P R O F E S S I O N A L C E R T I F I C A T I O N

SEXOLOGICAL INTIMACY COACHING

FOR COUPLES

T R U S T I N G S P O N T A N E I T Y

6 months ONLINE for practising anywhere in the world

September 1st 2024 - February 28th 2025

~ current status ~ Enrolments now open~

This 6 month online Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching for Couples is scheduled to run again ~ 1st September 2025 - 28th February 2026

HARNESSING EROS ETHICALLY

CERTIFICATE IN SEXOLOGICAL INTIMACY COACHING FOR COUPLES - 6 Month Online Training

This training is for practitioners trained with the IRHS who are CERTIFIED SEXOLOGICAL INTIMACY COACHES

his professional training is for practitioners wishing to train and practice Sexological Intimacy Coaching without hands-on touch. This training focuses on working with individuals and couples seeking to deepen intimacy relating using Wheel of Consent practices. Learning how to play is essential for our thriving and involves attuning to our intentions, voicing requests, discovering our personal power, and repairing where play has gone wrong.

This training facilitates practitioners working in places where erotic touch is not legal and also supports practitioners working online transforming intimate and erotic embodiment practices that were only possible in person before we got creative!

The somatic practices will be coached using client self-touch (or couples with each other) using Body Poems for the somatic bridges between worlds. The curriculum includes teachings from affective relational neuroscience and ecosystem-informed indigenous wisdom.

Enrolments for September 1st 2024 - February 28th 2025

Next training dates:

Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching for Couples ~ 1st September 2025 - 28th February 2026

Over the years it has been necessary to update the Sexological Bodywork curriculum for serious ethical reasons resulting from practitioners acting on their arousal without understanding the difference between intention and impact, right use of power, the micro-skills of consent, and the ethics of repair.

To address this, over the 12 years of facilitating this training, Katie Sarra has woven into the original Sexological Bodywork curriculum comprehensive training in the Right Use of Power, Clean Language, Affective Relational neuroscience-informed Trauma awareness, Trauma first aid practices, The Wheel of Consent, and Body Poem which is the magic combination of skills to equip practitioners to hold space for working with altered states while facilitating intimacy training and Sexological Bodywork. This has resulted in a rewrite of the training with each exploration embedded with ethical micro-skills like never before

“This training is without a doubt the most comprehensive, holistic, and ethically sound training I could have hoped to come across. I looked at many different trainings and coaching programs in the field of sexuality, tantra and embodiment and when I read through what was offered in this training I was an immediate FULL BODY YES!

I’m so grateful I honoured that yes as this really has been such a rich, profound, and transformational journey. I’m growing in ways that bring me immense joy knowing that I’m receiving so much more of my authentic liberated self that is coming back online from participating in this training.

Through this first-hand experience of updating so many new versions of myself, I am blooming with excitement to be able to share this with my clients. The course is delivered in a very considerate and digestible manner. This is the kind of healing work that will help change the world. Thank you, Katie, Phoebe & Márcia”

TESTIMONIAL - A CSB Student practitioner part of the 2023-4 Cohort

COURSE FEES

The Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching

February 1st - July 31st, 2024 ~Enrolments are now closed

This 6-month online Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching is scheduled to run again from 1st September 2025 to 28th February 2026

The 2025 course fees to be announced

PAYMENT PLANS DIVIDE THE COSTS over the 6 MONTHS of the Training ~ BURSARY PLACES are offered to applicants who represent economically disadvantaged aspects of humanity.

IRHS Training Schedule ~2024 - 5

Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching (CSI) ~ February 1st, 2024 - July 31st, 2024 (6 months online training) €3,900

Certificate in Sexological Bodywork (CSB) ~ September 1st, 2024 - February 28th, 2025 (6 months online and in-person training) €4,800

Certificate in Somatic Sex Education Leadership Training (CSSE) ~ February 1st, 2024 - February 28th, 2025 (12 months online and in-person second-year training) €2,500 (open to graduates who have completed CSI and CSB)

Certificate in Body Poem runs the same time as the two 6-month trainings.

IRHS Training Schedule ~2025 - 6

Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching (CSI) - September 1st, 2025 - February 28th, 2026 (6 months online training)

Certificate in Sexological Bodywork (CSB) ~ April 1st, 2026 - September 30th, 2026 (6 months online and in-person training)

Certificate in Somatic Sex Education Leadership Training (CSSE) ~ September 1st, 2025 - September 30th, 2026 - 12 months online and in-person second-year training. (open to graduates who have completed CSI and CSB)

Certificate in Body Poem runs the same time as the two 6-month trainings.

