2025 Thursday Schedule

The National Symposium on Sexual Behavior of Youth
"Be Curious, Not Judgmental."
Thursday, February 27, 2025
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
7:30a - 8:20a
Round Table Discussions

Overview of Prevention and Directions for the Future

Joan Tabachnick, MBA and Maggie Ingram, PhD

Up-to-date Research on Problematic Sexual Behavior of Youth: What You Need to Know

Jane F. Silovsky, PhD and Brian Allen, PhD

Sharing Ideas and Experiences Related to Conducting Assessments of Youth Referred for PSB

Sue Righthand, PhD

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
8:30a - 10:00a
Concurrent Sessions D

Concurrent Session D-1

Supervising the Novice Provider: The Good, The Bad, The Unexpected
Annalise Gunn, MSW and Carrie Jenkins, MA

In this workshop, designed for those providing clinical oversight in the treatment of youth with problematic sexual behaviors, participants will share about experiences of supervision and hear about the journey towards the creation of a clinical skills lab. Participants will obtain resources from said skills lab implemented for graduate interns in a children’s advocacy setting. Participants will get real time experience utilizing tools from the skills lab in interactive large and small group activities and role-plays.

  1. Themes encountered when onboarding clinical staff and interns into the provision of treatment for youth with problematic sexual behavior will be discussed.
  2. Strategies for enhancing clinician skill development and supervisor/supervisee relationship dynamics will be reviewed.
  3. Workshop presenters will discuss protective factors for clinical interns and novice clinicians to help combat burnout.

Concurrent Session D-2

Culturally Responsive Care to Address Problematic Sexual Behavior in Youth: Voices of the Community

Apryl Alexander, PsyD, Jane Silovsky, PhD, Cierra Henson, BA, and Kimberly Lopez, MA

Culturally responsive care requires that professionals see and value clients for all aspects of their identity, background, and experiences. Challenges to culturally responsive care overall are multifaceted, site-specific, and found at individual, family, provider, agency, community, systems, and policy levels. Biased decisions and barriers to culturally responsive care for youth with problematic sexual behavior (PSB) are heightened due to the emotional charge of the sensitive topic, common misconceptions regarding these youth and their responsivity to treatment, and likelihood of complex legal, child welfare, and clinical management. To examine culturally responsive care for youth with PSB, we conducted a series of ten focus groups to capture the voices of broad and critical groups (caregivers, youth, key professions as well as rural, tribal, and military members). Thematic qualitative analyses will be conducted to examine overall as well as group-specific themes on qualities, barriers, and supports of culturally responsive care. Results and implications for practice across multiple professional groups will be shared.

  1. identify inequities in responses to problematic sexual behavior in youth,
  2. define culturally responsive care,
  3. learn at least 3 barriers to cultural responsive care.
  4. learn at least 3 strategies to enhance culturally response care.

Concurrent Session D-3

Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth: Overview of Vulnerabilities, Impacts, and Intervention Considerations, Part I
Kelly Kinnish, PhD and Julia Grimm, MSW

The Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth is a severe form of abuse and trauma with a complex array of intersecting risk factors and impacts. This often includes youth engagement in concerning or problematic sexual behaviors that are challenging for professionals. In the first of this 2-part session we will provide an overview of Trafficking and explore risk factors, pathways of entry, and impacts of trafficking experiences, especially at the intersection of trauma, caregiving, and systems.
  1. Participants will be able to define Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation.
  2. Participants will be able to describe 2 individual, familial, community, and societal risk factors for Trafficking/CSE.
  3. Participants will be able to describe the intersection of concerning and problematic sexual behaviors, trafficking vulnerability, and impacts.

Concurrent Session D-4 

Safety Planning for Children and Adolescents with Problematic or Illegal Sexual Behavior

Nicole Croteau-Johnson, MA and Jimmy Widdifield, Jr., MA

Children and adolescents with problematic or illegal sexual behavior typically engage in those behaviors with other youth in their family. Understandably, their behavior disrupts safety within the family network. This workshop will address a framework for basic safety planning for those youth which can be used by a range of professionals involved in these cases.
  1. Participants will be able to identify core concepts of safety planning in cases of youth-initiated problematic sexual behavior.
  2. Participants will be able to provide basic safety planning to families with a child or adolescent who initiated problematic sexual behavior.
  3. Participants will be able to list common components of a basic family safety plan. 

