2019 Conference Planning Committee Update

Hello colleagues,

Conference planning is underway and we wanted to provide you with more information on this year’s extraordinary conference. Last fall, we gathered input from a wide variety of sources. We scoured the evaluations from the last conference, we invited others to offer new ideas, and we asked our committee members to offer suggestions for the theme for this year. We all agreed on it enthusiastically.

Let the Body Rejoice: The Interplay of Sexuality Education, Sex Counseling and Therapy

As we have said on the AASECT website, for us this means the human body, in all its splendor, is the space where sex education, therapy, and counseling converge. While there are important distinctions within the fields of sexuality, shared principles of body positivity, pleasure, reproductive justice, social justice, and research-informed practice are foundations of AASECT’s mission.

What we hope attendees will take home from this year’s conference is an ability to progress as individuals and as an organization to further our shared resistance to systemic oppressions.

While planning a large conference such as ours is never simple, we have relished the complexity and have forged new relationships based on our shared values of working together. We want to extend our gratitude to our planning committee members: Tanya Bass, Lexx Brown-James, Sabitha Pillai-Friedman, Roz Dischiavo (PESC Chair), Chris Fariello (in-coming President), and Susan Stiritz (President) and to our AASECT staff: Kellie Braband and Jessica Gonzalez. We are truly blessed to work with such dedicated and energetic individuals.

This year’s conference will serve as a renewed call to commingle education and healing. As we create a dynamic space for professional and personal growth, let us challenge each other to use love as a transformational force and focus on the body as the conduit.

Here’s to a wonderful conference,

Juan Camarena, PhD, LMFT, LPCC, CST
Jane Fleishman, PhD, MEd, MS, CSE
AASECT 2019 Conference Co-Chairs