002: Kristin Hambridge | Talking Tricky People, Healthy Boundaries & Unsafe Touch

Keeping our children safe is a top priority of parents and caring adults especially in the context of sexual health. In this episode, I talk with licensed clinical social worker and sex therapist, Kristin Hambridge (aka ‘SexStuffwithKristin’), about strategies caring adults can use to promote body autonomy, self-awareness and a sense of safety within our children. Kristin explains the concept of ‘tricky people,’ why it is important to allow your child choice, fostering healthy body boundaries, and teaching your child how to connect with their gut instincts. She emphasizes that these strategies are not about being scared but being prepared.

Want to connect with Kristin’s services and content? Visit her website here and follow her on Instagram here. Be sure to subscribe to her YouTube channel for sex-positive videos here.

Resources referenced in this episode:

• Safely Ever After, Inc by Pattie Fitzgerald
• Do You Have a Secret? (Let’s Talk About It!) by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos
• RAINN (Rape Abuse & Incest National Network)- Safety Support for Parents
• Additional resources for families

And as always:

• Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube for regular sex-positive content and updates.
• Sign up for our email list
• Leave a review in Apple Podcasts to let us know how much you’re enjoying the podcast. This gives us great feedback from our community as well as expands the reach and visibility so we can serve more families!
• TRANSCRIPT

{Soft instrumental music plays as introduction} 

{Person speaking} 

Welcome to Sex Positive Families where parents, caring adults, and advocates come to grow and learn about sexual health in a supportive community. I’m your host, and the founder of SPF, Melissa Carnagey. Join me, and special guests, as we dive into the art of sex-positive parenting. Together, we will shake the shame and trash the taboos to strengthen sexual health talks with the children in our lives. Thank you so much for joining us! 

{Person speaking}

Hello families!

So since starting Sex Positive Families, one of the most requested topics parents and caring adults seek consultation on is safety. How can we raise sexually healthy children and keep them safe from harm? 

Because this is such an important piece of parenting in a sex-positive way, I decided we should start here and give you some knowledge and strategies to approach this aspect more confidently. 

So on today’s episode, I have Kristin Hambridge who is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Sex Therapist working toward her board certification from AASECT. 

If you’re on Instagram and follow sexual health content, then you may know her already as @sexstuffwithkristin. Kristin is a blogger and contributing writer for a number of online magazines as well as a YouTube vlogger covering a myriad of sexual health and sex-positive topics. 

Alongside her professional passions, she is a parent of a three-year-old son, so she is living sex-positive parenting every day. This episode has a wealth of safety tips and strategies for parents and caring adults, so let’s get started.

Melissa Carnagey: “We are on today with Kristin Hambridge. Some of you may know her as @sexstuffwithkristin (now @sexstuffwithkris). Kristin, how are you?”

Kristin Hambridge: “I am good. Thanks for having me! I’m really excited to be on your podcast! This is awesome.”

M.C.: “We are so excited to have you and we are excited to pick your brain because you do a lot for the community in terms of sexual health messages and really getting creative, or as you coin at your shop, ‘a little snarky with it’, and so I’m excited to have you in this space. 

I’ve been a follower for a while now and I love your content and I know that there are a lot of listeners who feel the same way. 

You create blogs, you create vlogs on a range of sex-positive and sexual health topics. You’re a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, but tell us about your journey to this work that you’re doing now.”

K.H.: “So as you said, I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and after a period of years of working with children, teens, and adults, I felt like there was a big part of my work that was missing. That was, making sure that I was trained and had expertise in sex, sexuality, and gender. 

It felt like something that is so important, but unfortunately not in all higher education, as far as social work and licensed mental health counseling and some doctoral programs, it’s not a huge focus, which is a problem and needs to be changed. But I think that there’s a lot going on that’s moving in that direction. 

