The Wiki page for the paraphilia presentation was awesome! Great resources, articles, and videos. All of this information will be useful if I ever come across a client or clients in this category in my work. I remember at the beginning of this program in pre-practicum, Jackie asked us if we would be comfortable seeing a child molester or pedophile for therapy, specifically if they were mandated by the court. I remember sitting there and wondering if I really would be able to approach this client without any bias or even feel comfortable sitting with them in general. This presentation brought me back to that moment. It takes a lot of self-reflection to look at all of our clients without any judgment. I think on that day we had a great discussion about pulling out the initial strength that the person would agree to sit in therapy at all.

As we learned in this presentation, not all pedophiles follow through with their urges, which gives them the 'gold star' label. It is important to distinguish this and look at each individual case. Just because the sight of a child turns this person on, does not mean they've ever touched a child or attempted to go any further than that.

All in all, I am glad we learned about this population and were able to hear about many different types of paraphilias in detail.