[The role of marriage and family counsellors: the example of the Yvelines Sexual Health Centres].

Facilitating emotional, relational, and sexual education (ERSE) sessions requires expertise, which is possessed by marriage and family counselors (MFC). The Yvelines department has eight public sexual health centers, with a focus on preventive care, health education, and psycho-emotional support. Their team of MFCs leads sessions for 9th grade classes, coordinating with other ERSE stakeholders when possible. The aim is to offer at least one ERSE session to the majority of students in the department in their 9th grade year. These interventions by the department's MFCs follow three main principles: they are free of charge, respectful of each individual and their cultural values, and free of any ideological or religious proselytism. They are carried out in the presence of a member of the local teaching team and follow a codified procedure: after introducing the speaker and the group exchanges' rules, the speaker launches discussions on one or more themes with a view to encouraging students'reflexivity. This activity is facilitated by open-ended questions. The discussed topics are lead by the group and are not imposed by the facilitator, thus respecting the students' level of maturity. After a question-and-answer session, people and places the young can rely on are reminded to them. Topics are numerous and cover biological, psycho-emotional, and legal-social issues. The facilitators have a range of educational tools and group facilitation techniques that can be adapted to each topic and, above all, to each group, depending on their sensitivity and maturity levels, which are jointly assessed by the facilitator and the teaching team.