Concurrent Session D-5

Healthy Life Planning with Adolescents: Strengths + Healthy = Safety
Jacqueline Page, PsyD

This workshop provides a straight-forward approach to developing a Healthy Life Plan that builds on strengths, focuses on approach goals, promotes healthy adolescent development and addresses safety. A user-friendly safety decision making strategy will be presented. The plan focuses on the youth and family becoming comfortable with their skill set for using the plan on their own. The workshop will be interactive with discussion encouraged.

  1. Participants will learn about and be able to identify and discuss problems of relying on avoidance strategies.
  2. Participants will learn about incorporating approach goals as a part of the Healthy Life Plan and will be able to identify two strategies to help others involved with the youth understand the need for approach goals and how to support them.
  3. Participants will learn about a straight-forward approach to safety decision making and will be able to identify two strategies to help caregivers increase their comfort in making safety related decisions.

Concurrent Session D-6

Evidence-Based Interventions for the Impacted Children and Siblings
Elissa Brown, PhD

Due to the legal and social implications for children who engage in problematic sexualized behavior, there is often a lack of attention given to those children (e.g., classmates, siblings, cousins) who are impacted.  This is particularly complicated when the behavior occurs within a family, leaving caregivers confused and torn between the two children.  This presentation will be a review of evidence-based interventions for children who experience inappropriate sexual contact, with a focus on inner-familial sexual behavior.  Dr. Brown will present assessment, treatment, and reunification recommendations, considering cultural and socioeconomic factors.  Case vignettes will be discussed.

  1. Be able to summarize evidence-based interventions for children who are impacted by problematic sexualized behavior
  2. Understand trauma-informed assessment and family-based case conceptualization
  3. Link case conceptualization with evidence-based interventions 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
10:30a - 12:00p
Concurrent Sessions E

Concurrent Session E-1

Yes! You Can! How CACs Can Serve Children and Families Impacted by Problematic Sexual Behavior
Jimmy Widdifield, Jr., MA

Children's Advocacy Centers and multidisciplinary teams are ideal for serving children with problematic sexual behavior, recipient children, and their families. Learn how the 2023 NCA Standards of Accreditation enhance a wholistic approach to these cases.

  1. Participants will be able to identify how multidisciplinary teams can address the needs of children and families impacted by problematic sexual behavior.
  2. Participants will be able to identify the NCA Standards of Accreditation that support CAC and MDT services for cases of children with problematic sexual behaviors. 
  3. Participants will develop a basic strategy for modifying CAC and MDT protocols to serve children with problematic sexual behavior, recipient children, and their families.

Concurrent Session E-2

Hablamos Espanol: The Nuances and Benefits of Providing Concurrent Spanish/English PSB Groups

Dara Kruman, MSW, Karen Campion, MSW, and Gabriela Lira Alvarez, MSW

While there is an incredible demand for PSB-CBT, and indeed all mental health, services in Spanish on our community, service provision isn't as simple as translating content and documents from English to Spanish. There are a variety of cultural differences, socioeconomic barriers, and familial expectations that require clinicians use a different lens when providing PSB-CBT to this population. Making a plan, as an agency, how you will approach and accommodate these differences may dictate how successful your bilingual PSB program may be.

  1. Attendees will be able to identify signs their community would benefit from PSB services being provided in Spanish.
  2. Attendees will be able to enumerate costs and benefits associated with concurrent Spanish/English service provision.
  3. Attendees will be able to identify cultural differences between English speaking and Spanish speaking communities and cultural differences within the Spanish speaking community.

Concurrent Session E-3

Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth: Sexual Behaviors of Concern Among Trafficked and Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, Part II
Julia Grimm, MSW, Kelly Kinnish, PhD, Keldric Thomas, PhD, JaKarynn Conyers, MA and Rhiannon Reaves, MS

The Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth is a severe form of abuse and trauma with a complex array of intersecting risk factors and impacts. This often includes youth engagement in concerning or problematic sexual behaviors that are challenging for professionals across multiple child-serving systems engaged in response to trafficking. Utilizing a mix of didactic presentation and participant engagement in case examples, the 2nd of this 2-part session will focus on the impact of sexual exploitation on a youth's sexual development and behavior and begin a dialogue exploring how we, as professionals, conceptualize concerning sexual behaviors, sexual risk-taking behavior, and problematic sexual behavior in the context and aftermath of sexually exploitive experiences. Inequity and disparity in mental health and multi-disciplinary community response to these behaviors based on race, gender, and sexual orientation will be discussed, as well as the potential for risk and harm at the intersection of these identities. Finally, we will apply this context to considerations and implications for intervention.

