Professional Certification Program:
A Five - Course Pathway to Become a Somatic Sex Educator.
Welcome to a different kind of sex education
Below you’ll find a comprehensive overview of our professional certification program including:
- Information about the Institute’s motivations and values
- Observations about whether our program might be a good fit for you
- Outlines about what is on offer in our certification program
- Common questions asked by prospective students.
If you’d rather cut straight to the chase, read our program at a glance article, or jump straight to our enrolment page for Course One
We imagine you might be here because you sense that there’s more to sex education and sexual healing than articles, books, or social media posts. We think you might be here because you know that talking only takes us so far in our healing. We suspect that you know that there’s a way to offer nourishing, holistic, and empowered sex education, coaching and bodywork that is grounded in consent, trauma awareness, and counter normative values: values that centre racial justice, gender expansiveness, and social justice.
We imagine you might be feeling alone or isolated in an erotic landscape that lacks a web of community, lacks an acknowledgment of the link between sex and spirit, and lacks loving and care-full respect as a guiding value. For the founding members of the Institute, these feelings were a driving force that made this school happen!
We also imagine you might be here because you’re feeling unsure about how to become a steadfast and embodied leader when it comes to cultivating trauma-informed erotic joy, well being, and healing sexual shame – both in your own life and as a practitioner.
Now, if it feels right, we’d like to offer something for you to imagine:
Imagine working with clients who are struggling with common challenges getting in the way of the sex life they want – they’re experiencing mismatched desire with partner(s). Quick or delayed ejaculation. They’re stuck in loops of people pleasing or shutting down during sex. They’re experiencing debilitating pain or shame. They’re feeling disconnected from their bodies.
Now, imagine taking a multi-year body-centred & nervous system focused training that focuses on supporting you as you develop tools, skills, and touch techniques that offer effective and nourishing support to clients having these types of experiences.
What You’ll Learn: Skills, Support & Structure
This training will begin with your own embodied process – dipping into your own experiences and current relationship with your gender(s), body, desires, genitals, communication styles, trauma, values, and the futures you long for. It will include a self-directed online component (our first core course), as well as in-person group-centred learning opportunities (our second core course). These courses are aimed specifically at supporting your own erotic learning, embodiment, and growth.
You will also have access throughout your time at the Institute to weekly Community of Practice zoom calls with the faculty and larger school community where you can integrate your coursework in community.
Once you’ve progressed through the first two courses of our five course training, you will have the opportunity to enrol in our third course, where you will become immersed in professional development and training, including extensive education and coaching to support you in developing skills to facilitate depthful and embodied erotic growth and healing for others.
You will experience three courses (both self-directed and group-based) that develop the professional tools you’ll need to bring your work to life, as well as mentorship from our faculty to support you every step of the way. Upon successful completion of all 5 courses, you will then be certified as a somatic sex educator and sexological bodyworker.
Ready to register? Enroll in our first core course
Our Why: The Values That Shape This Work
We built this program to ensure that trustworthy and reviewed information about the nervous system, pleasure, and embodiment, plus the values of transformative justice and racial justice could be found in a centralized location, while also offering mentorship and coaching to develop professional competency in this cutting edge field of somatic erotic education.
After all, we know it can be hard to find a centralized place to learn from – information about sexual healing and wellbeing is scattered across a disparate array of sources, and it’s hard to know what’s trustworthy. It’s not that there aren’t great resources about anatomy, pleasure, and embodiment out there – but how do you find these resources? Will these resources hold intersectional values that acknowledge power and oppression as they manifest in the erotic realm? Are these resources inclusive of bodies throughout the gender galaxy?
Even if you do find trustworthy resources, where are the places where you can learn how to put these concepts into practice? And then, where’s the information and guidance to support you in building an ethical and integrity-based practice as a professional?
We established our professional certification program to ensure that not only would our students learn tools and skills to support others, but they would also be required to explore these embodiment practices themselves – we believe it’s much easier to teach what one has already experienced, and we have done what we can to ensure the school’s training and knowledge is experiential and embodied throughout the coursework.