I felt like that was an aspect of my studies that was missing and it was coming up so often in the work that I was doing in lots of different ways. So, I decided to go back and work towards my board certification in Sex Therapy through the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists. So, that’s currently what I’m doing, I’m very close to finally getting my certification. I have all of the educational pieces done as far as the courses I need to take and things like that, I’m just finishing up on my supervision hours that are required with a board-certified Sex Therapy Supervisor. So I’m doing that now, and that’s kind of the direction I’ve gone. 

Like I said I’ve worked with so many different people from all socioeconomic backgrounds, different demographics and you know one thing I think that we absolutely have in common, even though there are lots of things we have in common, is sex and sexuality. That’s kind of where that brought me.”

M.C.:  “Yeah, we have that common thread, yet especially in America, you know there’s such a taboo and such shame and such secrecy surrounding sex, sexual health and sexuality. This then makes it challenging certainly as a parent, you know, when you move into that role and you’re trying to raise the next generation and educate. 

We often as parents did not get the fullest education, and perspectives in preparation for that. So aside from all that you have worked for in terms of your career path, personally, you can relate in terms of parenting, is that right?” 

K.H.:  “Yes I have a 3-year-old son. So I am kind of in the thick of a lot of this, right? Because 3- year-olds are super curious, they ask a ton of questions. They want to know about their own bodies, they want to know about the bodies of people who are important in their lives. 

So while I have this educational training, I’m also probably like many of your listeners in these situations all the time I spend with my son, who’s asking a billion questions about everything, and it’s really been, it’s so fun. It can be exhausting, obviously, as I’m sure many of your listeners can relate to. But it’s fun! You totally see the world in general in a different way through the eyes of your kids. 

But absolutely, when it comes to sex and sexuality, because it starts at birth, really. You know, questions and education all of those things start so, so young that, like you said, many of us don’t have a lot of support or the education to always feel comfortable and always feel like we know what the answers should be, or how to best direct our kids. 

So that’s why it’s really great to have podcasts like these and social media and blogs /vlogs and all that stuff, because we can really create a supportive environment as parents for one another and help each other feel competent, feel good and feel like we have a handle on something. Because parenting, you know, we often feel like we don’t have a handle on much. At least, I am speaking for myself (M.C. interjects and says “Oh yeah”) too, about those times when we say “I don’t know what I’m doing!” (Laughs)

M.C.: (Laughs) It’s the total imposter syndrome where we’re out there, just the struggle.

So, one topic that’s definitely really important, and especially as we talk about nurturing our younger children, is around safety and around healthy boundaries, and so that’s really what we’re going to explore in this episode. 

So one thing that recently, and I shared this in our Facebook Group not too long ago, it was kind of eye-opening for me, was that transition now from the concept of “stranger danger” to “tricky people”. Can you help us understand that?” 

K.H.: “Yeah so “tricky people” was coined by Patty Fitzgerald of “Safely Ever After”. The idea of tricky people is that strangers… Oftentimes, the people who are potentially grooming or looking towards our kids in a way that is not appropriate are people that we know. 

So according to RAINN,which is the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, 93% of perpetrators were known to their victims. Which is huge, right? 

So, when we were young, the idea of strangers was sort of based out of this idea that if you’re playing outside, someone you don’t know, typically someone who is male-identified, who’s probably creepy looking, right? This whole “scary-looking guy” idea…”

M.C.: “Who is in a van with a dog they want you to pet…” (laughs)

K.H.: “Right. This idea we were sort of told of that is how it happens, and don’t go with strangers, right? 

But, like I said, oftentimes the people who are looking towards our kids in inappropriate ways are actually people they know. So, the idea of tricky people is essentially that a tricky person can be any adult, right? 

This is somebody who tries to engage in a child in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable or hurts them in some sort of way. And so when we talk to our kids about tricky people, it’s sort of tricky people versus safe grown-ups. So, for example, a safe grown-up doesn’t ask a kid for help, safe grown-ups ask other grown-ups for help. Kind of going back to the whole “Can you help me with directions?” or “Can you come with me and do this?” There are certain things that adults are not going to ask for kids’ help. 

