Our Better Half – Details, episodes & analysis

Our guest this time is Dr. Margaret Nichols. Dr. Nichols, Ph.D., is a psychologist, AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor, founder, and first Executive Director of the Institute for Personal Growth, a psychotherapy organization in New Jersey specializing in clinical work with the sex, relationship, and gender diverse community. She is the author of The Modern Clinician’s Guide to Working with LGBTQ+ Clients: The Inclusive Psychotherapist. Dr. Nichols is an international speaker and author of many articles on LGBTQ sexuality, transgender youth, kink, and consensual nonmonogamy, as well as the co-director of Modern Sex Therapy Institutes’ Transgender Mental Health certification program.

Dr. Nichols has been licensed since 1981 and trained as a sex therapist since 1983. In 1983, she founded the Institute for Personal Growth, and in 1985, she helped found and served as the first Executive Director of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, New Jersey’s largest HIV social service agency. Since she sold IPG in 2018, Dr. Nichols has maintained a small private psychotherapy practice and a roster of sex therapy supervisees across the country.

Resources on ways to support trans and non-binary people:

• Supporting transgender people in your life - Advocates for trans equality

• How to be an ally to trans and non-binary people - Trevor Project

• How to be an ally to trans and non-binary people - George Mason LGBTQ+ center 

• Dr. Margie Nichols' TED talk 

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!

Join us for an exciting conversation with inventors Michael Weiss-Malik and Elizabeth Dell, co-founders of Groove Thing, a way to bring music vibrations inside your body, an astounding invention. They say it's a way to "transform your body into a concert hall." Not a sex toy, not a musical instrument, it's more of a tactile music experience and a synthesis of music and sensation. For older adults, it's an experience of pleasure for many types of bodies -- it's low impact, and it's about letting the music radiate inside the body. If you're interested in learning more, please go to their website.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this time is James Wilson, the Executive Officer of the Theatre and Performance program at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His research and teaching interests include African American theatre and performance, gender and sexuality studies, and musical theatre history. He is the author of two books and today we’ll be talking about his book Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance. His essays have appeared in numerous academic journals and chapter anthologies. He is a voting member of the Drama Desk, nearly 60, and a lover of Broadway. His thoughts and reflections on Florence Mills, Gladys Bentley, and other queer performers in the Harlem Renaissance are spell-binding and we think you’ll truly enjoy him like we did! Not only does he shed light on the often overlooked LGBTQ contributions to the era's creativity and fights for justice, he does so with gusto and great research!

If you’d like to purchase his book, please go to your nearest local independent bookstore. You can learn more about Jim Wilson here.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest today is Dr. Peter Kanaris, PhD. Peter is an award-winning AASECT certified sex therapist on Long Island. He holds a doctorate in Clinical and School Psychology. He is a graduate Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Albert Ellis Institute in NYC where he served as a senior clinician, training supervisor and faculty member. Peter has also served as the Public Education Campaign Coordinator for the New York State Psychological Association.  

Particularly important for today’s conversation, Peter has developed unique models of treatment for cyber infidelity and sexual addiction or out of control sexual behavior. Additionally, he specializes in providing ethical and expert marital therapy, couples therapy, and sex therapy for the full range of sexual issues.

Click here to follow Peter's educational video series, “Psychology and You.” 

You can also check out his educational guide here. 

If you like our show or if you have questions, contact us. And if you’d like to find some of our earlier shows, visit our website. Please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address.

We can’t wait to bring you more great episodes very soon. As always, thanks for listening!

We are thrilled to welcome Cyndi Darnell, an internationally renowned sex and relationship therapist and clinical sexologist originally from Australia. Her approach spans the clinical to the esoteric. She maintains a global consulting practice in NYC and online and offers insight into the quandaries of the erotic to transform fear and reclaim shame into freedom. You can learn more about her work here.

If you like our show or if you have questions, contact us. And if you’d like to find some of our earlier shows, visit our website. Please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address.

We can’t wait to bring you more great episodes very soon. As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest today is Ellen Barnard, owner and founder of A Woman’s Touch Sexuality Resource Center. Ellen is an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator who has focused much of her work on aging and chronic illness. She has adopted an inclusive and welcoming, person-centered education approach with extensive resources. 

You can find more information about A Woman’s Touch here where you can also find plenty of educational materials about sexuality, sexual health, and erotic toys. Follow them on Instagram! 

If you like our show or if you have questions, contact us here at our website. Please subscribe! We love our listeners. Please find us on Facebook and Twitter. You can write to us at this address. And we love hearing from you.

As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest today is Daniel Kaplan, a clinical social worker in gerontology and a professor at Adelphi University. His research focuses on older adults with neurological disorders and the changes they face in their lives and relationships. As the former National Director of Social Services for the Alzheimer’s Foundation, he discusses an innovative approach using poetry to spark creativity for people with dementia. Here’s a link to his research and teaching and here’s a link to the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project.

 If you like our show or if you have questions, contact us here at our website. Please subscribe! We love our listeners. Please find us on Facebook and Twitter. You can write to us at this address. And we love hearing from you.

As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest today is Nomi Ellenson, a boudoir photographer in New York City who is helping women reclaim the conversation about beauty in our culture. Nomi spoke about her own work, which is stunning and mentioned Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith, an artist, writer, and healer living with ALS.

Join us for a fascinating discussion!

We recorded this interview back in the winter of 2019 BC (before COVID). Like so many others, Nomi’s business was hit pretty hard but she’s still committed to her work and to keeping her clients safe. Want to book a session and learn more about her COVID-19 policies? You can reach her here.

If you like our show or have questions, contact us here at our website. Please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. Please find us on Facebook and Twitter. You can write to us at this address.

As always, thanks for listening!

Great news! Our podcast has been picked up for Season Six! That means we are coming back very soon with a whole slew of great guests, surprises, and new ideas about sex and aging, so stay tuned. We’ll be back in September with a great new episode.

If you like our show or if you have questions, contact us here. And if you’d like to find some of our earlier shows, visit our website. Please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can write to us at this address.

We can’t wait to bring you more great episodes very soon.

As always, thanks for listening!

Summer’s really here and that means it’s hot! It’s also the end of this season of Our Better Half. Today, Rosara and Jane reminisce about some great moments this season. 

While our hosts are taking some time off from the show to get rejuvenated, refreshed, and relaxed (as much as anyone can be during a pandemic), we hope you can do the same. 

If you like our show or if you have questions, contact us here at our website. Please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback. Please find us on Facebook and Twitter. You can write to us at this address.

We can’t wait to bring you more great episodes next fall!

As always, thanks for listening!