Daily Lobo Spotlight

Daily Lobo: What does it mean to be a family studies major?

Jessica Perry: Basically, that's what you go through to be a therapist, and I'm minoring in psychology.

DL: Why do you want to be a therapist?

JP: Because I really want to help people, and that's one way I can see actually making a difference in people's lives.

DL: Is there anything in particular that you're focusing on, in terms of family studies?

JP: I'm focusing on sex therapy. For the most part, I want to work with people that were sexually abused when they were younger or people with disabilities to help them become familiar with sex and intimacy so that they can enjoy their lives in that aspect for people who have been traumatized.

DL: Why do you think that's important?

JP: Well, sex is important. And not just sex, but intimacy altogether. A lot of people don't see that, because a lot of people were raised as viewing sex as dirty from their parents with strong religious backgrounds or something, or when they were abused they never found pleasure out of it. Sex is big part of everybody's lives.

DL: Can you be intimate without having sex?

JP: Definitely. You can definitely be intimate without having sex, but part of it is learning how to be comfortable with people - not just sexually, but emotionally - and that's a large part of intimacy.

DL: What do you think the typical sex therapy session would consist of?

JP: I'm not entirely sure yet. I'm really interested in the major, but I'm not sure where it's going to take me. I think it has a lot to do with partnership, so like sex therapy for marriage. Both of them need to come in and they need to be honest and open with each other and they need to have that medium - the therapist - in case one of them gets defensive or something and they need to be open to try new things, but not necessarily things that make them uncomfortable.

DL: Do you think it will be easy for you to major in sex therapy at UNM?

JP: I think I can go a long way with it, definitely.

~Pat Lohmann