We’re passionate about helping professionals grow their competency and clients receiving quality care for their sex & sexuality issues
Until now, there has been a lack of credible, accessible, training opportunities for practitioners who want to do what’s best for their clients and expand their skills and understanding in the areas of sex, sexuality, and sexual difficulties.
Human Sexuality and sex therapy is rarely taught for mental health professionals – in fact, only a handful of programs in Canada offer a sex therapy or human sexuality course at the graduate level. Further, more than half of medical schools in North America provide less than 10 hours of education in human sexuality. While the training opportunities in the US for sex therapy have exponentially grown over the last ten years, in Canada, there are currently only two training programs that cover basic Sex Therapy principles (hint: we’re one of the two!).
Our Story
When Westland Academy for Clinical Sex Therapy was first started in 2014, founders Dr. Teesha Morgan and Constance-Lynn Hummel were seeking to create a Canadian-based education company that was able to provide evidence-based education to qualified therapists who were trying to do ethical work with clients, students asking questions about programs to take, and clients who were desperately trying to find support.
In 2020, as a newly AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, Diana Sadat experienced the same gap in her sex therapy group practice – therapists who wanted to do the work but were only able to look to the US for comprehensive training programs and the high demand of clients who were seeking competent and skilled professionals to support them and the problems they were experiencing. Starting to offer professional development trainings on the topic of sex therapy, she saw the demand quickly from professionals who wanted to work with sex and sexuality issues in therapy.
United by a passion for expanding their impact, Westland Academy for Clinical Sex Therapy and Allura Sex Therapy Centre merged in the fall of 2024 to develop Allura Sex Therapy Academy: a Canadian-based innovative, inclusive, integrative and systemic sex therapy training and education organization.
Our Mission
To empower mental health and health care professionals in developing clinical skills and confidence to work with and address sexuality and sex issues with clients
Our Values
Inclusivity
We believe in the importance of intersectionality and anti-oppression in the education that we provide. We ensure that the voices of the populations that we serve are represented in our programs as well as invite educators and trainers with expertise in sexual wellness who align with our values. Inclusivity reaches into how content is structured, consulting with adult education specialists to ensure that our programs are inclusive of varying learning styles.
Innovation
sex therapy is always evolving – we look to integrate the newest research and techniques with clinical wisdom and experience to provide students with comprehensive yet digestible learning content and experience
Systemic & Integrative
Sex therapy has traditionally been addressed through cognitive-behavioural lenses, including the research that we often see around sexuality, sexual wellness, and sex therapy. At Allura Academy, we provide an integrated and systemic framework when working with sexuality and sexual issues in therapy, drawing from physiology, neurobiology, somatic approaches, and deeper healing modalities to create impactful and long lasting change for clients and increased confidence for professionals.