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How to become a sex therapist
So you want to become a sex therapist
(sexologist, sex counselor), but how? There are four components to becoming a
competent sex therapist, as well as an optional 5th component. These
are: 1) become a therapist; 2) specialize in sex therapy; 3) get plenty of
supervised training; and 4) get licensed in your field (e.g. become a licensed
social worker, licensed counselor, licensed marriage and family therapist,
licensed psychologist, licensed psychiatrist etc). The optional 5th
component is to seek certification from a professional organization. Keep in
mind that these components reflect pieces to a puzzle and may happen linearly or
concurrently, and not necessarily in the order presented.
1: Become a Therapist
You’ll need a master’s or doctoral degree in any of the following areas:
social work, psychology, marriage and family therapy, counseling or a related
field. While each of these disciplines is unique, all will teach you the basic
tenets of how to practice therapy in that discipline. If your goal is to emerge
a sex therapist, be sure to choose a graduate program that includes sexuality
coursework and couple’s therapy training, and also can provide an appropriate
field placement/internship/externship experience.
2: Specialize in Sex Therapy
Sex therapy is concerned with much more that sex and encompasses the much
broader concept of sexuality. Well-trained sex therapists have taken academic
courses in the following areas:
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the biology of sexual development &
reproductive health
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marriage counseling
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sex therapy
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cross cultural perspectives in
sexuality
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sex education
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famous sex researchers
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other core topics include: sexual
behaviors, skills, choices, decisions, body image, gender roles/identity,
relationship power dynamics, sexual orientation/identity, sexual abuse /
sexual perpetrators, sexual addictions, prostitution
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lastly, all sex therapists need to
have taken some courses, or done their own therapy to help them understand
their own beliefs, feelings, values and attitudes about sexuality so that
they can better separate their own beliefs from their clients
3: Get Plenty of Supervised Training
After all the coursework and all the studying and all the exposure to the
material, you need to switch from the theoretical to the actual: you’ll need to
put all your knowledge into practice. There’s no better way to learn sex
therapy than in the trenches. Find a find placement, externship, internship,
training program, or volunteer or paid position in which there’s a sex therapist
willing to supervise you closely and teach you how to assess for, diagnose, and
treat the myriad of issues clients will present.
4:
Get Licensed
Each state has its own licensure requirements that include some combination
of graduate education and clinical experience. Your license will be in your
therapeutic discipline (social work, marriage and family therapy, etc.) and not
in sex therapy itself. To date, there is no such thing as a licensed sex
therapist, but instead there are licensed therapists who specialize in sex
therapy.
5 (optional): Seek Certification
from a Professional Organization
While having a license to practice is sufficient to call yourself a sex
therapist, some seek an additional credential from professional organizations
dedicated to sex education, counseling or therapy. This credential is optional,
but adds another level of credibility and indicates that, at the very least, a
certified sex therapist has met the minimum requirements the professional
organization believes are essential to competent practice. That said, there are
excellent sex therapists who are not certified, and perhaps vice versa.
Remember that sex therapists are
therapists first. To use an analogy from the medical profession, all medical
specialists attend medical school first. It is in medical school that they
learn the basics. Only after learning the basics do they seek additional
training through residencies and fellowships where they can focus exclusively on
the specialties of their choice. Sex therapists are therapists first. Only
after (or at the same time as) learning the basics do they seek additional
training where they can focus exclusively on sex therapy.
Written by Tracy L. Wood, M.Ed., LMFT
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