sExploration 2026
Sexual Resilience: The Power to Survive & Thrive
March 16th, 2025 - March 30th, 2025
The American Psychological Association (2025) defines resilience as the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands. The APA proposes that the following factors contribute to how well people adapt to adversity: (a) the ways in which individuals view and engage with the world, (b) the availability and quality of social resources, and (c) specific coping strategies.
sExploration 2026 will explore and promote resilience through examining how people adapt, survive and THRIVE in the face of challenges related to sex, reproduction, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity. Together we will explore the development and fostering of resilience in these areas through colloquia, critical discussions, and an academic presentations.
The butterfly is a universal symbol of resilience, representing transformation, endurance, and growth through its journey from caterpillar to chrysalis to winged creature. It embodies the capacity to overcome adversity, often used to signify personal recovery, hope, and the ability to emerge from difficult situations stronger and more beautiful.
Thank you for visiting Projects Advancing Sexual Diversity. Our organization was created with one objective in mind: Improve the quality of life for sexual minority individuals, families and communities by addressing issues impacting their emotional and psychological wellbeing.
We are a not-for-profit group (working on 501(c)3 status) staffed by volunteers. PASD is a virtual organization, one without a physical office to support. We rely on collaborations, partnerships, and donations to conduct our work. Being project driven, as opposed to organizationally focused, firmly channels our efforts into pursuing our mission.
Projects may have a local, national or international scope. Each is designed to be time-limited with well- defined goals. We are accountable to ourselves, our supporters and most importantly to those who we hope to serve. With that in mind, each project includes outcome measures and timetables for longitudinal evaluations. Our intention is to create sustainable change through empowerment.
Projects are created with, and implemented by, rotating groups of graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in psychology. They are directed by seasoned professionals who volunteer their time to shape plans, advise students and mentor them as future advocates and leaders in the field of sexual minority health.
Mission Statment
Projects Advancing Sexual Diversity applies the practice of psychology to further the understanding and acceptance of diverse sexual and gender identities, practices and cultures. We explore narratives of healthy, normative development in these populations. Utilizing innovative research and interventions, PASD also strives to create sustainable change in conditions impacting the welfare of sexual and gender minority individuals, families and communities.
Statement on Cultural Competency
Culturally competent clinicians foster and promote psychological and emotional care, as well as behavioral interventions, that recognize and respect the intersection of sex, sexuality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and gender expression for individuals, families and communities. They aspire to understand how issues of stigma and discrimination intersect, particularly for individuals who experience multiple forms of oppression. These clinicians also strive to understand and respect the historical and cultural contexts within which sexual orientations and gender identities are created.