  1. Participants will conceptualize the interconnectedness of sexually exploitive experiences and the sexual development and behavior of youth.
  2. Participants will explore similarities and differences among definitions of concerning sexual behavior, sexual risk-taking behavior, and problematic sexual behavior through a trauma-informed lens.
  3. Participants will consider the unique constellation of systemic vulnerabilities and strengths of youth who have experienced exploitation, and how these dynamics manifest in the way youth present to helpers.
  4. Participants will consider implications for trauma-informed interventions for youth who are demonstrating sexual behaviors of concern and who also have experienced sexual exploitation.

Concurrent Session E-4

Running on Empty: Ethics in Self-Care, Part I
Roy Van Tassell, MS and Geoff Sidoli, MSW

SAMHSA’s principles of ‘trauma informed care’ make clear that organizations have a responsibility for helping their helpers address the secondary traumatic stress (STS) impacts of their work. We expect clients to learn and use skills to aid their growth. Yet too few professionals have learned, been trained in, or consistently use practice skills to reduce impacts from the stressful experiences replaying in their brains as a result of helping work.

Professional accountability demands we do better both for the individual professional and for the highly stressed populations we serve. This two-part (optional) workshop will discuss the question: do we have an ethical responsibility to attend to our own wellness? This highly interactive first session will include group conversation, resources from clinical literature and guidelines from professional codes. We’ll also consider the question of what responsibility we have to our clients and the clinical field to intervene with our professional colleagues who may be impacted or impaired in their practice due to STS symptoms. We will also consider the role of clinical supervisors in safeguarding the mental and physical health well-being of their supervisees Together we’ll evaluate the applicability of a skills-based and components-focused approach for exploring the question; do we have an ethical responsibility to attend to our own emotional self-care in the practice of trauma-informed services?
  1. Analyze core principles of trauma informed care
  2. Assess professional codes of ethics' values related to self-care and duty to impaired colleagues.
  3. Evaluate how practicing ethically influences attending to our own self-care and wellness
  4. Explore the 5-core evidence-informed skills of the CE-CERT model for secondary trauma to aid rebalancing from stressful experiences
  5. Design a personal plan for implementing skills to reduce secondary trauma impacts

Concurrent Session E-5 

Electronic and Online Sexual Behavior: But Wait, The Kids Know More Than We Do!
Nicole Croteau-Johnson, MA and Curtis Brownlee, MS

Electronic and online sexual behavior has become increasingly more critical to understand and address in children and adolescents. Our society's reliance on and 24-hour access to social networking and media means that children are regularly exposed to mature content and sexual themes. This presentation will explore the pathways by which youth encounter sexual media online and the subsequent effects on their social and emotional health. The presenters will also introduce various therapeutic techniques to address online problematic sexual behavior, including a case presentation for participants to have the opportunity to apply skills learned.
  1. Increase awareness around youth-frequented, accessible pathways to online sexually explicit media
  2. Understand how online sexual content impacts the social and emotional health of youth
  3. Apply techniques to effectively intervene in online problematic sexual behavior

Concurrent Session E-6 (45-min research sessions)

Pathways and perspectives: Advancing the "harmful sexual behaviour" evidence base

Gemma McKibbin, PhD

This presentation focuses on two projects that are part of a harmful sexual behaviour program of research work at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The first project the Worried About Sex and Pornography Project (WASAPP) aims to synthesise current evidence and generate new evidence about intervening early in harmful sexual behaviour, and to apply that evidence to the codesign of an online early intervention service for children and young people worried about their sexual thoughts and behaviours. The second project - the Amplifying Voices of Victim-Survivors (Ava project) - aims to capture the insights of HSB victim-survivors about impacts and service needs. Research findings are discussed in relation to opportunities for early intervention.