So giving our kids a better understanding of what to look for that isn’t appropriate or isn’t right, so that’s where that stems from.”

M.C.: “So, on that thought, framing it as “tricky people could be anyone”, how can parents really reconcile that, you know, and not be operating from a place of fear? You know that “Everyone, anyone! How can I ever leave my child with someone else? How can I establish trust?” 

Especially if and when there’s a parent, which there are many parents, who have experienced unsafe scenarios in their upbringing, whether they’ve been addressed, unaddressed or tended to. You know, how can… What are some tips or thoughts on that in terms of how parents can reconcile that?”  

K.H.:  This topic can be extremely triggering, I think, for any parent, regardless of our history of whether we have a trauma history or not. I think because of that, it’s often a topic we tend to avoid, right?  It can bring up anxiety and fear. When something is scary and uncomfortable, sometimes our go-to is to put it on the back burner and hope that everything goes okay because we’re really uncomfortable about that. I always tell parents and kids and teens “don’t be scared, be prepared”. It’s a great little jingle sort of thing that makes so much sense. When we act out of preparation and we’re being proactive, we respond so much differently than when we respond or react out of fear. 

So, a big part of this is teaching your kids specific safety strategies like, “what would you do if you got lost?” Well, who’s typically a safer person to go to? A safer person to go to might be a mom with kids vs someone who may be an older male who doesn’t have children. Some of these are, I think, assumptions on our part, but I would say that if you see a mom with some kids at a store, she’s probably safer to go to. So it’s like that sort of thing, and talking to your kids about adults who might encourage them to break their safety rules. A safe, healthy adult isn’t going to encourage a kid to do something that their parents said they shouldn’t, and that could be someone in a family, or that could be someone they have never met before. 

Another great strategy is a safety word, which is actually something that my mom did with me when I was a kid, so it’s definitely something that’s been out there. But if someone say, comes to your kid’s school, and says, “hey your mom said I was supposed to pick you up today.” This could be a family member, this could be anyone. “Oh, Mom said I’m supposed to pick you up today” and you know that that wasn’t a discussion that you had with your mom. Well, that person should know the safety word, right? Your parents would tell them that. So it’s different things that you can do. These strategies are all about preparation and being proactive and they aren’t about scaring your kid either. We don’t want these things to be scare tactics because we don’t want kids to feel unsafe, right? 

I think the world is a really safe place in a lot of ways, and so we don’t want to make kids feel like it’s scary to be with their aunt or uncle, or that it’s scary to go out on the playground with their friends. We just want them to be prepared in the off chance that something may happen.”

M.C.: “Right, and that puts a sense of control into their hands, so I like that, definitely. So, let’s talk about touch. So, how can we help our young children and young adults, even, to understand the difference between safe and unsafe touch?”

K.H.:  “Sure, so we think about… I like to put it also in terms of comfortable vs. uncomfortable touch or icky touch, you know? You can use words that your kid understands, obviously, this is going to be dependent on the type of language you use in your home. But I think a good example, Patty talks about this in Safely Ever After, that I really like is (pause) like uncomfortable touch might be like being held too tightly. If you’re going to give somebody a hug and they squeeze you too tight or hold you too long you kind of know what that feels like. I think we’ve all probably been there in some form where touch has been uncomfortable in that way. Or being tickled too hard, I think a lot of us have been there and I know I do this with my kid, and my kid will do it back with me. Tickling and then suddenly you don’t want to be tickled anymore, so if somebody kept tickling you, even though you said no or stop or I don’t want to do this anymore. That’s uncomfortable touch. 