COURSE STRUCTURES AND TIME COMMITMENT

Certificate Sexological Intimacy Coaching

6 - M O N T H S O N - L I N E

February 1st, 2024 - July 31st, 2024

This is likely to be a similar structure for the September 2025 training

The first wave, known as Wave 1 is the Foundations in Relational Embodiment, which will consist of two three-day online training sessions on the following dates and times:

  • 2nd, 3rd, and 4th February from 4:00 PM to 8:30 PM (UK, Ireland, and Lisbon time)

  • 16th, 17th, and 18th February from 4:00 PM to 8:30 PM (UK, Ireland, and Lisbon time)

During February and March, you will be assigned practice partners for Research Explorations with each other in the lead-up to our Earth Ceremony Webinar on March 27th

  • The Wednesday webinars are twice a month on the first and third Wednesday of each month 5 - 7.30 pm (UK, Ireland, and Lisbon time).

  • You will be joining a pod group facilitated by a Coach meeting twice monthly to support each other with your learning edges.

Research explorations are a combination of:-

  1. Solo practice

  2. Practising with assigned classmates in pairs in the Client and Practitioner roles

  3. Practicing with assigned classmates in triads in the Client, Practitioner, and Witness roles

  4. Sharing your reflections from the reading and videos in the curriculum.

Research Explorations are posted on the forum twice a week. You are required to post your reflections from your research in 300 words on:-

  1. Mondays ~ responding to classmates by Wednesday

  2. Fridays ~ responding to classmates by Sunday

Your Coach will respond to your reflection pieces when they are submitted on time.

Full Session Practice

​During the final wave of the training, you will engage in practicing full session structures with Clients and Volunteers as you inhabit the Core Competencies of this profession.

  1. Three of these will be required to be recorded which is sometimes easier with classmates for confidentiality.

  2. One or more of these will be with a member of the Teacher team in the session with you as a witness with a live coaching session afterward to support your learning.

Towards Certification achieving 30 Learning Credits

After the end date of the training, you will continue booking sessions with Volunteers and Clients and meet with your Coach every 5 Learning Credits to review your Learning Edges and plan continuing professional development practices and research to meet these and celebrate the Core Competencies you are inhabiting towards certification to practice professionally.

We approximate 30 Learning Credits to reach sufficient competencies in ethical practice and this varies. You have up to 6 months to complete these Learning Credits at your own pace after the finish date of the training to give you ample opportunities for engaging in continuing professional development to support you with your learning edges and developing your professional practice.

The Sexological Bodywork Professional Training - September 1st, 2024 - February 28th, 2025

If you are progressing onto the 6-month Certificate in Sexological Bodywork Professional Training, you will not be required to complete these Learning Credits at this stage. Certification is paused until you complete the next 6 months when you will engage in these Learning Credits combined with the Sexological Bodywork syllabus. You can make your decision about this midway through the training if you did not sign up for the two 6 months in the beginning.

The Sexological Bodywork Training commences in September with the same Wednesday Webinar and Research Explorations structures with the 12-day in-person embodiment week 15th - 26th October 2024

After Certification as a Sexological Intimacy Coach you can:-

  1. Join ASIS as a full member with permission for Insurance and be included on the Practitioner listing

  2. Be included on the IRHS website practitioner listing

  3. Be included on the Sea School of Embodiment Practitioner listing

  4. Join the IRHS Postgraduate program

The time commitment for the 6-month Sexological Intimacy Training

You will be required to attend the two 3-day online webinars 4 - 8.30 pm GMT

  1. February 2nd, 3rd, 4th

  2. February 16th, 17th, 18th.

  • You will require a minimum of 6 - 10 hours each week to be available in February and March for research explorations and study.

  • 15 - 25 hours per week in April, May, and June for research explorations, study, and flexibility with your time management in July as you engage in full session practice achieving Learning Credits towards certification.

  • There are two webinars on the first and third Wednesday of each month between April and July -  5 - 7.30 pm. 

  • You will meet with a pod group and your coach for peer supervision either weekly or twice monthly for an hour each time April - July. During July, you will be self-organising peer supervision groups in preparation for the monthly post-grad program community.

  • We require you to agree to participate in two Research Explorations per week and to post your 300-word reflections on time twice per week on Mondays and Fridays and respond to two other classmates demonstrating your understanding of other perspectives or sharing resonances with the Research Explorations.

