216: Students Innovating: Creating Sex Positive Senior Living Communities
Our Better Half
This week on Our Better Half, hosts Rosara and Jane sit down with Djanikah Elysse, Stacey Rose, and Virginia Nguyen to discuss their groundbreaking project on sex-positive senior living facilities. Join us as we dive into a crucial conversation about sexuality and aging. Our guests share insights on: The inspiration behind their sex-positive senior living project and a brief overview of its goals. Dimensions of intimacy beyond physical sex that are vital for older adults in residential care. How the SWELLAA (Sexual Wellness for Aging Adults) initiative proposes to create a more...
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215: Sex CAN Get Better with Age
Our Better Half
Please join us for an enlivening conversation with Dr. Cynthia Graham, an esteemed editor, researcher, and educator. She has done so much research on older adults and amid a negative focus on aging, she has found in her research that sex can actually get better with age. Her research focuses on sexual health among older adults, male condom use, hormonal contraceptives, women’s sexuality, women’s sexual pleasure, and sexual problems. We discussed her current research along with Dr. Justin Lehmiller on older women and masturbation and whether it might improve some symptoms of menopause. She...
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214: Together 68 Years: You Can't Just Put Your Relationship on a Shelf
Our Better Half
In this deeply moving episode of Our Better Half, hosts Rosara and Jane sit down with a special guest to discuss an intimate and often unspoken aspect of grief: the loss of a sexual self. Our guest, who prefers to remain anonymous, courageously shares a powerful reflection on her experience since the death of her beloved husband. She introduces us to "Lefty," a flirtatious and sensual persona she developed and nurtured within the safety of her marriage. Lefty was more than just a part of her; she was her husband's "girlfriend," a vital and cherished part of their bond. Our guest shares the...
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213: Cultivating Intention through Curiosity Across the Lifespan
Our Better Half
We are so happy to invite you to a wonderful conversation with Dr. Elliott Kronenfeld who is interested in building relationships on curiosity and intention across the lifespan. Dr. Kronenfeld’s books, and are widely available. We spoke with him about so much. If your curiosity is piqued, here are a few links: and . Listeners, if you’d like to get in touch with Dr. Eliot Kronenfeld, you can find more about him . You can also follow him on , , , and ! If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your...
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212: Aging with Sexual Wellness: Like a Fine Wine
Our Better Half
Please join us for a fantastic conversation with Natalie Malone, a counseling psychologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Kentucky. Her research focuses on Black women's sexual/reproductive health and holistic wellness. Natalie is a 200-hour registered yoga and pilates teacher who integrates complementary health approaches and embodiment practices into her research and clinical services. She is a published author with 48 publications in scientific journals and textbooks. Additionally, she is a celebrated speaker with over 20 presentations domestically and internationally. Natalie...
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211: Season 11 Teaser
Our Better Half
Great news - we got picked up for another season of Our Better Half! Stay tuned for another year of insightful conversations featuring top experts in the field of sexuality and aging. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on and . It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!
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210: Challenging Sexual Ageism in Our Work as Therapists and Educators
Our Better Half
Join our co-hosts this week, Jane Fleishman, Jayleen Galarza-Patterson, and Rosara Torrisi, for a rich and interesting conversation unpacking the term ‘sexual ageism’, talking about it from their professional lives as educators and therapists. Reviewing two articles about why older adults and why . Fascinating results! Listeners might also enjoy on the impacts of social and political upheaval on older adults’ sexuality. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please...
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209: Providing Trans-Affirmative Care
Our Better Half
Our guest this time is Dr. Margaret Nichols. Dr. Nichols, Ph.D., is a psychologist, AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor, founder, and first Executive Director of the Institute for Personal Growth, a psychotherapy organization in New Jersey specializing in clinical work with the sex, relationship, and gender diverse community. She is the author of Dr. Nichols is an international speaker and author of many articles on LGBTQ sexuality, transgender youth, kink, and consensual nonmonogamy, as well as the co-director of Modern Sex Therapy Institutes’ Transgender Mental Health...
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208: Groove Thing
Our Better Half
Join us for an exciting conversation with inventors Michael Weiss-Malik and Elizabeth Dell, co-founders of Groove Thing, a way to bring music vibrations inside your body, an astounding invention. They say it's a way to "transform your body into a concert hall." Not a sex toy, not a musical instrument, it's more of a tactile music experience and a synthesis of music and sensation. For older adults, it's an experience of pleasure for many types of bodies -- it's low impact, and it's about letting the music radiate inside the body. If you're interested in learning more, please go to their . If...
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207: Combatting Ageism Through Sexual Pleasure
Our Better Half
Join a few of our co-hosts for a light, lovely, humorous, and educational romp through some challenges of ageism and how they combat ageism through sexual pleasure. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on and . It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!
info_outlineAs an older adult, if your doctor is not comfortable asking about your sexual health but you’ve got questions, this episode is just what you need. Our guest this time is Dr. Jennifer Vencill, an assistant professor, board certified clinical health psychologist, and AASECT certified sex therapist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She is passionate about answering patient questions and teaching her colleagues.
She is dually appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, as well as the Division of General Internal Medicine, where she spends the bulk of her time providing integrated sexual health care and educating fellows, residents, and medical students about the importance of sexual and gender health.
Dr. Vencill’s research focuses on sexual health, health disparities and minority stress in marginalized sexual and gender communities, and mixed orientation relationships. She sits on the editorial board of The International Journal of Sexual Health and Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women’s Section on Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns. Dr. Vencill received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Texas Tech University and completed her postdoctoral training as the first Michael E. Metz fellow in Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health.
Along with her co-author, Lauren Fogel Mersy, Dr. Vencill is co-author of the new book, Desire: An Inclusive Guide to Navigating Libido Differences in Relationships. You can reach her at the Mayo Clinic or on Instagram.
If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!
As always, thanks for listening!