Another thing that we think about, and I know this is really popular particularly this year because the Girl Scouts… I’m sure many parents who are online have read this article that the Girls Scouts put out around girls… and this goes for any gender- boys, any identified gender shouldn’t feel forced to hug or kiss family during the holidays and this goes all the time with feeling forced to give somebody a hug or a kiss. And this was… and I don’t know about you Melissa, but I remember when I was younger and you went to the holidays you saw a family member and your parent says “go hug Grandma or Grandpa” but you didn’t want a hug from them, but you felt like you had to, right? Well, that’s kind of sending the message to our kids that their body isn’t really their own in all circumstances. They don’t have the autonomy to say “I don’t want someone to touch me right now, I’m just not comfortable with that”. I think we, you know, parents for a long time were doing that because they didn’t want to hurt a family member’s feelings or they didn’t want to look like their kid was being bratty or rude. But in all actuality adults should be figuring out their emotions. So, I expect that if my son goes to my mother’s house or my father’s house and they asked for a hug and he doesn’t want to, I expect that my parents understand that he just doesn’t want to give a hug right now. Maybe he wants to give a high-five, maybe he wants to do a fist-bump, maybe he wants to wave those are all appropriate other options. And so we want our kids to know that whether they’re in a situation with a tricky person or they’re in a situation with a grandparent who just loves them very much and wants a hug they have that autonomy to turn it down when they’re not comfortable. Their body is their own.”

M.C.: “Right and that’s a real shift for a lot of us. Like you said, where there may have been more of an emphasis on the power dynamics ‘adults versus children’, and so some folx may feel uncomfortable or at least wondering “how can I give my child that much power versus this is what you do because my mom said this is what I have to do” but instead we’re saying “no, they are their own individual and we want them to have an awareness of what feels good to them, what doesn’t feel good to them, to prepare them, so we can prepare them for healthy adulthoods.” Yeah, this is, I think a great shift for our culture in general.”

K.H.: Absolutely. I’ve found with most kids, my own child included, that I’ve worked with that choice can always be great and reduces a power struggle, which always happens with a three- year- old and definitely older kids as well. But when you give a choice to a child and they feel like they have the ability to make it their own, it can really diffuse a situation. So, I think like I said if I go to a family member’s and the family member asked for a hug and my son says “no, I don’t want to do a hug”, can we think of alternatives that are more comfortable that he might like to do?  And then maybe my son will say no, I don’t want to do a high five or a fist bump. Then he runs away and goes and gets his toys, that’s fine. But we had that opportunity that sometimes it’s like, cool do you want to give him a high-five? Yeah, awesome, alright and you know there’s that engagement and that interaction and it’s comfortable and it was on his own terms. I think that’s what is really, really important is we really want to empower our kids to feel like they have a say over their body because as you said, our kids are going to be sexual people and there may be a time when they are with someone, and maybe feel pressured, and the last thing we want is for them to kind of have this idea in their minds that the situation in which they don’t want to do something, but should to make someone else feel happy or should to provide somebody else pleasure and that’s where we don’t want to go with this.  

So I think for parents they kind of struggle with that as well. It can be helpful to look at the bigger picture and say ‘okay, yeah, I don’t want my son or daughter to ever be in a relationship in which they feel like they have to do something that makes them really uncomfortable for the sake of somebody else’s feelings because that other person can’t manage or regulate their own feelings and emotions on their own.’”

M.C. “And we are seeing unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, things playing out currently in the climate in terms of the MeToo Movement. Many folx, victims, in those scenarios, are of these generations who have been raised without that sense of power of themselves and their own body and their own voice in the equation. So I think we can move… so again what your highlighting here is we can move our next generation into that place of empowerment and hopefully lessen those kinds of outcomes because they feel… they know their voice and they also know when something starts to be unsafe. So on that note, how can we help them understand what that means and what their gut feelings are like?” 

K.H.: “So I always tell kids that I work with and my son, to the extent that he can understand it now, is that being in weird and uncomfortable or bad situations often times we have a gut feeling and I think that’s probably common language or terminology to most people. You have a gut feeling you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, maybe you feel a little sick and I always tell kids to respond to that. To pay attention to that. 