  1. Understand different pathways to onset of harmful sexual behaviour
  2. Explore victim-survivors' experiences of harmful sexual behaviour
  3. Reflect on implications for prevention and early intervention

Enhancing Access and Engagement for Rural Youth with PSB: They Say It Can't Be Done, But We're Doing It
Jordan Simmons, PhD, Paula Condol, MS, Nicola Herting, PhD, Andrew Monroe, MSW
This session will focus on engagement strategies clinicians can adopt when conducting PSB-CBT group for school-aged youth and their caregivers using telehealth delivery. Participants will gain information related to clinical and technical considerations for using telehealth effectively. A specific focus of this session will be placed on utilizing these strategies to reduce barriers for youths and families from rural communities. Lastly, the session will explore current research on the effectiveness and feasibility of adopting PSB-CBT through telehealth in rural communities.
  1. Participants will increase their understanding of barriers rural youth and families encounter when engaging in treatment for problematic sexual behaviors.
  2. Participants will increase their understanding of practical engagement techniques for Problematic Sexual Behavior Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (PSB-CBT) and technical and clinical considerations for the PSB-CBT group delivered through a telehealth platform.
  3. Participants will learn about current research on the effectiveness and feasibility of conducting PSB-CBT groups using telehealth in rural communities in North Dakota.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
12:15p - 1:15p
Caregiver Panel Luncheon
(Registration and Fee required)
Dionna Weixel, LMFT, Tabitha Winter, MS, Kimberly Lopez, MA, and Karen Hill, MS
Listen Up: Caregiver Experiences in Navigating Systems Related to Youths Problematic Sexual Behavior


The key to helping children impacted by trauma and children with problematic sexual behavior is to engage and collaborate with their caregivers. This panel will feature the experiences of caregivers who have navigated community based systems to receive treatment for their children with problematic sexual behavior. This panel will focus on common barriers to caregiver engagement and provides strategies to address these barriers.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
1:30p - 3:00p
Concurrent Sessions F

Concurrent Session F-1

SAYIT: A Case Review Team for the Identification, Intervention and Safety Planning for Youth with PSB

Jenny Almanzar, MSW

This session will introduce participants to a case review team that uses a collaborative model to address PSB in their community. SAYIT brings together multiple disciplines to include; schools, juvenile justice, child protection, victim advocates and mental health to identify, intervene and safety plan for youth with PSB in Upstate NY. This approach allows for case review to address the needs of youth with PSB who may not be currently involved in any systems of care.

  1. Participants will learn the benefits of a case review team for PSB and how it can support minimizing myths associated with this population.
  2. Develop an understanding of who key players are for the case review team and their roles
  3. Participants will learn about the case review process through exploration of a case example from point of identification, case review, intervention, and safety planning.

Concurrent Session F-2

This seminar title and description is being modified/removed to comply with the new Executive Orders.

The Body of Joy: Using Happiness to Reconnect 

Micha Kirsch-Ito, BA and Natalie Gallo, MEd

Concurrent Session F-3

Overcoming Barriers to Services: Engaging Hard to Reach Families in Services
Elissa Brown, PhD

Over the past thirty years, clinical researchers have used rigorous scientific methods to establish evidence-based interventions for children with problematic sexual behavior.  Now that we know what families need, our challenge is ensuring that they have access to it.  Access to care is often impeded by concrete, perceptual, and trauma-specific barriers, particularly for culturally diverse families.  During this session, Dr. Brown will present specific strategies for engaging and retaining hard-to-reach families, addressing each type of barrier.  Examples of successful engagement will be presented.

  1. Learn how to identify the concrete, perceptual, and trauma-specific barriers for a specific family
  2. Apply specific strategies to each type of barriers
  3. Assess success of the strategy applied

Concurrent Session F-4

Running on Empty: Ethics in Self-Care, Part II

Roy Van Tassell, MS and Geoff Sidoli, MSW

SAMHSA’s principles of ‘trauma informed care’ make clear that organizations have a responsibility for helping their helpers address the secondary traumatic stress (STS) impacts of their work. We expect clients to learn and use skills to aid their personal growth. Yet too few professionals have learned or consistently use skills to reduce impacts from the stressful experiences replaying in their brains as a result of helping work.

Building upon the question of whether we have an ethical responsibility as helpers to attend to our own well-being, this session will continue that discussion and introduce a specific evidence-informed model for addressing STS impacts: Components of Enhancing Career Experience and Reducing Trauma (CE-CERT) developed by Dr Brian Miller. We will explore and assess 5 key evidence-informed skills for rebalancing and reducing symptoms of secondary trauma within our daily practice These skill components are specifically designed to be imbeddable into supervision and organizational culture. To consider ourselves trauma-informed we must attend not only to the impacts of trauma on those we serve, but to STS impacts on the worker, our work culture and environment. 
  1. Analyze core principles of trauma informed care
  2. Assess professional codes of ethics' values related to self-care and duty to impaired colleagues.
  3. Evaluate how practicing ethically influences attending to our own self-care and wellness
  4. Explore the 5-core evidence-informed skills of the CE-CERT model for secondary trauma to aid rebalancing from stressful experiences
  5. Design a personal plan for implementing skills to reduce secondary trauma impacts

