Say more about that: Assessing graduate students' perceived level of comfort communicating about sexuality in an urban, midwestern clinical psychology PsyD program

Researchers and theorists have noted that sexuality is an innate element that humans possess across the lifespan. However, discussing human sexuality still seems to be an uncomfortable area of discussion, even among psychologists in training. Without specific training in human sexuality, psychologists will not be prepared to meet the needs of the general population who they will be treating This study surveyed 138 Clinical PsyD students from an urban, Midwestern graduate school, where a course in human sexuality is not offered. Students were surveyed using a newly created measure to examine their levels of comfort discussing sexuality with clients. Using descriptive, correlational, and t test methods, as hypothesized, results indicated that students reported lower levels of comfort when asked to communicate specific sexually-related questions to clients versus when students are asked about their level of comfort with sexuality in general. In addition, results indicated that specific sexuality education positively correlated with higher levels of comfort with sexuality, suggesting the need for incorporating specific sexuality education into Clinical PsyD curricula.