We want to pay attention to our body and that’s not just when it comes to unsafe touch but that’s when it comes to anxiety, depression, things like that- when we’re not feeling well. Paying attention to ourselves is really, really important and this is no different. So if you are in a situation where your stomach feels kind of funny and something doesn’t feel right, chances are it’s not right. Because we as people are really intuitive whether we realize it or not, and the last thing we want to do is ignore our bodies cues and signs that something is not going right. So if you start to feel uneasy in a situation, go to someone you know and trust (i.e. your teacher, your parent, a friend) and let them know that you need help, that something doesn’t feel right. And keep encouraging that with your kids. Have a discussion about how to pay attention to your body and how important that is.”

M.C.:   “I think that that’s definitely huge, and I think it’s also something that we can all relate to. Our gut, in general, is an amazing thing and it does so much; we need to capitalize on that. 

If and when scenarios move into the direction, with someone that are  unsafe, how can we talk with them about the appropriateness of secrets?”

K.H.: ” So there are different approaches to secrets. Now, Pattie Fitzgerald has a very straightforward approach just by saying that ‘there are no such thing as secrets. No secrets are kept, we talk about everything’, that sort of thing. I think you can go in that direction if you want. You can encourage kids not to keep secrets, “there are no secrets in the house”, all of that. I do think that may not be as realistic. Kids keep secrets all the time. 

They tell each other stuff, it’s usually harmless, and so I like to think of it as good secrets or bad secrets. There’s actually this really great book, and I’ll give you the name of it, Melissa, so that your listeners and followers can look into this if they’d like. My son got it recently for the holidays and I think it’s called “My secret…something…” (The book is “Do you have a secret- Let’s talk about it!) he loves it he’s three and he loves it. He understands it to a degree, but it’s all about what good secrets are and what bad secrets are. 

So, they break it down beautifully around ‘what’s a good secret?’ Well, a good secret is something that’s going to make everybody happy, it’s not going to make anybody feel bad so that might be keeping the surprise party secret right? Your friend is having a surprise birthday party, you don’t want to tell them and ruin it for them, you’re going to wait and keep that secret. And what’s going to happen? Well, that person’s going to have a party, so that’s going to feel great and you don’t feel bad about keeping it a secret. When it comes to bad secrets, those secrets are something that hurt somebody else, hurts you, that someone does by threatening you and making you feel bad. So those are the secrets that we what to tell somebody we trust. Those are the ones that shouldn’t be kept. They’re not good, nothing good is going to come from that. 

And my son loves this, he thinks this is so cool he’ll be like “tell me your secrets” We’ll make up a secret when we’re reading, it’s really fun and it’s kind of starts this idea of which secrets are okay and which aren’t. 

I think also what we say to my son, and this is kind of a combination of how Pattie responds with Safely Ever After, the response that “a secret is still a secret if you tell your parents.” At a young age, he understands this. 

If we’re going to get a little more specific, someone may say “keep this secret or I’m going to hurt someone” or “don’t tell anybody or something bad’s going to happen.” Well, technically, you’re not breaking the secret because it’s still a secret if you tell Mom or it’s still a secret if you tell Dad, Grandma, Aunt, or a caretaker. So we encourage that with our son too that he can tell secrets to us and it’s still technically a secret, so no rule is being broken. And so I think that it’s really important to have this discussion about secrets and what they are and what’s okay to be kept quiet and what isn’t.” 

 M.C.: “So definitely, it sounds like the theme here is that having the conversation and the preparatory dialogue with them early is what can help frame and plant those seeds and then as they continue to grow and they develop, the conversations can go deeper and scenarios can change.”

 K.H.: “Absolutely, yeah it’s about starting to have a discussion. Even if you’re listening to this right now and you don’t have a three-year-old, you have a twelve-year-old or thirteen-year-old, it’s never too late to start having these discussions with your kids. To have an open dialogue about it, to look things up together in books or online and to talk about it, have some real discussions. And be open-minded, be validating and listen. That’s so important. 