Concurrent Session F-5

The “Sexualized Age”: Impact of Porn, Gaming, Social Media, and Everything in Between
Tabitha Winter, MS and Ericka Purcell, MA

This interactive presentation will discuss current trends that the Child Advocacy Center of Sedgwick County is seeing regarding youth accessing sexualized material. The presenters will focus on discussions surrounding various platforms that youth are utilizing to access sexualized material and the overall impact of the sexualized material on the youths behaviors. The presentation will discuss what youth have reported as influences on their sexual interests and behaviors, as well as their thoughts surrounding consent and sex. The presentation will discuss how the effect of sexualized content has required the clinicians to dive deeper into conversations and offer specific psychoeducation to counter the negative impact of sexualized material on youth. 
  1. Participants will enhance their knowledge of the impact of sexualized material on the behaviors of youth.
  2. Participants will learn the importance of collaboration with key partners to continue to advocate and support youth and families with education regarding sexualized explicit content.
  3. Participants will understand the continued importance of offering caregivers supervision guidelines and education regarding monitoring youth’s electronics. 

Concurrent Session F-6 (45-minute research sessions)

A State Stopped Putting Juveniles on Sex-Offender Registries: Case Data 5 Years Pre and Post

Janet Rosenzweig, MS, PhD, MPA and Mike Nowlin, MSSA

In this workshop, we will present research findings on the efficacy of sex offender registries and community notification as a deterrent to sexual crimes; summarize current research on youth with problematic sexual behavior from clinical and public policy perspectives and present the results of an analysis of the number of youths with sex charges in a state 5 years before and 5 years after the state Supreme Court ruled registration and notification for youth unconstitutional.
  1. Participants will be able to describe the impacts of sex offender registration and notification on youth
  2. Participants will be able to identify critical policy questions about how their states deal with youth with problematic sexual behaviors.
  3. Participants will be able to describe the impact on the number of youth charged with re-related offenses in a state who discontinued the practice of youth registration.

Adolescent Illegal Sexual Behavior: Outcomes in Oklahoma

Ashley Galsky, PhD and Kate Theimer, PhD

The overarching purpose of this study is to examine the utility and effectiveness of the Problematic Sexual Behavior - Cognitive Behavior Therapy Program for Adolescents (PSB-CBT-A). The current retrospective study examines long-term recidivism rates for both sexual and non-sexual behavior of adolescents who were referred to and/or completed the PSB-CBT-A program between 1/1/2014 and 8/2/2023. A comparison group of youth was matched in the Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) database on sexual offense, race/ethnicity, age, gender, and proxy of socioeconomic status (e.g., Medicaid eligibility) and zip code of youth at first offense. Types and level of services the comparison group received are examined via OJA and Department of Corrections (DOC) database. Outcomes evaluated include future sexual offenses (e.g., referrals, charges, and adjudication), future non-sexual offenses (e.g., referrals, charges, and adjudication), and placement outside of the community in more restrictive settings (e.g., detention, residential placement, out-of-state placement, group home, or inpatient care).

  1. Increase familiarity with existing research related to the treatment outcomes of youth with problematic and illegal sexual behavior.
  2. Discuss the utility and effectiveness of the Problematic Sexual Behavior - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program for Adolescents (PSB-CBT-A).
  3. Deepen understanding of factors influencing recidivism rates for both sexual and non-sexual behavior.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
3:30p - 5:00p
Concurrent Sessions G

Concurrent Session G-1

Working with Youth with PSB Placed on Legal Diversion

Sherry Elder, MA

The Children's Assessment Center in Texas, in collaboration with the Harris County District Attorney's Office, offers a diversion program for youth who have engaged in Problematic Sexual Behaviors that could result in criminal charges. To our knowledge, this is one of the only legal diversion programs currently established for YPSB within The United States. During this presentation, participants will hear from a Chief Harris County Assistant District Attorney and a PSB Program Coordinator on how our program was established, the benefits of our program and suggestions on how to establish similar programs within your communities.

  1. Participants will learn how The Children's Assessment Center and Harris County District Attorney's Office runs their YPSB legal diversion program.
  2. Participants will receive an overview of the benefits and challenges that take place while running a legal diversion program for YPSB.
  3. Participants will receive suggestions on how to establish similar legal diversion programs within their communities.