  • We understand that life happens and that you agree to inform the teacher team if you are unable to meet these commitments so that arrangements can be made ahead of time so that classmates have enough time to reschedule practice sessions.

  • You can complete your 30 Learning Credits towards certification at your own pace over 6 months from the end date of the training 31st July 2024 up until January 31st, 2025. You pay your Coach for supervision during this time (1 coaching session per 5 learning credits) £60 per session.

The time commitment for 6 months The Certification in Sexological Bodywork training

  • 15 - 25 hours per week in September, November, December, and January for research explorations, study, and flexibility with your time management in February as you engage in full session practice achieving Learning credits towards certification.

  • The same Webinar, Research Exploration, and peer supervision Schedule as the Sexological Intimacy Training

  • Excluding the weeks where you will be required to attend the 12-day in-person embodiment intensive 16th - 27th October 2024 held in Portugal.

Professional Insurance as a Student

As a registered student on this IRHS training, you can register for Student membership of ASIS for Insurance and become a student member of the ACSB

Code of Ethics and Course Container agreements

Participants on this training are required to practice in alignment with the ACSB code of ethics and sign up to the course container agreements for supporting communal learning and ethical practice. This involves:-

  • Learning and practicing the Wheel of Consent

  • Using Clean Language and practicing radical acceptance of each other’s versions of self and perspectives

  • Practicing receiving feedback for tuning into our intentions and being attuned to our impact

  • Engaging in the Right Use of Power repair process for intention / impact mismatches

  • Engaging in all of the above with kindness and care

“I really appreciate how safe & self-expressive I felt in this container. I was able to shed layers I wasn’t even aware of thanks to the supporting & accepting space co-created together with the guidance of the team.”

TESTIMONIAL - CSI CSB STUDENT in the 2023 Cohort

CERTIFICATE IN SEXOLOGICAL Intimacy Coaching

Program - 6 Months of Online study & practice

  • ~ and noticing your breathing massaging your heart and lungs like a jellyfish in water expanding and relaxing with the currents of the ocean …

  • Wave Two

    ~ and noticing your spine moving with each in and out breath like a snake shedding skins and inhabiting new ways of being …

  • Wave Four

    ~ and swim again with your curiosity and dreams listening to ancestral wisdom from just beneath your skin held in the cells in your body and receiving the collective knowledge from the morphogenetic fields …

  • ~ and practising radical acceptance with everything you are discovering and knowing that you can come back onto the beach and rest from your adventures …

  • ~ and imagining you have released ruptures and resentments that have shamed you away from your grace and you have shed the skins that have held you in and held you back from what you really want …

  • ~ and imagine with each in and out breath you are now unfurling your new strong, light, and colorful Parrot’s wings and entering into the multidimensional altered states of Sexological Bodywork.

  • I can be a Turtle while you are swimming in deep waters and coming home to shore to harvest the eggs of your journey. I am the warm beach for welcoming you home.

  • I can be with you like a Jellyfish conduit attuned to the currents of your feeling states.

  • I can be with you like a Parrot with Body Poem communications as you fly and experiment with multicolored feathers in multidimensional paradigms and I am the leafy branches of your tree to land softly in as you feel your roots again.

  • I am with soft eyes holding space for you as you transform allowing you to do this with dignity and privacy and celebrating you as you emerge liberated from the skins that have held you safe but held you back from your naturalness.

Your Application and Enrolment Process

  • Discovery call & Interview

    STAGE 1 ~ DISCOVERY CALL / INTERVIEW Meet with Katie Sarra, director of the training and a member of the teacher team in a discovery call to get a feel for the ethos and the visionary purpose of the curriculum to illuminate ways this training might serve your professional development.

  • STAGE 1 ~ DISCOVERY CALL / INTERVIEW Alongside Katie, you will also meet with Dr Phoebe Garland to comrehensively learn about the course structures and time commitmenets required and the ethics of enroling on this training. Phoebe heads up the second year Certificate in Somatic Sex Education for practitioners training in becoming leaders and supervisors.

  • STAGE 3 ~ After your interview and we have decided this is a harmonious fit, we will write to you with an offer of place with your registration documents to complete and sign.

BOOK YOUR DISCOVERY CALL / INTERVIEW HERE

  • Working with Trauma

    When we are touched or we touch another, sensory receptivity may awaken memories into conscious awareness.

