support

Considering counseling or think you or a friend might benefit from some therapy? Here's a basic introduction and a shared conversation with adolescent therapist and author Dr. Lynn Ponton to clue you in on what to expect from the couch.

Maybe you know what safer sex is. But do you also know what it isn't? Take a minute and fact-check your ideas about what can protect you from STIs and what cannot.

You and your partner have talked about your sexual and relationship history, and it sounds like you've also both tried to be honest in voicing your wants and needs when it comes to sex. That means that you two understand how important communication and honesty are when it comes to having a healthy...

As we go through childhood and our teens, our boundaries tend to change. It's typical for young people growing up to want increasing privacy and also to have an expanding personal space bubble: to want your family and other people close to you to support you feeling like your body is absolutely your...

Our sexuality is about so much more than our genitals. Our genitals are actually one of the smallest parts of our whole sexuality and our sexual response and experience, believe it or not. Without our brains (and everything that goes on in them), our neurological, cardiovascular and endocrinological...

I'm so sorry you had to experience a rape. But I'm glad you survived it and very glad you feel able to ask for help and support. The vagina can't really be "broken." A person with a vagina can sustain injuries to their genitals -- via rape, consensual sex, intentional genital mutilation, childbirth...

What it sounds like, to me, is that whatever it is you've been doing sexually just isn't something you feel okay with yet or good about right now. I get that it feels good at the time, but when I talk about sex feeling good, any kind of sexual activities at all, what I mean is sex feeling good...

A friend dying is usually a really big deal, especially when you're young and death isn't expected like it is when we're 60, 70 or 80. While young people can sometimes feel like their lives are going to be short, I think it's safe to say few people actually expect anyone's life to end when they're...

When we have any kind of trauma, we don't tend to heal by blocking it out. Of course, we generally cannot simply "block out" memories by sheer force of will in the first place. But it's certainly common to wish we could. By all means, you had extremely poor care at the hospital -- I hate even...

I asked Hanne about this for you, and this was what she had to say: This is not a religious opinion -- I'm by no means qualified to offer psok halacha in your community anyway. What it seems like you are asking is whether or not it is appropriate to offer a blessing to your friend on the occasion of...