A big chunk of being a parent is really just allowing yourself to listen to your kids and their experiences. Validate what they’re going through and being a safe person they feel like they can talk to if something happens, that we hope wouldn’t happen. But if it does, to be able to be that person they can go to to talk about it.”

 M.C.: “And on that note what if a parent finds themselves in a scenario where, whether there has been an outcry or their gut is telling them that something unsafe may have happened to their child, what resources should they consider first as their go-to because those are very emotional and difficult moments…” 

 K.H.: “Oftentimes working in sex therapy and working with children, if there is a situation in which a parent isn’t sure about what’s going on and they have some questions you can look to a local therapist, you can look to a local Mental Health Center, you can talk to your doctor or your pediatrician. Have a discussion about some of the things that you’re seeing that you’re concerned about and what the next best steps are. 

They can refer you out as well, and obviously if something happens in a which you know for sure the situation relating to your children that was unsafe, you can also talk to the pediatrician, you can call the police, you can call your local… Here in Massachusetts, where I’m based in Greater Boston, we have what’s called the “Department of Children and Families” but that can be different names in different states… You can contact them and run information by them. So there are a lot of places you can go for support.”

M.C.: “Yes, absolutely! Those are all great options and also the element of needing to believe them, right?”

K.H.:  “Yes, I’ve worked with many people as adults who have come in and said… they talked about how damaging it was to have expressed to a trusted adult who didn’t believe them. They were likely dealing with their own issues and were having difficulty reconciling something happened to their kids. I think it’s really important to remember that we do our absolute best as parents, but sometimes things happen, even when we try our best to keep our kids as safe as possible. But listen to your kids, believe them. Reach out for support. If you think something’s happened to your child and you’re doing everything for them, make sure you’re taking care of yourself, whether that be talking to a trusted friend or family member, or reaching out to a therapist.”

M.C.: ” I love that you bring that up, because again, this is where the silence can happen or the trepidation in terms of approaching these topics, because there’s that fear that can come with addressing these topics or even approaching them or guiding conversations, or planting seeds. It can feel overwhelming. Some people fear “well, this can open up a door, but I’m not really feeling prepared emotionally to enter”. But I think with all sexual health conversations, once we step over that threshold, and as you said, listening is a huge piece to it. So really, a lot of times we’re not the ones doing all the talking. We’re doing a lot more listening, and that allows us to know where to go with the conversations and to pick up on the context clues and non-verbal cues that our children give us. It ends up being a lot easier then we fear, so we definitely want parents to step into these discussions and thinking of it as preparation.”

K.H.: “And I think especially for parents with younger children I highly recommend, and I say this to all the parents that I work with, I do this approach with my son- I always use anatomically correct words for body parts and I think that’s really important when it comes to kids being able to verbalize that something has happened. Not only because I think that as a Sex Educator and Therapist, I think there’s nothing wrong with saying vulva or penis or anything else, so that’s my own part of trying my best to be as sex-positive as possible. But I think also, if something were to happen, we want our kids to be able to have the right words and tools to be able to tell us, to be able to tell other adults, to be able to tell the police or social workers or whomever is if it ever got to that point, what was going on. So I think that that’s really, really important, so I just wanted to add that in.”

 M.C.: “Great point. So we are winding it down. This has been extremely informative and I will be sure that we include some links to some resources that you’ve discussed and some additional ones that are out there that parents can definitely benefit from to connect on these topics deeper. I want to ask you “what does sex positive mean to you and how does it show up in your life?”” 

