Supporting Intimacy, Sexuality and Sex
A confidence-building, practice workshop showing team leaders, managers and support coordinators how to have positive conversations on all things intimacy, sex and sexuality.
Why take this course?
Let’s talk about sex. Do questions about intimacy, sex and sexuality make you or your organisation a little uneasy? Do you want to encourage people to find, build and maintain intimate relationships – yet don’t know how? Or are you unsure how to broach these conversations while still upholding the professional and ethical boundaries of your role?
It’s a challenging space, with many providers raising concerns about safety risks, consent and abuse.
Yet exploring intimate relationships is a key part of a good life. And as a provider, it’s possible to safely support intimacy, sexuality and sex, while still honouring the boundaries of your role. This workshop will show you how. Across three hours, you’ll gain the confidence to have positive conversations about intimacy and sex, and ultimately, support participants to have healthy and happy relationships.
What you'll gain
Across three practical hours, we’ll cover…
Terms and boundaries, including the difference between sexuality, sexual health, intimacy and more.
How to feel more confident talking about intimacy and sex in disability supports, both internally and with participants and family members.
Conversation starters to use in practice with participants and family members, so you can have productive and supportive conversations.
Practical examples of where intimacy, sexuality and sex supports can fit in your organisation.
Bust common myths, including beliefs that intimacy can only happen with paid sex workers or that intimacy and sex supports don’t belong in NDIS service delivery.
Various clinical roles that offer sexuality therapies and supports – other parties you can turn to for support.
Methods and solutions for navigating intimate relationships in shared or supported living spaces.
Increased inclusivity and diversity in support networks through LGBTQIA+ education.
How to set boundaries in your professional role and have appropriate and successful intimacy, sexuality and sex inclusion conversations.
Who's it for?
Team Leaders and Frontline Leaders
Service Managers
Senior Leaders
Support Coordinators
Allied Health Professionals (especially OTs)
What's included?
Three hour virtual workshop via Zoom
Downloadable copy of the slides for you to look back on
A handbook with conversation starters, conversation guides and a list of what role professionals (including Allied Health) have in this area
Certificate of completion
Dates and time
December 8
- NSW/VIC/ACT/TAS 2:00pm-5:00pm
- QLD 1:00pm-4:00pm
- WA 11:00am - 2:00pm
- SA 1:30pm - 4:30pm
- NT 12:30pm-3:30pm
March 5
- NSW/VIC/ACT/TAS 10:30am-1:30pm
- QLD 9:30am-12:30pm
- WA 7:30am-11:30am
- SA 10:00am-1:00pm
- NT 9:00am-12:00pm
Presenters
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Rob Woolley
Our very own Woolly Mammoth, pulls up last in the alphabetical rankings but always gets a place on the DSC podium for combining curiosity with smarts. He knows so much about the NDIS it is scary. Rob lives a personal commitment to sharing his knowledge with an endgame of people with disability in control. Combining lived experience of the early childhood intervention pathway with professional experience of the realities of provider life - he has consistently shown the inability to hold down a real job. His roles in the disability sector have covered direct support work, project management, business development, consulting, ILC-funded advocacy roles and owner-operator of a registered and then unregistered provider (but the thing he is best at is being a very present dad). If you want a consultant or trainer in your corner you will be looking high and low to do better than our Rob.
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Todd Winther
Todd is a political nerd with an academic background in political leadership, party politics, and disability policy who has taught these subjects at multiple universities. He is also an NDIS Participant who has a severe form of Cerebral Palsy. Todd combines these two seemingly different interests to bring a wide variety of experiences to Team DSC. His writing has been published in academic journals, The Conversation and the ABC. He has also worked for NGOs in the Home and Living sector, working directly with other individual participants to help fill funding gaps. Todd has a deep passion for political history and sorting through electoral redistributions (He really does! Ask his wife). Todd also spends his free time reading multiple books simultaneously, following the mighty Port Adelaide Power, and assessing the plausibility of plots on too many TV teen dramas.
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Tess Devèze
Tess Devèze is an occupational therapist (OT), certified somatic sexologist and the founder of ‘ConnectAble Therapies’, a Melbourne-based sexuality OT community practice working with people living with cancer, chronic illness and disability. They work not only with clients 1:1, but also as a staff, clinical and organisational consultant in community and healthcare settings, nation and world-wide. Alongside working as a sexuality OT and somatic sexologist, they also work as a sexuality, intimacy, communication and consent educator for adults & LGBTQIA+ communities across Australia, having facilitated thousands of people for nearing a decade. As a non-binary person living with ADHD and Autism, Tess' mission is to enable all humans to live more safe and sexually healthy lives regardless of gender, race, physical/cognitive ability, ethnicity and orientation. In recognition of their work, they were nominated for Australian of the year, 2023. Tess is a registered member & practitioner of the national OT board of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), clinical registration board OT Australia (OTAUS), the Society of Australian Sexologists Ltd (SAS) and the Somatic Sex Educators' Association of Australasia (SSEAA).
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