The Tools for Having “The Talks” workshops are for parents and caregivers, who want to talk to their children about bodies, boundaries and sexuality. Certainly, many parents would like open channels of communication with their children, especially around these topics. However, for many of us we do not know where to start, or what information is appropriate. At the same time, we often feeling uncomfortable and awkward having these talks with children.

As a result, I created these workshops to help increase parents’ confidence and skills, when having (or starting) age-appropriate talks and discussions with children about their bodies, good & bad touches, safety & consent, peer pressure, sex and more.

These workshops are not limited to parents and guardians; teachers, aunts, uncles, social workers and psychologists have attended these workshops and found them helpful with their interactions with children and young people.

Hi! I am Casey Blake, a Registered Counsellor with a special interest in sexual wellbeing, gender, trauma and sexuality and relationship education (SRE).

I created Tools for Having “The Talks” when I came across the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) guidelines for sexuality education. This guideline is based on international research on what content is considered age appropriate for children and young people of different ages to know.

Reading these outlines gave me mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was so excited that these guidelines exist! How amazing! An age specific set of guidelines that is research and data driven. For example, it covers what content is appropriate to speak to 5 year olds about, versus what to talk about with 12 year olds.

But I was also sad. Saddened by how this information seems to be a well kept secret. I thought about how few parents I knew, who would feel comfortable having these conversations. Even if there are international guidelines of what content is appropriate.