Further, we have structured our training to ensure you have the opportunity to move at your own pace through the different courses and practice saying ‘yes’, ‘maybe’, or ‘no’ as it feels right for you.
In short: we’re here as leaders to train motivated and adventurous students invested in embodying personal and cultural erotic leadership who are keen to become somatic sex educators with a professional commitment to pleasure, consent, belonging, and erotic empowerment.
Are you interested? Feeling ready to register?
This certification program might be for you if:
- You’ve been walking your own path of sexual healing and exploration and find yourself wanting to offer this professionally to others.
- You’re resourced by and find joy in exploratory and depthful erotic learning.
- You’re craving connection guided by counter-normative erotic and cultural values.
- You’re excited to practice resilience and belonging in this close-knit and always-learning community.
- You’re seeking a collective of passionate and dynamic colleagues and peers to collaborate, learn, and grow with.
- You’re seeking well-informed mentors and teaching teams to support you in your professional development.
- You’re interested in arriving as a colleague and peer into a community of belonging and generative erotic culture building.
- You’re already doing associated work professionally and are seeking additional certification to leverage your vision.
- You’re interested in centring transformative justice, consent culture, and racial justice in your work and play.
- You have access to financial resources for the training paid for on a course-by-course basis. (More about course fees here)
- You are willing to learn by reading English language texts and watching English language videos.
- You have access to friends, partners, or other folks to practice assignments with.
- You are able to create written, video, or audio responses to assignments you are given.
- You are able to be self-directed with online learning.
- You have dependable access to the internet, with no content blockers that limit your access to sexually explicit content.
- You are at least 18 years of age.
And this certification program might not be for you if:
- You do not have the time or space or financial resources needed to commit to the coursework.
- You have yet to begin your own sexual healing journey (learn more about our Course One and Two foundations program here)
- You find yourself easily triggered when reading about, listening to, or discussing sexual & racial injustices, or other systemic oppressions.
- You feel unwilling to explore somatic or touch-based practices.
- You’re expecting extensive 1:1 coaching or personal therapy
- You’re driven by meticulous, dogmatic, or otherwise perfectionistic values
What’s Included When You Register for Course One
If you choose to register for our first core course, this is what to expect upon registering:
Content & Assignments
Immediate access to the entire course content and assignments for Course One. Upon successful completion you will be able to register for Course Two.
BIPOC Community of Practice Calls
BIPOC students have access to bi-weekly BIPOC only Community of Practice calls that have been developed to support racialized students in the program.
Personal CC1 Faculty Mentor
Access to your personal Faculty Mentor. Your faculty mentor is available for questions, meetings, and other support throughout your course.
BIPOC Financial Support
BIPOC students have access to financial support for enrolment fees.
Weekly Zoom Calls
Access to weekly Community of Practice Zoom calls with other students and graduates of the program.
Access to our BIPOC Faculty Liaison
BIPOC students have access to the BIPOC Faculty Liaison for information and support as a racialized student in the program.
Facebook Group
Access to the Institute’s student-led Facebook page, which is a wealth of information and a powerful networking resource.
Orientation Information
An introductory email sent within 24 business hours with orientation information and relevant links regarding your BIPOC Faculty Liaison, your Faculty Mentor, your Community of Practice call schedule, the student-led Facebook page, and other relevant orientation information.
Ready to Join Us?
If you’ve made it to here, and are feeling a big “Yes!” in your body, our professional certification program might be for you. Take your time – your discernment is important – and when it’s feeling right, we’d love for you to join our school and community. If we haven’t addressed any questions you still have, please email us and we’d be happy to make sure you have the information you need to make an informed decision about our training. Just write us at info@somaticsexeducator.com
Investment:
Core Course 1: USD$825
Core Course 2: USD$2,095 (Online) / USD$2,295 (In-person)
Core Course 3: USD$2,295
Core Course 4: USD$2,295
Core Course 5: USD$2,295
Total Investment: USD$9,805 – USD$10,005
Ready to register? Enroll in our first core course
From Our Past Students
What our past students have to say about the Professional Certification Program
This work can be deep, transformative and an opportunity for growth. I appreciate the facilitators of this training program in providing capacity with a space to be heard, listened to, and showing up authentically in a judgment free community environment. Being able to connect with like minded individuals is beautiful. I was able to move through some deep moments and grow at my own pace. I appreciate the individual and collective support throughout the training program. As a person of the Global Majority and sex working advocate, I appreciate the support of joining affinity spaces to reflect, integrate, face challenges and celebrations with vulnerability amongst folxs holding space for one another. This experience was enriching, helpful and brought many meaningful moments for my personal and continued exploration of my embodied path and in being able to work with and support others.
