ABSTRACT
Sexuality is present in one form or another from birth. Sexual impulses and responses are ubiquitous across all ages and ideas around sensuality, and our relationships with our bodies, begin to be formed in infancy and evolve throughout life. As with all areas of sex and sexuality, assumptions and prejudices can narrowly construct ideas of `normal' functioning across the age ranges and can be limiting and unhelpful. This chapter provides an overview of issues of sex and sexuality at various points of the lifespan from childhood, adolescence and adulthood through to old age. It also aims to guide re¯ection on our own expectations about sex and sexuality at different life stages as well as exploring developmental in¯uences that affect sexual identity. These understandings can usefully inform our therapeutic work and having an awareness of developmental and lifespan contexts can helpfully inform and enrich our conversations about sex and sexuality in the therapeutic context.
