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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine what factors may allow therapists to feel more comfortable facilitating a discussion between parents and their adolescents about sex. The specific factors that are used in this study are therapist training, ethnocultural empathy, and sexual values. Participants were students and practicing clinicians in various mental health professions: counseling, clinical and counseling psychology, marriage and family therapy, and social workers. They filled out the following instruments through an online survey website: demographic questionnaire; Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (Wang, et al. 2003); and Therapists Sexual Values Scales (Ford & Hendrick, 2003). The results indicated that for White therapists, the more satisfied the therapist is with the sexuality training they received and the more liberal their sexual values, the higher their comfort with facilitating a discussion between adolescents and their parents about sexuality. For therapists of color, the more liberal their sexual values the more comfortable they are with facilitating a discussion between adolescents and their parents about sexuality.