    Opening the senses involves discovering our limits with the intensity of affect (affect relates to visceral responses in the body).

  • Radical Acceptance

    The relational embodiment curriculum of this training, includes the Wheel of Consent, Body Poem and Clean Language coaching models, supporting creating clear relationship agreements that honour, with radical acceptance, all aspects of self.

    We understand that nobody needs more practice enduring the stress of over-adaption.

  • Co -creating clear relationship agreements

    Practitioner Client relationship agreements are updated at regular intervals attuned with all parts of the self emerging from being hidden by shame.

    Co-created practices are agreed to in stages where clients learn to participate in inhabiting new ways of being with agency and choice.

  • Inhabiting new ways of being

    Relational embodiment practices facilitate people feeling more of themselves in practices within a container of radical acceptance. Clients can privately inhabit new ways of being with kindness risking islands of self-acceptance that with practice have the potential to build supporting people to reach the shores of belonging.

  • Interpersonal neurobiology

    We teach the interpersonal neurobiology of trauma and how to support agency with ways of co and self-regulating intensity. Holding space for people braving exiled aspects of the self requires specialist training in this field especially to work effectively with people who are living with the effects of developmental Trauma. We also understand that we are always working with aspects of being human that can disable ability to participate.

  • Integration of encapsulated exiled aspects of self

    Many Somatic Sex Educators specialise in this field as trauma shows up most intensely in relation to intimacy and sexual expression. Part of the training is to network and collaborate professionally with trauma specialists and psychotherapists when supporting the integration of encapsulated repressed aspects of self.

  • Courage to be seen

    Under the bandage, wounds from our dark nights of the soul remain unseen and these exiled aspects of ourselves are sent back into the unseen bowels of humanity to endure continued separation until we are supported with courage to be seen with radical acceptance

  • Repair

    Cycles of undigested exiled aspects of humanity are ultimately seeking to be seen from underneath the shame bandages that have been nursing them.

    Being seen requires acknowledgement and understanding so we can repair and allow our remorse to teach us to learn not to harm again. 

YOUR FACILITATORS

  • Katie Sarra

    Director of training

    Certified Wheel of Consent Facilitator, CSB, CSSE & Director of IRHS Sexological Bodywork & Intimacy Coaching Professional Training.

  • Dr Phoebe Garland

    Co-Director of Training

    CSB, CSSE & Head of the IRHS Somatic Sex Education training

  • Ellen Heed

    Anatomy & Physiology

  • Dr Betty Martin

    Wheel of Consent curriculum

What you will learn

The curriculum facilitates participants inhabiting ethics on the inside developing practitioner core competencies and understanding the “Right Use of Power” teachings, as defined by Dr Cedar Barstow, applied to Dr Betty Martin’s “The Wheel of Consent” coaching structures. 

The practices involve radical acceptance of the self-organising intelligence inherent in us all, using Body Focusing, Body Poem and Clean Language as our coaching models.

The ability to make attuned receptive, kind decisions and to be in choice while experiencing the intensity of affect is also a central core competency that the micro-skills in this training are supporting. These are essential competencies for ethical practice when working in the altered state realms of intimate and erotic self-expression and arousal. We refer to this as our emotional and erotic fluency with response flexibility.

These embodiment practices are designed to contribute to our attuned radical acceptance and belonging, enriching the granularity of touch with metaphorical self-reflection.

These foundations of self-acceptance practices are choreographed in support of your curiosity, self-care, and growth towards becoming more of yourself in service as a practitioner representing the voices of humanity and learning to be listened to and heard.

This is experiential training with somatic learning opportunities that emphasise erotic embodiment in communal online and in-person learning environments, co-creating our course container and relationship agreements to support inclusivity for everyone’s ability to participate. 

Ethical enquiries are explored with understanding the visible and invisible aspects of being human which influence our ability to belong and to participate.

Practitioners learn Sexological Intimacy coaching skills that can be facilitated online or in person. This certification is designed to support practitioners who are interested in coaching intimate and erotic self-touch somatic practices without “hands-on” engagement. This enables practitioners to practice sexological intimacy coaching in parts of the world where professional erotic touch is illegal or against the codes of ethics and professional conduct of existing modalities that practitioners wish to combine with Sexological Intimacy coaching. 

  • Interpersonal neurobiology

    We teach the interpersonal neurobiology of trauma and how to support agency with ways of co and self-regulating intensity. Holding space for people braving exiled aspects of the self requires specialist training in this field especially to work effectively with people who are living with the effects of developmental Trauma. We also understand that we are always working with aspects of being human that can disable ability to participate.