Graduating from the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education in Victoria, BC has been a deeply transformative experience. This program invited me into profound personal growth while equipping me with the skills and frameworks to guide others on their journeys of sexual healing and empowerment.
The faculty cultivated an environment of safety, permission, and curiosity—qualities that are now central to my own practice. I especially appreciated my mentor, Katie, who went above and beyond to customize my experience and ensure I received the support, practices, and guidance I needed to build my confidence as a practitioner. Her dedication and willingness to go the extra mile made a lasting impact on my learning journey.
Through a balance of academic rigor and experiential learning, I developed the confidence to hold space for vulnerability, exploration, and embodied change. What I carry forward most is the power of permission, pleasure, and passion. Permission to be fully present in our own bodies, pleasure as a source of wisdom and healing, and passion as a force for authentic connection. This training continues to shape who I am as a practitioner and as a human being, and I am deeply grateful.
"My experience studying at the ISSSE was profound and life changing. The atmosphere was compassionate yet challenging and invited me to bring all of myself to the learning experience. Not only did I grow substantially as a person myself, but under the guidance of knowledgeable and experienced instructors I gained a wide range of skills and practices that I now offer my own clients with the same spirit of compassion and radical welcome."
This training incorporates a wide range of topics within somatic sexology. The curriculum is actively being expanded and adapted to reflect the progression of the field. Institute faculty supported me in exploring my unique interests, and celebrated diverse learning styles in a way that allowed me to excel in the program.
As someone who is neurodivergent and was new to somatics at the time of my enrolment, I was offered space to creatively find my own way of engaging with the content. I loved how I was encouraged to be myself and practise different ways to be in my body. This flexibility was framed within trauma informed ethics and core values for care-fully working with clients.
The Institute is committed to building bridges with other sex educators and aligned fields, which continues to enrich my professional development and networking opportunities after graduation.
"I believe that we learn many of these skills through community - being a part of an organization that practices a culture of deep commitment and repair at all levels has been inspiring. Being able to experience the SSE skills not only in class demos but also in relationships, is a huge part of what I have gotten out of the program. I have met some of my favourite people through the ISSSE and have mentors and colleagues that I learn from and look up to. The graceful facilitation of the teaching team has been a huge benefit to me.
It may be important for future students to know that Somatic Sex Education will draw heavily on your own unique crossroads of skills and special interests, no two SSEs practice the same or have the same skill set to offer. It may also be helpful to know that you can wait until CC4/CC5 to pick some of your electives, that way you can specialize in areas you are feeling drawn to which you may not discover until later on. You can choose to round out your own learning where you want to go deeper or feel the need for supplemental curriculum."
"The ISSSE program has been nothing short of transformative for me. Through its integrative approach, I've learned to truly inhabit my body and connect with my felt senses in ways I never imagined. This newfound embodiment has not only enhanced my well-being when it comes to intimacy and sex, but has also equipped me with invaluable tools to understand trauma, effectively communicate, and teach others how to do the same.
The program strives to continually update its content to address contemporary societal challenges, ensuring its teachings remain impactful and timely. Additionally, ISSSE also provides invaluable insights and techniques on respectful touch, emphasizing consent and communication in intimate interactions.
Overall, the ISSSE has empowered me not only to deepen my own embodiment journey but also to inspire and guide others toward a more connected and pleasurable way of living. It's more than just a program; it's a pathway to personal and sexual empowerment."