About
24
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Introduction
Dr. Megan Speciale is an Associate Professor of Counseling at Palo Alto University. Megan has worked as a professional counselor and advocate in a variety of community settings, focusing primarily on sexual health and wellness. Her research focuses on issues of equity and social justice, LGBTQIA+ issues, the intersection of sexuality and mental health, and liberatory counselor education.
Current institution
Publications
Publications (24)
As new forms of sexually explicit material (SEM) platforms emerge, sex research and sexuality-based studies must also evolve. Although the subscription-based platform OnlyFans has become an increasingly popular way for content creators to share and access SEM, the demographic information and sexual attitudes of users across sex have not yet been re...
Attitudes about parenting are derived from early socialization of gender role norms and often include intensive parenting beliefs, which give mothers an outsized role in parenting. This study examined the differences in intensive parenting beliefs among cisgender mothers and fathers during the United States COVID-19 response. Data from a sample of...
Evidence suggests parents experience unique pandemic-related stressors related to isolation, food insecurity, school closures, and unemployment. This study examined 1,048 U.S. parents’ depression, anxiety, stress, and alcohol and substance use behaviors during March and April 2020 to better understand the impact of pandemic-related conditions on pa...
Although clients often seek treatment for sexuality-related concerns, counselors may lack the competence, comfort, and skills to adequately address these issues. Counselors may address these treatment barriers by developing a sex-affirming counseling framework. The following
article outlines the importance of deconstructing sexual shame within clin...
The current qualitative research study utilizes interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of intersectional LGBTQ þ individuals who practice kink/BDSM
(n = 12). The findings of this study include five overarching themes: (1) Community Connectedness, (2) Healing and SelfExploration, (3) Accessing Safe Spaces, (4) Inte...
BDSM is an overlapping acronym that includes bondage and discipline (BD), dominance and submission (DS), and sadism and masochism (SM). Over the past few years, kink culture and BDSM practices have become more prevalent in the mainstream culture. Kink is an umbrella term used to describe BDSM practices and paraphilias (Popp & Kaldera, 2014), kinky...
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the ways in which counselor educators acknowledge and negotiate their personal sexological worldviews in the teaching of sexuality counseling classes. Analysis of interview material, data mining, and member theorization of six participants (n=6) yielded four overarching themes: 1) centering...
This article focuses on the clinical training aspects of a distance counselor education program and highlights what clinical courses look like in an online synchronized classroom. Using three courses as examples, including group counseling, child and adolescent counseling, and practicum and internship, the authors share unique challenges they have...
The authors report on the findings of case study research, using phenomenological analysis, of eight counseling professionals interviewed in a Western state about the experiences of counseling leadership related to a state counseling association. Participants reported their experiences in leadership in three broad ways: professional identity develo...
The authors demonstrate the utility of LGBTQ affirmative career counseling model by applying the model to the case of a client with multiple marginalized identities. The case illustrates the dynamic relationships among the client's cultural identities and sociopolitical environments. The idiographic career counseling process highlights: (a) identif...
The authors demonstrate the utility of an LGBTQ affirmative career counseling model (Zunker, 2016) by applying the model to the case of a client with multiple marginalized identities.
The Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP) database of institutions revealed that as of March 2018 there were 36 CACREP-accredited institutions offering 64 online degree programs. As the number of online programs with CACREP accreditation continues to grow, there is an expanding body of research supporting b...
Although advocacy lies at the core of the counseling professional identity, the voices and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQQIA) students and educators are frequently silenced and marginalized within academic settings. Utilizing co-constructed autoethnography, we examine the ways in...
To begin the special issue and set the stage for the subsequent articles, the authors provide an overview of humanism. Specifically, the authors discuss ideological foundations, cultural barriers to the adoption of humanism, and visions for the future of humanism in the counseling profession.
The authors implemented a small series (N = 4) single-case research design to assess the effectiveness of a nine-session Relational-Cultural Therapy (RCT) intervention with adolescent females incarcerated in a youth detention facility. Analysis of participants’ scores on the Relational Health Inventory using the Percentage Of Data Points Exceeding...
