Professional Training for Counselling & Psychotherapy Organisations
I offer specialist training for universities, counselling and psychotherapy training providers, therapeutic organisations and professional teams who want to develop greater confidence and competence in working with sexuality within therapeutic practice.
My training brings together my experience as a Somatic Sexologist and Integrative Counsellor, with particular expertise in sexual trauma, GSRD (Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity), consent, sexuality and embodied therapeutic practice.
Training is designed to be engaging, experiential and reflective, combining taught content with facilitated discussion, small-group work and opportunities for practitioners to consider how their own assumptions, experiences and areas of limitation may influence therapeutic practice.
Sex in the Therapy Room
One-day CPD training for counsellors, psychotherapists and trainees
Sex and sexuality are part of our clients' lives, yet many therapists receive relatively little opportunity within their core training to explore how to confidently work with sexual material when it enters the therapy room.
Clients may bring experiences relating to desire, sexual shame, pornography, kink, sexual trauma, libido, relationship diversity, intimacy, pleasure, consent, fantasy or concerns about whether their sexual experiences are "normal".
Sex in the Therapy Room supports practitioners to develop greater confidence, language and self-awareness when working therapeutically with these conversations.
This is not training practitioners to become sex therapists.
Instead, the day considers both what the client may bring into the therapy room and what may happen within the therapist when they do.
Areas explored within the training
The day includes exploration of:
Bringing conversations about sex and sexuality into therapeutic practice
Therapist values, assumptions, discomfort and unconscious bias
Language around sex, bodies, sexuality and identity
GSRD-affirming and anti-oppressive therapeutic practice
Kink, fetish and relationship diversity
Sexual desire and differences in desire
Pornography within the therapeutic context
Sexual shame and cultural conditioning
Sexual trauma and its possible impact on sexuality and intimacy
Consent, boundaries, willingness and capacity
Recognising the limits of practitioner competence
The role of supervision, further professional development and specialist referral
Experiential learning
The training is designed to be participatory rather than lecture-based.
Alongside taught material, participants are invited to participate in facilitated whole-group discussion, reflective exercises, and pair or small-group work.
An important aspect of the day is supporting practitioners to notice their own responses to sexual material.
Participants may be invited to consider questions such as:
Which client disclosures might I find difficult to hear?
Where might my own beliefs or experiences influence my therapeutic response?
What assumptions might I make about sexuality, relationships or sexual behaviour?
What subjects might I inadvertently avoid?
Where are the edges of my knowledge and competence?
The intention is not to remove personal values or responses, but to increase practitioners' awareness of them and consider how they may affect the therapeutic relationship.
Participants are never required to disclose details of their own sexual experiences, and experiential exercises are facilitated with attention to consent, choice and individual boundaries.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the training, participants will have had opportunities to:
Develop greater confidence initiating and holding therapeutic conversations about sex and sexuality
Identify and reflect on personal biases, assumptions, discomfort and limitations and consider their potential impact on therapeutic practice
Consider sexuality through a GSRD-affirming and anti-oppressive lens
Increase awareness of kink, fetish, pornography, desire and relationship diversity within therapeutic contexts
Consider some of the ways sexual trauma may affect sexuality, intimacy, embodiment and consent
Develop greater awareness of language and how it can facilitate or inhibit conversations about sexuality
Explore consent, willingness, capacity and boundaries within therapeutic work
Identify areas where supervision, specialist referral or further professional development may be appropriate
“This workshop offered a fresh and open approach to exploring sex and sexuality within the therapy room. I particularly appreciated the way the subject was approached without taboo, judgement or unnecessary limitations, while maintaining a strong sense of safety. The workshop was both intellectually stimulating and practically relevant, encouraging a deeper understanding of how sexuality can be present within therapeutic work and how therapists can approach it with openness, sensitivity and confidence. I found it insightful, refreshing and highly valuable. It challenged some conventional assumptions! It enabled meaningful professional reflection.”
Who is the training suitable for?
Sex in the Therapy Room can be delivered for:
University counselling and psychotherapy programmes
Counselling and psychotherapy training organisations
Qualified counselling and psychotherapy teams
Charities and therapeutic organisations
Professional development programmes
The training can be particularly valuable for students and practitioners who have received limited opportunities within their core training to explore sexuality and sexual material therapeutically.
No previous sexology or psychosexual training is required.
Delivery
Full-day training: 10am–5pm
The standard programme provides approximately 5.5 hours of structured CPD learning, allowing for breaks and lunch.
Training can be delivered: Online via Zoom or In person at your organisation or training facility
Where appropriate, the content can be adapted to the experience and training level of the cohort while retaining the core learning outcomes of the programme.
For online delivery, I recommend a group size that allows meaningful participation and discussion.
For larger cohorts or specific organisational requirements, please contact me to discuss what would work best.
About the facilitator
Nicky Wetherell (they/she) is a Somatic Sexologist with six years' experience working with clients and facilitating groups, and an Integrative Counsellor whose therapeutic practice particularly focuses on sexual trauma, LGBTQIA+ and GSRD experiences, sexuality, gender, intimacy and people's relationships with their bodies.
Their work is trauma-informed, consent-led and rooted in anti-oppressive practice, bringing together therapeutic and somatic perspectives on sexuality and embodied experience.
Nicky has trained in the Wheel of Consent and has experience facilitating sexuality-focused learning with counsellors in training.
Book A CPD day for your cohort
Sex in the Therapy Room is available for universities, counselling and psychotherapy training providers and therapeutic organisations to commission for their students, trainees or professional teams.
If you would like to discuss bringing the training to your organisation, please get in touch with information about your organisation, proposed cohort and preferred delivery format.