Most Therapists Feel Unprepared to Address Sexuality and Sexual Issues in the Therapy Room
Despite sex being a fundamental part of human experience, most graduate programs provide little to no training on sex therapy. Yet, therapists are still expected to support clients navigating complex sexual concerns, from intimacy struggles to sexual dysfunction, gender identity, ethical non-monogamy, and more.
This gap in knowledge leaves many therapists feeling:
Ill-equipped to hold space for clients’ sexual concerns
Uncertain about how to approach discussions on sex and sexuality
Afraid of saying the wrong thing or reinforcing harmful biases
Underprepared to assess and address common sexual functioning concerns
Your clients need you to be able to hold space for their most deep and vulnerable concerns – sex and sexuality are no different, especially when practically everyone will experience difficulties in this area at some point in their life. While grad school may have left you unequipped and you’ve done your best to learn on your own or refer out in the best interest of the client, it’s time to feel more settled and confident assessing and addressing sexuality and sexual issues in your clinical work.
Introducing
The Sex Competent Therapist: Foundations
An immersive fundamental training program designed to help therapist build competency in working with sex and sexuality issues in the therapy room
Gain Confidence & Competency to Work With Sexual Concerns
This 40-hour training is designed to help therapists and professionals build competency in working with sexuality and sexual concerns in the therapy room. It will provide you with foundational knowledge needed to assess, understand, and address sexual and sexuality concerns with clients in an ethical, affirming. and evidence-based lens
This training is not designed to make you a sex therapist – it’s not supposed to. Many clients can benefit from your support through enhancing your competency without needing a trained and specialized sex therapist. Rather, it will equip you with the knowledge and skills to do just that:
✅ Uncover and work through your own biases around sex and sexuality
✅ Integrate sex therapy principles into your existing therapeutic practice
✅ Feel more confident in discussing sexuality with clients (without discomfort or avoidance)
✅ Assess and support clients with a range of sexual concerns, from desire and arousal issues to out-of-control sexual behaviors
✅ Understand ethical and cultural considerations around sex, relationships, and identity
Participant from cohort 2023
“Loved the training and have already been able to put it into practice with my clients”
Samantha Strange, cohort 2024
“This training was phenomenal. Diana's pace, delivery, kindness, and encouragement were some of the best I have ever experienced across various continuing education experiences. I felt confident in my knowledge going in, but I feel like I've reached a new level regarding my competence for application via this training. Highly recommend!”
Holly N, cohort 2022
“I thoroughly enjoyed this training and Diana’s facilitation. Her bubble personality and knowledge make her a perfect facilitator for this training. It was my first training through Allura and I can’t wait to take more!”
You want more than the basic 101 training on sex & sexuality. You're ready to build real competency in working with sexual concerns in therapy.
You want more than the basic 101 training on sex & sexuality. You're ready to build real competency in working with sexual concerns in therapy.
What You’ll Learn
This course covers critical topics that every therapist should be familiar with:
🔹 Uncovering Biases – Understand how personal biases and cultural narratives impact therapy
🔹 Sexual Health & Wellness – Learn key aspects of sexual health and common sexual challenges
🔹 Assessment & Sexual History Taking – Gain skills in conducting effective sexual health assessments
🔹 Understanding & Addressing Common Sexual Functioning Concerns – Learn about desire discrepancies, arousal difficulties, orgasm difficulties, pain during sex, and more
🔹 Ethical Non-Monogamy – Understand how to work with clients in alternative relationship structures
🔹 BDSM & Kink – Gain a foundational understanding of kink and BDSM and how to approach these topics with clients
🔹 Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation – Explore gender and sexual diversity and how to create affirming spaces
🔹 Out of Control Sexual Behaviours – Learn how to support clients navigating distress around their sexual behaviors
🔹 Relationships & Sexuality – Understand the intersections of relational dynamics and sexual concerns
Course Structure
Pre & Post-Training Reflection & Assessment
Take time to reflect where you stand on your biases, assumptions, and beliefs around sex and sexuality going into the course.
Therapists are not blank slates, and while we may feel confident working with sexual issues, being aware of our biases as well as our values is integral in providing non-judgmental compassionate care to clients.
This program builds reflection in before the training, throughout, and an integration reflection after you’ve gone through the training.
Videos & Readings
You’ll receive access to the course one month in advance to start reviewing pre-training content.
We used to teach this live – however, we found that participants absorbed the content more effectively when able to review it on their own time and be able to return back to the content time and time again.
The training contains 12 modules, packed will lessons that include videos, handouts, reflective prompts, and readings to help lay the foundational knowledge necessary for working with sex, sexuality, and intimacy issues in therapy
Integration Days
Learning content without integration means you won’t know how to use it. This training focuses on ensuring that you not only learn the content, but also know how to use it.
4 5-hour integrations days to help you move beyond just theory and into practice, experience, and integration.
During integration days, you’ll:
ask your burning questions about the recordings
practice and build live experience to effectively take a sexual history, assess presenting sexual concerns, and utilize varying interventions
get to see role-plays between the facilitators demonstrating the skills you’re learning
experience the interventions or knowledge you’ll be teaching your client experientially
case conceptualization & treatment planning skills development