Vanessa Stevens

Reflection of Embracing Sexuality as an ADL:

Presented at TOTA 2014 Mountain Central Conference
I attended the educational session entitled Embracing Sexuality as an ADL
presented by Asfia Mohammed at the 2014 TOTA Conference. I chose to attend this
topic because it is one that is very important, yet many occupational therapists are
uncomfortable with the subject of sexuality. Asfia first discussed the different definitions
of sexuality provided by AOTA and the World Health Organization (WHO). She then
discussed that many implications of different diseases can affect a persons sexuality. For
example, someone diagnosed with cancer may have a lack of energy, infertility, pelvic
floor dysfunction and body appearance issues. All of these factors could affect a persons
sexuality and this is where occupational therapists need to step in and help. Asfia also
mentioned that sexuality doesnt just need to be addressed by the occupational therapistit needs to be a team approach. A clients general practitioner, physical therapist,
psychologist, nurses, and even sex therapists can aide in the process of regaining skills
needed to engage in meaningful sexuality. The interventions that Asfia mentioned
focused on health promotion, remediation, and modification. Some intervention
considerations that an occupational therapist must acknowledge are: making sure the
client is in a safe place to address sexuality and therapeutic use of self to establish
sufficient rapport before discussing this topic. This presentation was concluded by ways
that the subject of sexuality can become more readily addressed. One way to increase
education about this ADL is to address it in the educational curriculum within
occupational therapy schools (and continuing education) so that its not a scary subject
and you can build your skill set to address sexuality issues with a client if they arise.
Overall, this presentation was very eye-opening and I am excited to continue to go to
conferences every year to increase my skill set as an occupational therapy student!