Pedophiles VS. Child Molesters

The most important thing I learned from this past presentation is that pedophiles and child molesters are not the same thing. In fact, pedophiles and child molesters are often confused but have a main difference in reality, which is that pedophiles have a sexual attraction to children whereas child molesters have actually molested a child, regardless of the reason. This has a lot of practicality for a clinician because I learned also about how a clinician who finds out a client is a pedophile is mandated to report it, even if the person has never acted on it and seriously wants to get help. This made me really disappointed and shows how much more people need to be educated and willing to work with people about taboo matters.

I also found it really interesting that all adults who are attracted to children are said to be pedophiles, even though there are different terms for attractions to different age groups. this kind of reminds me of how people commonly refer to the vulva as the vagina. It also screams a lack of education.

Something I particularly found helpful that this group touched on was the idea that even though there are all of these disorders, they are based on the "norm", which is based on something very private and is about what we cannot see behind closed doors. This is something I have been trying to decide how I feel about all semester in terms of whether I really think these sexual disorders are disorders at all, or rather just trying to pathologise the things that make people feel good when they are in private. If they are not hurting someone else, who is to say it is abnormal or a problem?

Lastly, I loved how much this group incorporated brain studies into their research because I love the brain and the mind and how they connect and affect each other. It was fascinating to me to read about how child molesters have differences in their brains, and was a great way for me to take a biopsychosocial perspective in looking at paraphilias.

In thinking about my approach to these topics of a therapist, it is so important for me to confront my biases and keep in mind that these are people who want to experience pleasure and good feelings just like everyone else, but simply go about it differently. Also, if someone comes to therapy for a problem like this they are at least admitting they are open to change so that in itself speaks volumes and should be a reason for a therapist to embrace the person's problem as something that they can handle.