  • Inhabiting new ways of being

    Relational embodiment practices facilitate people feeling more of themselves in practices within a container of radical acceptance. Clients can privately inhabit new ways of being with kindness risking islands of self-acceptance that with practice have the potential to build supporting people to reach the shores of belonging.

  • Working with Trauma

    When we are touched or we touch another, sensory receptivity may awaken memories into conscious awareness.

    Opening the senses involves discovering our limits with the intensity of affect (affect relates to visceral responses in the body).

  • Radical Acceptance

    The relational embodiment curriculum of this training, includes the Wheel of Consent, Body Poem and Clean Language coaching models, supporting creating clear relationship agreements that honour, with radical acceptance, all aspects of self.

    We understand that nobody needs more practice enduring the stress of over-adaption.

  • Co -creating clear relationship agreements

    Practitioner Client relationship agreements are updated at regular intervals attuned with all parts of the self emerging from being hidden by shame.

    Co-created practices are agreed to in stages where clients learn to participate in inhabiting new ways of being with agency and choice.

  • Integration of encapsulated exiled aspects of self

    Many Somatic Sex Educators specialise in this field as trauma shows up most intensely in relation to intimacy and sexual expression. Part of the training is to network and collaborate professionally with trauma specialists and psychotherapists when supporting the integration of encapsulated repressed aspects of self.

  • Courage to be seen

    Under the bandage, wounds from our dark nights of the soul remain unseen and these exiled aspects of ourselves are sent back into the unseen bowels of humanity to endure continued separation until we are supported with courage to be seen with radical acceptance

  • Repair

    Cycles of undigested exiled aspects of humanity are ultimately seeking to be seen from underneath the shame bandages that have been nursing them.

    Being seen requires acknowledgement and understanding so we can repair and allow our remorse to teach us to learn not to harm again. 

VISIONARY INTENTIONS OF THIS TRAINING

  • This is intimacy skills training for professionals to deepen and enhance emotional & erotic fluency with care and kindness

  • Explorations include updating intimate internal and external versions of ourselves towards becoming indigenous with care and kindness

  • The more indigenous we are with ourselves, the more we can support the exiled aspects of humanity to come home to themselves too with care and kindness

  • Somatic embodiment practices involve learning how to ethically play with each other, trusting spontaneity, and inhabiting our power with care and kindness

  • Right Use of Power training teaches us how to repair ruptures when play goes wrong with care and kindness

  • Wheel of Consent training teaches us the direct routes to gratitude and ways of commodifying love with care and kindness

  • Body Poem teaches us about radical acceptance at the precipice of presence illuminating unthought knowns with care and kindness

  • Co-creating Community Relationship Agreements

    Being part of a community involves representing our needs and acknowledging the needs of others.

    This training is an exploration into the ethics of self-care and duty of care with another and our ability to co-create relationship agreements that can honour and care for aspects of ourselves as we learn our limits and with others as they are learning theirs.

  • Up dating our relationship agreements

    Embodiment involves enhancing the granularity of language and touch informed by our felt senses that support co-creating ethical professional boundary relationship agreements. This is how we care for the aspects of ourselves and others that need acknowledging. These are different for each of us and when tested show us our limits. This is often how we discover our limits in relation to our self-acceptance with unacknowledged needs. 

“My body is learning that it is safe to take care of myself. That I can say no and honour my limits & still belong.” - Adriana

TESTIMONIAL - CSB STUDENT - 2023 COHORT

C E R T I F I C A T I O N & I N S U R A N C E

Upon completion of all requirements, students will be awarded the Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching (CSIC)

Graduates from this professional training can become members of The Association of Certified Sexological Bodyworkers (ACSB), the Somatic Sex Educators’ Association of Australasia (SSEAA) and apply for membership of the Association of Somatic and Integrative Sexologists (ASIS) and be admitted to the World Association of Sex Coaches (WASC) with no further requirements.

This course is recognised by The Association of Somatic and Integrative Sexologists as offering training of sufficient depth for practitioners to be eligible for insurance for their work. See the-asis.org for more details.

Post your unanswered Question here

We welcome you to post any questions that haven't been answered here and we will send you an email with answers and/or invite you with a booking link to arrange a 15 - minute call with Katie Sarra - Director of Studies or Phoebe Garland - Head of the CSSE Training.