The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health invites professionals, students, health-care providers, and anyone interested in reflecting on and gaining awareness about sexuality-related issues to its Sexual Attitude Reassessment Seminar (SAR). The CSPH SAR will be a three-day intensive seminar that, through media integration and a variety of interactive activities and discussions, assists participants in the self-evaluation of their feelings, values, and attitudes as these relate to the variety of human sexual behavior.The SAR is a basic requirement for those who wish to become certified as sexuality educators, counselors, or therapists, but it can also benefit people in a range of other professions. The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) suggests that this experience occur early in one’s training so it can be most beneficial to one’s understanding personal biases and values while working with sexually-diverse populations.
This program meets the attitude and values training requirement for certification by AASECT and is approved for CE Credits (provider #10-108H) and has also been approved for NASW CEs.
While sexually explicit media, conversations, and small group discussions are part of the SAR, there is no live nudity or sexual activity included (or permitted) in the program. If you have any questions about the program and/or its structure, please call the CSPH or email us at info@thecsph.org.
Pre-registration for these seminars is required. Please send a check or money order, along with your preferred address and telephone number to:
The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health
The Grant Building
250 Main Street, Box 11
Pawtucket, RI. 02860
(401) 345-8685
The CSPH SAR: June 2012
This program meets the attitude and values training requirement for certification by AASECT and is approved for 22 CE Credits (provider #10-108H). This program has been approved for 22.5 Social Work Continuing Education hours for relicensure, in accordance with 258 CMR, Collaborative of NASW and The Boston College and Simmons Schools of Social Work Authorization number D 51996.
Credits: 22.5 NASW CEs, 22 CEs
Dates:
Friday June 22, 2012, 10:00am – 6:00pm
Saturday June 23rd 2012, 10:00am – 6:00pm
Sunday June 24th 2012, 10:00am – 6:00pm
Location:
The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health
The Grant Building
250 Main Street, Unit 6
Pawtucket, RI
02860
(401) 489-5513
Cost: $600.00
Facilitators:
Megan Andelloux AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator and Sexologist
Joseph Winn MSW, LICSW, AASECT Certified Sex Therapist
The June SAR Includes:
Day 1:
Youth and Sexuality
Language
Body Image
Sexual Identity
Day 2:
Gender Identity
Desire/Masturbation/Orgasms
Relationships
Kink/BDSM
Day 3:
Pedophilia
Coercion
Sex Disasters
Sexual Medicine
In addition this SAR will include:
Jealousy
Power Dynamics in Relationships
Intersexuality/Intersex Conditions
Circumcision
Sex and Disability
Political Issues Affecting Our Work
Have questions? Contact us!
I just wanted to do a shout-out of thanks, publicly, to our own Joe Winn and Megan Andelloux who conducted the most amazing SAR here at Northampton Sex Therapy Associates over the past weekend. Viewing a vast spectrum of human sexual behavior and perspectives through the lens of intersectionality, Joe and Megan respectfully and skilfully held together a large, diverse group of people – with enormous outpourings of feelings of grief, loss, joy, anger, horror, revulsion, thrill, delight and bewilderment present in the room – and I don’t believe anybody left our center without feeling that their world view had just experienced a major paradigm shift. If you ever get a chance to attend a SAR led by Megan and Joe, SEIZE the opportunity. This was my third SAR and, without doubt, the BEST one so far. Kudos to both of you, M and J, for the work you did. Iam so grateful to you both for the work that you did with us all.
Being a naturally sensitive and emotional person, I went into the SAR a little nervous about what to expect. As emotional and challenging as some of the topics were to process, what I gained from the SAR was even greater. I left with a plethora of knowledge about a wide variety of topics (even some that I thought I knew a lot about!) and had the amazing opportunity to learn about these topics through discussions with a group of non-judgmental and supportive individuals. I left on Sunday night with a much clearer awareness of the people that I hope to work with as a sex therapist, and a greater insight into the topics that truly move me. I believe that the education I received from the SAR will help me in many aspects of my life–not just in a future career.
Participating in The CSPH SAR was one of the most rewarding, thought-provoking seminar experiences of my life. I was stimulated and challenged both intellectually and emotionally, and was really encouraged to understand my feelings, values, and beliefs in a safer space designed for this type of self-reflection. The use of multimedia was especially effective, and at the end of each day, I found myself brimming with information. It was overwhelming, exhausting, and emotional, and I would repeat the experience in a heartbeat.
The SAR brought my attention to issues that I had not previously considered, let alone thought I would react to physically and/or emotionally. It was remarkable experiencing this type of learning and self-discovery in room of like-minded individuals who were experiencing the same things I was. Along these lines, it was incredible seeing how people reacted to different things – which really illustrated how different things impact different people.
The SAR that I completed in October of 2011 opened my eyes to a lot of different topics, and different ways of thinking about those topics and frankly changed my life. That might seem a bit dramatic or exaggerated but it’s the only way I can really describe the experience. It was the only time in my life I had been on such an emotional and mental rollercoaster for three days with a group of people that I did not know extremely well. By far this SAR I will look back on as a huge turning point in my life.
The name ‘Sexual Attitude Reassessment’ falls short of what I experienced at the SAR. For me, it was an enlightenment that anything I know is subject to question with new information. It forced me to address, analyze, and critique why I hold some of my strongest views about sexuality and decide whether I have a valid defense for my beliefs. With that, it did not only improve my skills as a sexuality professional, but it has made me a better advocate for every stance I choose to maintain.
Going into the SAR, I felt pretty knowledgeable about sex and sexuality. But by the final day of seminar, my mind had bent and forced to consider many things I had never thought about before. Participating in this intensive, 3 day attitude reassessment helped me realize both my strengths as an educator and my hard limits. The experience made me a significantly better and more informed educator.
As someone who helped put the SAR together, I knew most of what I was in for in terms of topics, films, and activities. Still, the experience was surprising, rewarding, and enriching. A 3-day SAR, such as this one, is very powerful because it’s not just about the new factual knowledge one can learn, but about that in addition to the experience of sharing intense discussions and potentially challenging topics with a group of colleagues. I wholeheartedly believe the strong multimedia component was part of why this was such a successful SAR, and think that the pairing of an educator and a therapist as a facilitation team was a stroke of genius. It balanced out the approaches and methodologies so that there was a little bit of everything.
The facilitators were able to read the emotions in the room and respond to it. They kept us in our bodies and feelings, but allowed us some time in our heads so we could manage all the other feelings.
