Reframing our STORIES
Changing our Narrative Around Sexual Health, Relationships and Conversations
Reframing our STORIES
Changing our Narrative Around Sexual Health, Relationships and Conversations
What’s our STORY?
Reframing our Stories provides sexual health education, resources and tools for families and communities to normalize conversations around sex and relationships, remove shame, and reframe our stories to promote openness, acceptance and a positive sense of self.
We focus on family, schools and churches because we believe our conversations around sexual health and relationships starts there, and having the “awkward” conversations creates a dialogue to destimagmatize
“The session Kara taught at the Extravaganza was awesome. It was so thoughtful, something I wish everyone could hear. Walking out the door, several of us from Kara’s session continued the conversation, we didn’t want it to end. Thank you for bringing such authenticity & awareness to these issues about sexual health!”
~ Andy Langdon, Youth Director
Who am I?
Hello, I’m Kara Haug,
I’ve always asked the big questions - looking for connections to our world and the way people interact. Through my experiences in human services, working with youth and in ministry, I quickly recognized most of my time was spent helping people reframe stories they’ve told themselves about sex and relationships.
My goal is for people to have brave and caring conversations around their bodies, safety and health, relationships, and sexuality that will enable self-awareness, growth, empathy, openness, and positive functionality in relationships.
I do this through working with schools, families, and churches which is where these stories we tell ourselves begin and are shaped by our experiences.
Who We Work With
Our services include sexuality health education in public and private schools, workshops for kids, women, parents and couples, speaking and teaching engagements, retreat planning and facilitation, and one on one consultations to help you, your family or your community to have open conversations on sometimes difficult topics.
Schools
If sexuality and relationships are not being discussed at home, then our school systems are relied on to educate our children. The reality is that our school systems are playing catch up, in many cases not providing enough information, or providing it too late. Reframing our Stories aims to help change that. Too many schools concentrate on abstinence only messages. The reality is that abstinence is one method of approaching sex ed, but not the only and not everyone will make that choice. Because our youth experience so many new emotions, desires, and hormonal changes, they may explore being physical with themselves and others, and it is critical they learn how to be safe. Beyond this, it is important to teach youth about the breadth of human sexuality in relationship to emotional wellness, identity, orientation, body autonomy, consent, communication, and more. At Reframing our Stories, we work closely with schools to teach content that is comprehensive and factbased, while adhering to state guidelines, being inclusive, and most importantly teaching in a way that is open and engaging.
Families
Our parents are our first sex educators. Through the spoken and unspoken, we learn about relationships and our sexuality from them. Some grew up in supportive households and others maybe not, but in every case, we received a mixed bag of messages. At Reframing our Stories, our passion is to help families thrive by learning how to have conversations around sexuality and relationships. More importantly, we want to help caregivers learn more about what they really think and what their relationship with sexuality is. Often, we hold on to past hurts and our children may trigger those hurts. When we work with families, we help caregivers navigate what they really want for their children and how they want to show up for them. We help provide the baseline of educating children to help move the conversations forward. Let us be the support system you need to feel good about the care and intention needed to help our children live into healthy and loving relationships.
Churches
A system that greatly impacts our relationship with our sexuality is our religious institutions. This may look different for many, but based on the conversations brought to us, it is the place where shame and worth are entertained frequently. At Reframing our Stories, we believe that removing shame and having open conversations about sexuality and relationships are critical needs within the church. It is our desire to educate and equip religious spaces to learn how to nurture conversations around sexuality without shame. We are supporters and allies to our LGBTQIA+ friends. We support those whose self-worth has been negatively impacted by their sexual experiences, and those who have faced abuse. We believe that when people are nurtured with grace and care, they can live into who they truly are. Our goal is to help foster the creation of such spaces in your church as well as provide workshops and retreats to help leadership, parents, and youth on a myriad of topics to care for your community.