 K.H.: “So I would say “sex positivity is not being afraid of trying my hardest. Not to be afraid of having  conversations around sex and sexuality with the people that I care about, with my kids, with the people that I work with. I think because we can be so uncomfortable and there’s so much shame in our society around sex and sexuality, that we don’t have conversations that are necessary and so I think being really open to that, listening to other people and having an open mind, I think that that’s huge when it comes to being sex-positive. And so I do my best. We try our hardest, we’ve all been… When you’re brought up in the United States particularly, you probably know that you don’t always have the greatest sex education. There’s a lot of taboos around certain things, a lot of shame, a lot of misinformation and confusion. So doing your best to try and have these discussions and to listen and be open-minded around other people, is a big part of sex-positivity for me.”

M.C.: “I love that. And so you are certainly creating a footprint and an opportunity for a lot of other folx to connect with sexual health and sex-positivity through the work that you’re doing. Looking at 2018, what projects do you have coming up?” 

K.H.: “So, I have a new shop that has popped up. So, it’s about sex positivity and I color it with a little bit of snark and sarcasm. For kids, teens, adults… so shirts, sweatshirts and pillows and mugs and all that sort of stuff. You can find it if you follow me at @sexstuffwithkristin on Instagram, I have a link there. I will continue to do my educational vlogs on YouTube, which is also under ‘Sex Stuff with Kristin’ and I’m just going to keep blogging. I like to try and blog once a week about topics that I think a lot of people may have misinformation about or don’t really understand them at all… it gives an opportunity for my readers to learn something new, decrease stigma and shame around sex and sexuality, and so I’m going to be doing that. If you’re so inclined feel free to follow me @sexstuffwithkristin.”  

 M.C.: “Make sure you follow her. Not if you are so inclined, you need to follow @sexstuffwithkristin, okay?!”

K.H.: “I also have @sexpositiveparenting which is a smaller Instagram, it doesn’t have as many followers, but I try and post things that I feel like parents would want. And like I said Sex Stuff with Kristin on YouTube and I have my website kristinhambridgelicsw.com, where you can find lots and information. If you are in the Greater Boston area and you’re looking for sex therapists or consulting, you can also go to my web page find a way to contact me. I would be happy to chat with you and see if I can help.”

M.C.: “Awesome! So what about for folx that are not fortunate enough to be close to you in proximity, do you do anything in terms of coaching or therapy or anything like that because you are a wealth of knowledge.” 

K.H.: “I do coaching. I can do that via phone, Skype or email,  if you live outside of the area where you could not come see me in my office. I don’t do therapy via Skype or phone, but I do consultations. That can look like 45 minutes to an hour, if you have a specific question or issue that you need help  or guidance on, I can absolutely help you with that. So you can find that on my web page as well where you see consultation, you can fill out a form and if you are in this area and are looking for a Sex Therapist, I have a private practice in Greater Boston so you can go over to the tab that says “Sex Therapy” and learn more about that. That’s what I do, that’s what I’m doing.” 

M.C.: “Excellent, well this has been a really rich discussion and I am excited that as we are launching this, that we are able to bring this type of content and really get families engaged and comfortable, even when it may feel uncomfortable. And so this information you shared today is going to really help people to get to that place. So thank you so much for your time and your talent and your passion for this work. And like I said, it is your homework listeners, to make sure that you connect with and follow @sexstuffwithkristin!” 

 K.H.: “Thank you so much, thanks for having me and I hope to see you all around my social media!” 

{Person Speaking} 

If you like this episode and podcast, please leave a review on iTunes or Google Play so more people can find us. And you can always visit us on our website at sexpositivefamilies.com. There, you can shop sex-positive swag in our online store, connect with us across our social media platforms, join our Facebook community and learn more resources to help support sexual health in your family. Until next time, I’m Melissa Carnagey. Thank you for supporting content that strengthens sexual health talks in families. 

{Soft instrumental music plays as outro} 

**This episode was recorded before Kristin’s Instagram username change to @sexstuffwithkris

 

The post 002: Kristin Hambridge | Talking Tricky People, Healthy Boundaries & Unsafe Touch appeared first on Sex Positive Families.