL friendly organization creating welcoming environments throughout the US including its first residence providing safe and affordable communal housing for adults over 60 in Washington, DC. You can reach Dr. Woody here. During the episode, Dr. Jane Fleishman mentions a recent article that she co-authored with Dr. Imani Woody, Mandy Carter, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy in the Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships. Here is the citation for that piece:  Carter, M., Fleishman, J. M., Griffin-Gracy, M. M., Woody Macko, I. (2021). Black LGBTQ/SGL elders: A black transwoman, an African-American same-gender loving woman, and a black lesbian talking about sex with a cisgender white lesbian sex researcher. Journal of Black Sexuality and Research, 7(1), 1-20. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/781704 And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

121: Serving LGBTQ/SGL Elders

Our guest today is Dr. Jessica Zager, a Doctor of pelvic health physical therapy, a sex counselor, and sexuality educator. As one of five physical therapists worldwide with an AASECT certification in sex counseling, she is uniquely equipped to help her patients transcend their sexual and/or pelvic dysfunction by taking into consideration their whole selves, be it ambitions, body, mind, spirit, or relationship(s).  Her approach is sex positive, trauma-informed, kink-aware, LGTBQIA+ affirming, poly-friendly, and rooted in mindfulness and intersectional feminist theory. You can reach Dr. Zager at www.drzager.com. She’s also on Instagram @dr.jessicazager or you can email her at ask@drzager.com. And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address.   We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!  

120: Pelvic Health as Sexual Health

Kelly Gordon is a 31-year old entrepreneur and consultant based in the West Midlands, UK. She has Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 3 which is a genetic disability --  meaning that she uses an electric wheelchair to get around. Kelly is currently working with Hot Octopuss as their disability lead and is creating an inclusive space that gives advice and sells products to make sex easier and more exciting for those with limited mobility and disabilities. If you want to reach out to her:  https://www.hotoctopuss.com/ Mskelgee.co.uk @mskelgee  And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!  

119: Intersection of Sexualities and Disabilities

Charlie Arrowood is an attorney in New York State. They primarily provide transition-related legal services to transgender clients, including name and gender marker change assistance and guidance regarding health insurance coverage and employment matters. You can find out more about Charlie's work here:  Twitter: @ch_arrowood & @arrowood_law Instagram: @charrowood Facebook: Charlie Arrowood & Arrowood Law Charlie has a bunch of instructions on their website for changing documents (mostly NY but some federal).  Also, here are more links to some of the organizations we discuss throughout this episode.  TLDEF Name Change Project NCTE ID Documents Center And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

118: Charlie Arrowood: Reclaiming Gender Markers

Our guests this week are Joan Price and Jessica Drake. Joan is the pre-eminent expert on senior sex and Jessica is an award-winning filmmaker and sexuality educator. Together, they have collaborated on A Guide to Wicked Sex: Senior Sex with real people having and talking about senior sex.  You can learn more about the video here. And you can learn more about Joan here. You can follow Jessica on Instagram or Twitter.  And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

117: Reel Old Sex: With Joan Price and Jessica Drake

On today’s episode, we are excited to welcome Dr. Lee Philips, a clinician who works with his patients to treat chronic illness and sexual dysfunction. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist. In addition to his private practice in Washington, DC, Dr. Philips lectures around the country and is currently writing his first book, Sex & Love When You Are Sick, a project aimed at helping couples overcome shame and the sexual limitations caused by illness. He is also the host of the Sex & Chronic Illness Podcast.  If you have questions for Dr. Lee Philips or want to know more about his work, visit his website or Instagram.  And if you’d like to find more shows, visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address.We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. As always, thanks for listening!

116: Chronic Disease and Sex: Get Curious and Get Creative

Sexologist Dr. Jane Fleishman and sex therapist Dr. Rosara Torrisi break down the beauty of human sexuality in the latter half of life -- also known as the better half.

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Our Better Half

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