Human Sexuality Certificate

Human Sexuality Certificate Program

Program Description

The clinical marketplace has a perennial shortage of therapists who can work with sexuality issues. The goal of Southwestern College’s certificate program in Human Sexuality is to help address this shortage and prepare therapists to add this powerful clinical specialty to their practice. Consistent with Southwestern College’s experiential, self-reflective approach to clinical studies, the program will also give students an opportunity to explore their own sexual development, attitudes, assumptions, sexual history, dreams and fantasies. Areas of emphasis include ethics, the role of sociocultural & familial factors in shaping sexual values and behavior, intimacy skills, diversities in sexual expression (BDSM, Kink, Tantra, polyamory), issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity, sexual exploitation (including assault, abuse, and harassment), sex addiction, tools for reducing shame and enhancing pleasure, cyber-sexuality and social media, the history of the discipline of sex research, theory, therapy, desire, sexual dreams and fantasies.
Students and community members pursuing a certificate through the New Earth Institute must complete all classes required for the Certificate within six (6) years of taking the first class. All of the classes in this program are offered in a distance format with a virtual classroom on a weekend.

Course Topics

• Sexual Inheritance: Recognizing Ancestral, Familial & Cultural Messages
• Working with Queer Sexualities
• Clinical Skills: Working with Sexual Issues in Psychotherapy
• Erotic Intelligence and Pleasure Literacy
• Too Hot to Handle: Therapeutic Approaches to Working with Infidelity, Porn, and Sex Addiction
• Compulsion or Coping Skill? What to Do When Sex, Tech, and Other Behaviors Get Out of Control
• Sexual Attitudes and Development
• Non-Monogamy and Polyamory: Ethical Therapeutic Practice with Diverse Relationships
• Anatomy of Couple’s Therapy
• Sex in the Second Half of Life
• Understanding and Working with Sexual Trauma

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES:

PLO1: Describe current and emerging theoretical approaches and best
practices in the field of sex therapy, including sexual development and
functioning, sexual and gender identity, diverse sexual expressions, and
relationship and intimacy skills.

PLO2: Apply clinical skills relevant to ethical, culturally sustaining, sex
therapy practice, including assessment and diagnosis (when necessary)
of sexuality related concerns, case conceptualization, and clinical
interventions designed to address a wide range of sexual issues.

PLO3: Examine and appraise the role of the sex therapist within a
framework of historical and cultural context, utilizing reflective practice
to develop an embodied, heart-centered, authentic, transformational
approach to treatment grounded in the science of human sexuality.

Where you might use these skills:

• Private practice
• Agencies working with individuals, couples and families
• Trauma treatment centers
• Eating Disorder treatment centers
• Youth Shelters
• Schools
• Colleges and universities
• Reproductive health centers
• Assisted living and retirement homes

Additional courses may be listed in quarterly schedules.

Click Here to see Upcoming Classes in this Certificate.
Click Here to visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.

Skills you will learn:

• The ability to work effectively with a wide range of sexual issues
• Specific clinical skills in diagnosing, treating, and responding to sexual issues in psychotherapy from a holistic, strengths-based perspective
• The opportunity to explore your own sexual attitudes and assumptions
• Expand your capacity to think psychologically about sexual issues
• Manage transference and countertransference issues
• Broaden your capacity for working with relationship dynamics
• Expand your knowledge about diversities in sexual expression
• The ability to bring conscious awareness to your own blind spots, wounding, and unresolved trauma, while actively working with these issues in a healing way

Program Director

Laura Rademacher, M.A., LMFT, CST, CST-S is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She is the author of The Principles of Pleasure: Working with the Good Stuff as Sex Therapists and Educators and an AASECT Approved Sex Therapy Supervisor. Laura is a frequent presenter near and far, from Self Serve in Albuquerque, NM to Pride Festival in Stockholm, Sweden. She lives in Minneapolis, MN where she works with clients in her private practice.

Laura began her career as a sex positive educator focusing on pleasure issues. She regularly works with issues of sexual identity, trauma, sober sex, discordant desire, low desire, relational issues, out of control sexual behaviors, and sexual functioning concerns. Laura frequently presents to, and works with, the LGBTQIA+, BDSM, and consensual, non-monogamy communities. Her work focuses on creating content that is relevant to, and celebratory of, people of all orientations, gender expressions, and relationship styles. Laura is currently learning the most from sexual health professionals who teach about the intersections of race, culture, and sexuality.

The inner work that is central to Southwestern/NEI’s philosophy of transformational learning is also critical for effectively working with sexuality issues. Laura believes that experiential learning creates embodied knowledge and deeper levels of understanding than what can be achieved with book and lecture methods alone. All of the courses in the NEI Human Sexuality Certificate Program will blend the philosophies of transformational and experiential learning with the most up-to-date information and techniques in the field of sex therapy.

Laura feels the inner work that is central to Southwestern/NEI’s philosophy of transformational learning is also critical for effectively working with sexuality issues. She believes that experiential learning creates embodied knowledge and deeper levels of understanding than what can be achieved with book and lecture methods alone.

Southwestern College & New Earth Institute is approved by the New Mexico Counseling and Therapy Practice Board (#CEU2025065) and the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC ACEP No. 7520) as a Continuing Education Provider. If you are not licensed as a mental health professional in New Mexico, please check with your state’s licensing board to see if they will accept approved CEs from these two accrediting bodies.