The 2008 Teen Sexuality Teaching and Counseling Seminar
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The impact of modern mass media among the youth today cannot be overemphasized. Unfortunately, not all information that go around tell what is good and true, leaving them confused and/or desensitized.
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Human sexuality is a specific area where mass media has had a negative impact. We see, for example, a proliferation of materials where the loving, intimate sexual act between man and woman in marriage is debased into a thrilling, technique-ridden open game of sports. Young women are projected, not as partners in achieving our society’s higher aspirations, but as sexual objects of desire. Because these ideas and images are presented incessantly and in an attractive light, they have become models for our adolescent girls and young women to aspire and emulate.
The results of such exposure have become apparent. Concretely, hundreds of teen-aged girls and young women come to Pro-Life for help, presenting problems of unplanned pregnancy, which have left them confused, angry, afraid, depressed, and desperate. They express feelings of despair over a future of unfulfilled dreams and expectations, and worst, contemplate abortion and/or suicide.
To counteract this negative influence, Pro-Life has turned its attention on those who have the primary duty to mold our children and our youth – their parents, schools, parishes, community organizations - and has designed for them a training seminar to strengthen their ability to teach and counsel teeners on matters relating to human sexuality that is values-based and virtues-oriented. Basically, the seminar, which Pro-Life conducts regularly, has a dual focus: 1) it teaches participants on how to ground teen-agers on solid sexuality values in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church by implementing Pro-Life’s education modules on teen sexuality, which are packaged in a manual entitled “Learning to Live and Love;” 2) it equips participants with crisis counseling skills that will enable them to journey with teen-agers towards healing while empowering them to think and decide for themselves, take personal responsibility for their actions, and determine their own future.
One such training seminar was conducted by Pro-Life Last May 28-30, to a batch of 40, which included teachers, counselors, catechists, social workers, and lay leaders who came not only from Metro-Manila but as far away as Bicol, Quezon, and Laguna. Resource persons included pro-lifers Ed Sorreta on Pro-life Core Values, Esther Manlapaz on Teen Sexuality, Chona Ramirez on Fertility Awareness, Filipina Ranada on the Meaning and Value of Life, Marita Wasan on Crisis Counseling, and Krister Mercene on Organizing a Pro-Life Club in the School Setting. Highlighting the seminar was a full-day workshop, facilitated by Sr. Pilar Verzosa, where participants were asked to play the role of a counselor in cases ranging from boy-girl-relationship, pre-marital sex, unplanned pregnancy, abortion, and post-abortion syndrome.
It is perhaps indicative of our youth’s urgent need for healing that many of the participants, most of whom are first-liners in dealing with teen-agers on sexuality issues, signified their interest for deepening sessions on crisis counseling next time. At Pro-Life, and for all of us who care, this is a call for action that cannot, and should not, be ignored.
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