Concurrent Session G-2

Youth Perspective on Factors to Enhance Engagement and Services for Youth with Problematic Sexual Behavior

Clifford Ah-in-nist Sipes, Sharon “Shel” Millington, MA, and Andrew Monroe, MSW

The key to helping youth impacted by problematic sexual behavior is to engage and collaborate from their initial contact with systems. Youth voice gives an invaluable perspective to provide youth centered services. This workshop will provide youth views on common barriers to treatment engagement, interactions with systems as well as the most impactful components of treatment.

  1. Cite the importance of youth participation in services for problematic sexual behavior
  2. Identify at least 2 views expressed by youth regarding problematic sexual behavior 
  3. Identify at least 2 strategies that encourage youth participation and address barriers

Concurrent Session G-3

Separating the Child from the Behavior: Bridging Gaps Between Systems to Address Behavioral Challenges Sustainably

Sarah Hollingworth, MA

This session will provide an overview of common causes for behavioral escalations across settings. With this insight, participants will reframe the behaviors of children and adolescents as secondary symptoms of a primary challenge rather than the primary challenge itself, thus separating the child from the behavior. With this perspective, participants will learn specific interventions and approaches that can be practically applied to reduce chronic poor fit for the youth, thus reducing the likelihood of ongoing or increasing behavioral challenges and related disruptions.

  1. Be able to define neurodiversity and the causes of brain differences
  2. Be able to provide an overview of the neurobehavioral model
  3. Leave the session with a list of ways to provide accommodations and/or respond differently to challenging behaviors

Concurrent Session G-4

The Intersection of Bullying and Problematic Sexual Behaviors: Clinical Applications

Stephanie Wolf, PhD, JD and Zoe Fiske, PsyD

The session will explore healthy youth relationships and maladaptive patterns. Discussion will include the overlap and differentiating characteristics of bullying and problematic sexual behaviors. Attendees will learn specific assessment, intervention and psychoeducation tools for caregivers and impacted youth.

  1. Identify and understand factors that lead to healthy relationships and maladaptive patterns.
  2. Differentiate bullying characteristics and problematic sexual behaviors.
  3. Utilize specific assessment tools and treatments for caregivers and impacted youth

Concurrent Session G-5

Anime and Youth: Understanding its Impact on Adolescent Perceptions of Sexual Behavior
Jermaine Wall, MSW

This youth-focused workshop explores the influence of anime on adolescent perceptions of problematic sexual behaviors. It integrates cultural, ethical, and media analysis to bridge the gap between popular media and clinical perspectives on youth mental health.

  1. To examine the rise of anime consumption among American youth and adolescents.
  2. To assess the influence of Japanese culture on the depiction of sexual behavior in anime aimed at younger audiences.
  3. To critically analyze examples of problematic sexual behaviors in popular anime and discuss their potential real-world consequences on youth.

Concurrent Session G-6

Inclusive Youth Sex Education: Empowering Caregivers as Educators
Kelly Hagenbaugh, MSW and Stacie Courtney-Mustaphi, LMFT

This training proposal aims to empower professionals to support caregivers in learning knowledge and skills to provide inclusive and comprehensive sex education to youth. Recognizing the crucial role caregivers play in shaping young people's understanding of sexuality, this training seeks to address the tools to engage in meaningful conversations, promote healthy relationships, and foster a supportive environment for sexual health education. The training program will focus on addressing the importance of caregiver involvement in sex education, exploring factors that impact caregiver engagement, and integrating caregiver values into sex education curricula.

  1. Equip professionals with tools to support caregivers with the knowledge and skills to provide inclusive and comprehensive sex education that addresses the diverse needs of youth, including those from marginalized communities. Develop tools to create a supportive environment where youth curiosity and honest conversation about healthy sexuality are encouraged.
  2. Increase caregiver engagement in sex education by highlighting the importance of their role in promoting healthy sexual development and relationships among youth. Navigate best practices in teaching sex education while insuring aligning with family/cultural values.
  3. Enhance caregivers' communication skills to facilitate meaningful conversations about sexuality, consent, boundaries, and healthy relationships with youth.
  4. Create a foundation for lifelong learning and healthy decision-making by empowering caregivers and youth with the tools to navigate complex issues related to sexuality with confidence, respect and open dialogue