Let's Talk: About Relationships, Sex and Intimacy

by Richie Sadlier

Overview

Join Richie Sadlier as he guides you through the exciting and challenging world of adolescent sexuality, providing the kind of information, guidance and insights that will help you on your journey. Drawing on his experiences working with teenagers in his therapy practice and delivering workshops in schools about consent, sex, relationships and porn, he delves into issues that are sometimes uncomfortable to discuss but important to understand.

You're not expected to have all the answers at your age, but Let's Talk will help you ask the right questions of yourself and your partners along the way. Above all, it will help you have conversations that will hopefully continue for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780717191895
Publisher:	Gill Books
Publication date:	04/07/2022
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Richie Sadlier is an accredited psychotherapist with a passion for supporting adolescent development. A former professional footballer, Richie now runs his own private psychotherapy practice. He is also widely known as an RTÉ football pundit and for presenting The Player’s Chair podcast on the Second Captains podcast platform. Richie has created modules in sexual health and mental fitness, which he delivered to the Transition Year students of St Benildus College, Dublin, from 2014 to 2019. In collaboration with psychologist Elaine Byrnes, he created an online sexual health course for senior cycle students, which was launched in 2021. Richie regularly contributes to RTÉ television and radio on issues relating to young people. His bestselling memoir, Recovering, won the An Post Irish Sports Book of the Year award in 2019.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

How this book came about 2

How to use this book 4

Adolescent sexuality 7

It's time to talk 10

Sexual Orientation 15

Me and sexual orientation 18

Let's not talk about sexual orientation 19

Questioning 20

Coming out 24

Safety first 29

Sex and relationships - finding what works 31

Sex is sex 32

Lessons from the therapy room 34

Relationships 37

Let's nor talk about relationships 39

Me and relationships 40

Relationships 41

Infatuation, obsession and balance 42

Sexual desire 45

Sexting 47

What's a healthy relationship? 53

Break-ups 56

Lessons from the therapy room 60

Safer Sex 63

Let's not talk about safer sex 65

Me and safer sex 67

Personal responsibility 68

Joint responsibility 70

Knowledge is power 71

Contraception 73

Options for females 77

Emergency contraception 80

Taking risks 82

Pregnancy 93

Lessons from the therapy room 96

Pornography 101

Me and porn 103

Let's not talk about porn 104

The world according to porn 105

The positives of porn 108

The stuff you won't learn from watching porn 114

The real world vs the porn world 121

Don't let porn hijack your sexuality! 124

Lessons from the therapy room 126

Consent 131

Me and consent 133

Let's not talk about consent 134

What is consent? 135

It's good to talk 135

You're not the boss! 137

The age of consent 139

How to know for sure 142

Casual hook-ups 144

Don't be a dick 146

Workshop Q&As 149

Frequently asked questions 159

Lessons from the therapy room 163

Alcohol 167

Me and alcohol 169

Let's not talk about alcohol 171

A personal choice 172

Alcohol and dating 176

Sex and drunkenness 178

Myths about drinking 183

Be a mate! 188

Lessons from the therapy room 193

The final word 199

Summing up 200

Your mental wellbeing 200

Time to talk? 203

Getting support 205

Appendix: A guide to sexually transmitted infections 209

Acknowledgements 227