Sex Therapy Certificate

• Zoe and Walt Sipe
• Fall & Spring

This course emphasizes therapeutic stance related to sex therapy, working with eroticism in the clinical context, and practical demonstrations of common presenting issues in sex therapy. There will be training around participants' ongoing personal and professional development as sex therapists. We will integrate multiple theoretical orientations to sex therapy including behavioral, somatic, psychodynamic, gestalt, and attachment. As sex therapy often includes interaction with medical issues, we will also work with assessment, psychopharmacologic impacts, and working with interdisciplinary teams, including medical professionals.

• Bianca Laureano
• Fall, Spring, & Summer

This course is designed to offer all students exposure in the form of facilitated discussion, small group activities, self-reflection, and media consumption along a range of sexual practices and experiences. The focus of the course utilizes an intersectional, justice-centered, and anti-oppression framework, to facilitate and address unexamined axiological assumptions we all hold about romantic orientations, bodies, gender, sexual exploration and attractions; and to consider and stay curious about them as a reflexive lifelong practice. This course is aligned to and is part of the AASECT sex educator and AASECT sex therapy certification and is considered one of the components of competency in core knowledge and experience in the field. The content will consist of a range of media with captions, that support various learning styles, and is presented by an experienced and certified facilitator.

• Damon Constantinides
• Fall, Spring, & Summer

This course provides an introduction to a framework for sex therapy with trans and non-binary clients that is rooted in narrative therapy, transfeminism, queer theory, intersectionality and in challenging the cissexist culture we are all living in. Nine principles for providing sex therapy to erotically marginalized clients will be discussed with case examples.

• Martha Kauppi
• Fall & Spring

In this two-day workshop, Martha Kauppi will facilitate a learning process designed to help clinicians build a robust skillset for working with complex relational challenges that present concurrently with sex issues. From a sex positive and inclusive perspective, and through the theoretical lens of the Developmental Model of Couples Therapy (Bader/Pearson), Kauppi integrates concepts from attachment, differentiation, and neuroscience to create a cohesive clinical approach to relational sex therapy. Participants will leave with effective strategies for conceptualizing couples and relational therapy cases, and a robust set of treatment strategies for working with a broad range of relational and sex-related challenges.

• Heather Howard
• Fall & Spring

This course offers a variety of clinical solutions related to intimacy, pleasure, and physical comfort. Dr. Howard and guest speaker(s) who specialize in partner engagement and erotic trance share their clinical approaches to intimacy and pleasure, and Dr. Howard rounds out the course with practical adjustment strategies to promote sexual comfort for clients with health challenges.

• Juan Camerena
• Fall, Spring, & Summer

This thought-provoking course will take a critical and reflective approach to examine a range of sexual behaviors and expressions that may be, for various reasons, viewed as problematic. Such areas may include out of control sexual behaviors, rape culture, exploitation, sexuality & substances, and harassment. The course will consider issues of ethics, historical context, and various therapeutic approaches and interventions.

A separate portion of this course will highlight Dr. Camarena's expertise in working with models of gender and sexual identity, the intersections of race and sexuality, and sex therapy within the LGBTQQIA community.

• Estefanía Simich
• Fall, Spring, & Summer

This course explores some of the intersections that might present in sex therapy when working with clients from diverse backgrounds and from different parts of the world. It is through the exploration of these intersections (e.g., culture, religion, migration, intergenerational teachings), that the course will focus on providing a space for exploration of ways of approaching cases and learning new practical skills to use with diverse groups of clients in sex therapy. The course emphasizes on the impact of patriarchal systems, systems of oppression, gender violence, sexual rights, migration and how this presents itself in sex therapy.

Yes, allied professionals are encouraged to apply. However, it's important that all practitioners who are not clinically licensed are aware that we are teaching from a context of clinically licensed therapists who work within the therapeutic frame. That doesn't mean other practitioners won't benefit greatly from the course and be able to integrate much of the material into existing coaching/physical therapy practices, but it's important to understand this specific context.

The course is separated into two different components: synchronous (in-person or online via Zoom) and online asynchronous (via Canvas). The online asynchronous work on Canvas is not required to complete our certificate program and receive a digital certificate. It is required if you want to go on to apply for AASECT certification.

The asynchronous portion of the course is designed as a supplement to the synchronous material specifically for those seeking AASECT certification. It contains 90 hours of work and it is done at your own pace. Students have one additional year to complete the asynchronous portion. For example, if you join the certificate for a Fall cohort, you will have until December 31 of the following year to complete the online asynchronous coursework.

Yes. This program meets the requirements for the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for 165 CE credits (75 Synchronous & 90 Asynchronous). Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT Certification. For further information please contact ce@aasect.org.

In addition, the certificate meets the qualifications for hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. California Institute of Integral Studies is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for the licenses listed above. California Institute of Integral Studies maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. BBS licensed individuals from states other than California need to check with their state licensing board for approval.

Under specific circumstances, prospective medical and mental health professionals who are not yet licensed may apply if they have completed the great majority of their coursework and have secured a traineeship or internship for gaining training hours of counseling and psychotherapy and have plans to complete their coursework in parallel. We have found that the coursework is most useful for those who have already begun practicum or are seeing clients, allowing them to incorporate the material into their practice. However, it is ultimately up to you when to apply.

Our cohorts are typically 25-30 students.

Our Certificate provides training for therapists in the form of in-person and online coursework. The students of our Certificate program work with a diverse range of clients.

For anyone seeking AASECT certification, we recommend reviewing the list of requirements on AASECT’s website. There two main components to the AASECT application: educational training and supervision hours. Our program satisfied ALL of the educational training requirements set out by AASECT. Upon completion of our program, participants will be eligible to conduct 300 hours of practical training in sex therapy in discussion with an AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor. AASECT requires 50 hours of supervision. Therapists can begin accruing supervised sex therapy hours after being enrolled in graduate school; they MUST have a contract arranged with an AASECT supervisor prior to any hours counting toward AASECT certification.The STC team will help you find a supervisor in your area and also provide a list of supervisors around the country that provide low-cost or sliding scale supervision.

After completion of the supervision hours, applicants send their documentation of coursework and supervised hours to AASECT as an application for certification. CIIS will provide a packet of helpful materials to assist students in applying for AASECT certification, including a helpful breakdown of Core Knowledge Area requirements met for each hour of teaching and an application filled in with their specific cohort’s information to be used as a guide.

Our Certificate does not include supervision hours, practicum, or internships. However, we will assist certificate students in finding an appropriate supervisor. We will also provide a list of supervisors around the country that provide low-cost or sliding scale supervision.

Our program is designed for existing therapists, or allied professionals, to gain additional training in sexuality. For more information on the field of Sex Therapy, check out the AASECT website.

Unfortunately, certificate programs are not eligible for student loans. Certificates are technically considered “Continuing Education” and students are not considered matriculated college students, and so most tuition-based scholarships and loans do not apply.

Payment plans are offered at no additional cost. The specific details of these payment plans will be sent out as part of a welcome packet once the application period is over and all applicants are accepted. See below for more details.