Clinical BlindspotsTM:
Sexual Health Toys

Discussion with Heather Edwards
and Alex Papale

PT/PTA CEUs:

  • 4 hours
  • PT/PTA CEUs with the state of NY
  • Check your state for reciprocity or for the process for independent application

Access:

  • Immediate Access
  • Access for 12 months

Audience: 

  • Medical and mental health professionals who work with pelvic and sexual health
  • No pre-requisites
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What Can I Expect?

We answer the questions you've had about sex toy materials, use, and safety!

In addition to working as an orthopedic and pelvic physiotherapist, Alex has had several years working as a sex educator in a sex toy shop where they unabashedly learned as much as they could to help clients and patients make the best decisions on choosing the right type of toy and understand how to take the best care of it. 
Now they are here to give you the scoop on:
  • The materials that toys are made of and the pros/cons of each
  • The types of lubricants, when they should be used, and what ingredients to avoid
  • Safety with toys and barriers
  • Types of toys available
  • Ways that toys can help with overactive pelvic floors
  • Ways that toys can help with underactive pelvic floors
  • Positioning for oral sex
  • Timing/pacing of activities with options of variety
  • Toys to enhance partner interactions
  • Toys to enhance self-pleasure
  • Toys for dexterity limitations
  • Ideas on making sexual function rehab "less medical" for clients

"This course is incredible for providing proper education about sex toys, lube, and barriers. This information is hardly talked about and the need for this education is so vital for clients and people in general. I really appreciate the information and how inclusive and non-judgmental this was!"

What You Will Learn:

After completing this course:

  • Participants will be able to recommend specific material types to clients based on body safety, hygiene needs, and how therapeutic needs can be met with a particular material. 
  • Participants will be able to counsel patients on the pros/cons of water-based, silicon-based, oil-based, and physical barriers with use of selected toy(s). 
  • Participants will be able to counsel patients on what type of toys are safe to use internally (vaginally and anally) as well as barrier compatibility and usefulness with toys and lubricants. 
  • Participants will be able to counsel patients on how to choose the type of stimulation that might be helpful for them as well as ways of applying that stimulation and tips for modification if needed.
  • Participants will be able to explain the difference in sexual health toys to patients for a wider variety of options
  • Participants will have 2 treatment ideas for how sexual health toys can assist patients with overactive pelvic floors. 
  • Participants will have 2 treatment ideas for how sexual health toys can assist patients with underactive pelvic floors.
  • Participants will be able to counsel patients on modifications for using toys as well as for how to use toys with partner(s) to improve comfort and function.
Learn ways to problem solve a variety of sexual health issues.
Feel comfortable navigating psychosocial nuances while learning practical skills to do so. 

Do you want 10% OFF on all of the Pelvic Global courses and FREE GPHAM EXPERT WEBINARS?

The Global Pelvic Health Alliance Membership offering features designed to help you grow your clinical skills and build your business. 
  • Webinars: an amazing set of webinars (like this one) that are all included in the membership with the ability to be present at the live recording and ask questions to the presenters.
  • Illustrations: We have an illustration that creates anatomy illustrations for us. We are constantly looking for ways of presenting the anatomy in ways that are more accurate and descriptive.
  • Handouts: Using the illustrations and an amazing team of colleagues to help review, we create a collection of handouts for you to use with your patients/clients!
  • Premiere Directory Listing: While anyone can have a free directory listing, GPHAM members get to have a profile picture, live links, and photo galleries to stand out. 
  • Global Pelvic Health Support Community: In addition to resources, you can also ask to join the private FB page with hundreds of multidisciplinary professionals from around the world to help you out!

Heather Edwards, PT, CSC-S, CSE

Heather is a pelvic physical therapist and certified by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists as a Sex Counselor and Sex Educator. 
Heather is the founder of Vino & Vulvas which is a monthly event that creates a space for education, curiosity, and pushing the conversation of sex past limits of heteronormativity, gender binary, white-normativity, and vanilla-normativity. V&V collaborates with pelvic health specialists, sex therapists, sex educators, and counselors who will be having panel discussions with time for questions on a plethora of topics centered around sexual wellbeing.
Heather also is the author of nonbinary crotch art coloring book series and teaches for Pelvic Guru on the topics of LGBTQIA inclusive sexuality counseling for medical providers. 

Alex Papale, PT, DPT, Sex Educator

Alex Papale PT, DPT (they/them) is a pelvic health physical therapist and sex educator based in Boston, MA. They treat patients at Flourish Physical Therapy, as well as develop and teach trainings and continuing education courses on sexual and pelvic health, BDSM, and LGBTQ+ healthcare. Alex began their professional career as an inclusivity consultant for a major medical institution in Boston, while co-creating and teaching one of the first national con-ed courses on pelvic health PT for the trans and gender non-conforming population. Since then, they’ve lead over 20 workshops and trainings to audiences ranging from a handful of people to national conferences on sex toys, kink, pelvic health, and gender, and they continue to expand their specialized training as a sex educator. Their pandemic hobbies include hanging out with Honey their 4ft snake, reading about kink and queer history and being an overbearing plant parent.