Let‘s Talk About Sex with Lynn and Jen

This week, Lynn and Jen talk about how abusive systems are created and maintained, explaining the different roles each member in the system takes. Whether in families, government, or culture, these structures are insidious and hard to see, but with awareness, can be broken.

This week on LTAS, Lynn and Jen discuss how using the five love languages can help improve couples' communication with each other. Here's a link to take the quiz to find out your love language: https://www.5lovelanguages.com/

In this episode, Lynn and Jen revisit their conversation around sexting as revenge porn has become more obtrusive. Instead of shaming sexting, how do we promote consent in this new way of relating?

It's election day 2019! Inspired by Elizabeth Warren's running for president in 2020, Lynn and Jen dive right into the challenges women in positions of power face in our patriarchal culture. What are some of the challenges you have faced as a woman while in positions of power, whether that be at work, within your social circles, at home, etc.? Let us know!

In this spotlight episode, Lynn and Jen talk about the impacts of homelessness on individuals and their sexuality, and what we can do as a community to provide support. Make sure to check in with your local navigation centers to see what you can do to help!

Have you ever felt a sense of love or longing towards your therapist and couldn't figure out why? Or have you wondered how it happens? This week, Lynn and Jen talk about when a client develops loving feelings towards their therapist--in psychology, this is called erotic transference. We hope that with this episode, we can shed some light on what it is and keep the conversation going. To find out m...

After a recent session with a teen client telling Jen about sugar dating, Jen wondered, "What the heck is sugar dating?!" Turns out, this has been around: We've heard of "sugar daddies" and "sugar babies," and apparently this relationship is "sugar dating." Are these relationships sexual? Are young people being exploited in these relationships? Or is it better to have explicit knowledge of these e...

As Lynn and Jen were discussing "sugar dating" and "sugar mama's," as some of you may have heard in our previous episode, it got us questioning the dynamics of older women and younger men who date. And often the women in these relationships are called "cougars." But unlike what is portrayed in the media, research shows that couples with this structure are in intimate, fulfilling relationships. In...

This week on LTAS, Lynn and Jen take a deep dive into the complex dynamics of sex trafficking, breaking away from the idea of the roles of victim and perpetrator being mutually exclusive. This is how the media portrays abuse: Jeffrey Epstein - "The Monster" Ghislaine Maxwell - "The Accomplice" Cyntoia Brown - "The Hero" (now) We believe all three have suffered from abuse, but the difference is in...

"The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else." That's something a 13-year-old said to Jen in a session one day. It made her realize that quite a few young teens that she is working with want to engage in sex, but view it in a very nonchalant manner. This raised some questions: What sexual junctures do young people face when developing their sexual identity? What are the beliefs t...

Sparked by an article in The Daily Beast , Lynn and Jen discuss patterns of abuse that seem so "normal" in our culture that many people get away with it. Often, the people who are being abused aren't consciously aware that what they have experienced is abuse, and a part of that relies upon predators grooming themselves long before they groom others. Those that do speak up, do so to protect other p...

Lynn and Jen talk about the issues surrounding the prejudice against Indigenous women and girls in Canada, where large numbers go missing and murdered. In particular, the released New York Times article  summarizes the  National Inquiry report  which calls this tragedy a genocide. Lynn shares personal experiences from her time working in the Red River area with this population and notes how the sy...

Let's reshape the conversation around abortion away from pro-life or pro-choice, towards addressing the root cause--decreasing unwanted pregnancies.  Lynn and Jen discuss personal and community responsibility, bringing in ideas by Gabrielle Blair in her controversial Medium article and the book, Women Talking by Miriam Toews.

Lynn and Jen talk about the many different aspects of the power dynamics--power over vs. power sharing--in our country inspired by Lucy Flores' op-ed about Joe Biden. Lynn also shares a recent personal experience with sexual harassment and the feelings that arose as a result.

As the beloved series comes to a close with just one episode left, Lynn and Jen talk about the way some of the most popular characters both followed and broke traditional gender roles while navigating their power.

Lynn and Jen talk about how among people who have experienced sexual trauma, there is a high number of people who engage in disordered eating. We advocate that for those who are listening to the stories of survivors of sexual assault to consider exploring whether food is being used as a way to cope with the loss of control. We help listeners understand how the illusion of control is an important l...

Happy (belated) International Women's Day! In this episode, Lynn and I began by talking about our individual experiences on International Women's Day.  As the conversation went on, it became apparent that the policies a culture adopts affects not only society, but our own personal lives as well. We've seen where we've been, what can we do differently in the upcoming years?

In response to feedback we've received from our previous episodes, today we talk more about the way our society does not hear the full experience of boys and men who have been sexually abused.  Thank you to those in our community who have reached out to and educated us.  We hope that with the feedback we've received, we can keep the conversation going.

The Holidays are here! While chatting about our respective experiences with the holidays, we discovered that we definitely share some similar struggles with navigating gender, power, family dynamics, and the massive build up of expectations that tend to make the holidays a tricky time for so many. In this Episode, we'll divulge a few of our points of contention (to put it mildly!), and share some...

The idea for this episode's topic started when Jen was driving and heard Ryan Seacrest on the radio. Seacrest had been accused of sexually assaulting his ex-stylist, and that got Jen thinking about how and why society frequently protects abusers. Lynn and Jen also recently had been doing research on grooming by abusive teachers, and in this episode, they share some of their thoughts, reflections,...

There are a lot of ways to think and feel through our individual and collective responses to the Ford/Kavanaugh hearings. When things get stirred up, we sometimes put our more scientific and analytic brains down for a nap and just talk from our guts. Here's our version of that. With guest Jesse Hewit.

In this episode, we address the difficult questions and potential consequences of talking or not talking about the Kavanaugh allegations with our kids. Many parents have questions about how young is too young to begin conversations with your kids about such difficult issues, what terminology is important to use, and how we can empower our kids take care of themselves and eachother.

We somehow skipped over posting this episode! It was supposed to be the third piece to our life transitions trilogy. Anyway, here it is now! This one's for the 20-somethings inbetween adolescence and adulthood, and those who live, love and work with them.

We've heard you, and are back discussing the Avital Ronell situation in light of new information that has been released to the public. Thanks for listening and sending us feedback. We love hearing from you!

Here we discuss this post on Medium, titled Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession, written by Chloe Dykstra about her relationship with an abusive ex-boyfriend. Readers identified that person as Chris Hardwick, though he was not mentioned by name in the post. We chose to use this opportunity to discuss the importance of confronting abuse.