Sex in the Therapy Room
A one-day experiential CPD workshop for counsellors, psychotherapists and counselling trainees
Sex and sexuality are part of our clients' lives, yet they can remain some of the least explored subjects within counsellor and psychotherapy training.
Clients may bring experiences of desire, shame, pornography, kink, sexual trauma, changes in libido, relationship diversity, difficulties with intimacy, pleasure, consent, fantasy or simply questions about whether what they experience is "normal".
How comfortable are we when they do?
Sex in the Therapy Room is an interactive one-day CPD workshop designed to support counsellors and psychotherapists to develop greater confidence, awareness and language for working with sex and sexuality within therapeutic practice.
This isn't training to become a sex therapist.
It's an opportunity to consider what happens when sex enters your therapy room — including what happens within you as the therapist.
Why this training?
Sexual material can evoke powerful responses in both client and therapist.
Our own experiences, values, cultural conditioning, identities, assumptions, embarrassment and areas of discomfort don't disappear when we become therapists.
We may find ourselves unsure which questions we're allowed to ask. We might worry about saying the wrong thing, inadvertently avoid sexual material, make assumptions about what is healthy or problematic, or discover that a client's sexuality challenges something within our own frame of reference.
Competent therapeutic work around sexuality therefore isn't only about having more information.
It also requires the willingness to become curious about ourselves.
This training creates a supportive space to develop knowledge while exploring the biases, assumptions and limitations we inevitably bring into therapeutic relationships.
What we'll explore
Throughout the day we will consider areas including:
Bringing conversations about sex and sexuality into the therapy room
Therapist discomfort, assumptions, values and unconscious bias
Language around sex, bodies, sexuality and identity
GSRD (Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity) affirming practice
Kink, fetish and relationship diversity
Sexual desire and differences in desire
Pornography and how it may present within therapeutic work
Sexual shame and cultural conditioning
Sexual trauma and its possible impact on intimacy and sexuality
Consent, boundaries, willingness and capacity
Recognising the limits of our competence and when supervision, further training or specialist referral may be appropriate
The training does not teach participants to practise sex therapy or Somatic Sexology. Instead, it aims to increase confidence and competence in meeting conversations about sex and sexuality when they arise within existing therapeutic practice.
An experiential approach
This isn't designed as a day of sitting and listening to slides.
Alongside taught material, there will be facilitated whole-group conversations, reflective exercises and opportunities to work in pairs and small breakout groups.
We will explore questions such as:
What happens in me when a client talks explicitly about sex?
Which sexual experiences or identities do I find easier to understand than others?
Where might I unknowingly make assumptions?
What do I feel confident discussing — and what might I avoid?
Where are the edges of my knowledge or competence?
Participants will be invited to notice their own responses with curiosity rather than judgement and consider how these might influence the therapeutic relationship.
You will never be required to disclose details of your own sexual experiences. Participation in reflective and experiential exercises will be choice-led, with attention to personal boundaries throughout the day.
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 how these may influence 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 either 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 this training for?
This workshop is designed for:
Qualified counsellors and psychotherapists who would like greater confidence working with sexual material in their existing practice.
Counsellors and psychotherapists in training who have had limited opportunities to explore sex and sexuality within their core training.
It may also be relevant to other therapeutic professionals whose work regularly involves conversations around relationships, sexuality and intimacy.
No previous sexology or psychosexual training is required.
About your facilitator
Nicky Wetherell (they/she) is a Somatic Sexologist and 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 works extensively with conversations that can sometimes feel difficult to bring into more traditional therapeutic spaces. [More about Nicky →]
Training format
Live online via Zoom
One-day CPD workshop
Includes: taught content, reflective exercises, facilitated discussion, breakout work and supporting resources
CPD hours: 5 1/2 hours
Price: Standard ticket: £125 | Early bird code: EARLYBIRD → £30 off standard ticket until 30 September
Next date: Thursday 5th November 26
Training for universities & training providers
Sex in the Therapy Room will also be available as commissioned training for counselling and psychotherapy courses, training organisations and therapeutic services.
The workshop can be delivered live online to your cohort or organisation and adapted where appropriate to the experience and training level of participants.
For university programmes, counselling training providers or organisations interested in commissioning the training click here.