Be Part of the AASECT Annual Conference
2023 Annual Conference Schedule
May 15 – 19 Virtual Spirit Week
June 7 – June 11 In-Person Conference in San Francisco, CA
Prior to the in-person conference in San Francisco this June, AASECT Spirit Week is 5 days of virtual pre-conference workshops and social events!
This schedule is subject to change. Information will be posted as it becomes available.
AASECT Spirit Week
Monday, May 15 – Friday, May 19
Virtual events that were made for you!
Separate registration is required and please note, sessions will not be recorded.
Please note, the following are listed in Eastern Time.
Monday, May 15, 2023 – Virtual Events
Sex Therapy and Sex Counseling Group Supervision (8 person max)
7 Group Supervision Hours
(No CE Credit available – Supervision Hours Only)
This session will take place live/synchronously and will not be recorded. Open exclusively to members who are already under contract with a supervisor prior to registration.
Presenters
Neil “Nelly” Cannon, PhD, LMFT, CST, CST-S
Kimberly Castelo, LMFT-S and CST-S, CEFT-T (she/her/hers)
Mesha Ellis, PhD, CST (she/her/hers)
Aleece Fosnight, MSPAS, PA-C, CSC-S, CSE, NCMP, IF (she/her/hers)
About this session
This is a virtual supervision session that offers clinical supervision in sex therapy and sexuality counseling. Group Supervision at the annual PreCon is a long-held AASECT Tradition. The aim is to provide folx on the certification path with an amazing, affordable and accessible supervision experience with some of our most senior AASECT Certified Supervisors. There are two scholarship spots available (see below).
The group supervision session is small and intimate. Space is limited to eight (8) supervisees who will be supported by four (4) AASECT Certified Supervisors (3 CST-S and 1 CSC-S). Each supervisor was carefully selected based on their safe and welcoming style, along with their unique specialties and vast experience. In addition to staffing specific cases, the supervisors will also provide you with processes and practical tools that will be available to you for a lifetime.
The supervisors have a broad variety of expertise covering a wide range of presenting concerns, including:
- Sexual desire discrepancy and libido issues
- Sexual functioning, pelvic pain and pleasure for penis and vulva owners from a medical, relational, and psychotherapy perspective
- Kink, BDSM & Fetishes
- Out of Control Sexual Behavior (OCSB)
- Ethical Non-Monogamy
- Transgender Non-Binary
- Care for LGBTQI+
- Couples counseling for sex therapy clients
- Infidelity and betrayal
- Trauma, abuse & bullying
- Zoophilia & Bestiality
- The above list are examples of the supervisor’s specialties. Let us help you with your most complex case.
Cost – $390 ($55 per hour)
Counts for 7 hours of group supervision (These hours do not count toward the maximum number of 6 supervision hours one is limited to in any given month).
Eligibility
Prior to registration, participants must already have an AASECT Supervisor and be on a path toward certification.
Registration
To register please send an email to: conference@aasect.org. After your registration has been accepted, you will receive a supervision contract, a case consult form, and additional information from Dr. Cannon’s Practice Manager, Kashmira Pearcy.
DEI and Financial Need Scholarship Criteria
One of the two scholarships is available to a Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color (BIPOC). The second scholarship will be awarded based on financial need. Those interested in applying to the scholarship must meet the following criteria:
Prior to applying, participants must already be an AASECT Member in good standing, have an AASECT Supervisor, and be on a path toward certification.
Scholarship Funding
In an effort to create more opportunities and access to AASECT Certification, the supervisors have waived their honorarium for this event.
Scholarship Application
To apply please submit a personal statement up to 500 words, based on the criteria outlined above and include your commitment to pursuing a career in the field of human sexuality, sexuality education, sexuality counseling, sex therapy, sex research, or sexual health. Please submit your personal statement to conference@aasect.org. Incomplete or partial applications will not be accepted. The recipients of both scholarships will be confidential unless the recipients ask for the award to be announced. The deadline for applications for this scholarship is March 31, 2023.
Fundamentals of Feminine Dominance: What do you Really Want? D&D, Archetype Cultivation & Practical Tools to Identify Desires
This session will take place live/synchronously and will not be recorded.
Presenter
Midori (she/her)
About this session
Midori is excited to share a new virtual education process and tool she developed in 2022.
First section: Using reinterpreted D&D strategies, this class helps people play more creatively, authentically, and fluidly in BDSM, while eschewing limiting beliefs, stereotypes, and misogyny often perpetuated in kink education.
Second section: Reframing BDSM terms, centering on recreational motives and use of Midori’s Appetite Grid.
Third section: Sharing curriculum development challenges and Q&A
CE Credit
4 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 – Virtual Events
African Centered Sex Therapy
This session will take place live/synchronously and will not be recorded.
Presenter
Zelaika S. Hepworth Clarke MSW, MEd, PhD (they/them; zie/zir; she/her)
About this session
African-centered sex therapy utilizes African-centered psychologies, pre-colonial African erotic wisdom, sexual epistemology, ontology, and spiritual systems to inform our understanding of human sexual behavior and sexual healing. This presentation will explore African-Centered therapeutic approaches, theories, and models that can be used in sex therapy to promote sexual wellness and liberation as well as African-centered pedagogies. Osunality or African Eroticism and sensualities will be highlighted containing rich constructs, narratives, and frameworks which can be an opportunity for sexuality professionals to increase their sexual multi epistemic literacy and critical thinking.
CE Credit
4 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 – Virtual Events
Business Meeting (tentative)
This session will take place live/synchronously and will not be recorded.
Thursday, May 18, 2023 – Virtual Events
The Power of Self-Identification: Self-Identifying as a Means to Connection and Community for Autistics
This session will take place live/synchronously and will not be recorded.
Presenter
B Lourenco MA, LMHC (she/her)
About this session
In the last few years, people have been making incredible discoveries about themselves, including the possibility that they may be Autistic: suddenly, so many things that didn’t make sense are now aligning, including differences in sex and relationships.
Learn how the Neurodiversity Affirming Paradigm shifts away from the stigmatizing medical model and allows for the self-identification of Autism, which has encouraged and allowed Autistic people to relate and connect with each other in ways that they previously could not.
CE Credit
4 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)
AASECT Annual Awards
Tune into the virtual awards ceremony to honor the best and brightest in the field of sexuality! See the award categories >>
Friday, May 19, 2023 – Virtual Events
Make It So: The Im-PLISSIT Evolution of the PICARD Model for Sex Counseling
This session will take place live/synchronously and will not be recorded.
Presenter
Eric Garrison MAEd, DipLSHTM, CSC-S, FRSPH (he/him/Eric)
About this session
As Sex Counseling – both in and outside of AASECT – continues to grow and as AASECT’s counselor certification applicant list expands to include not only medical and public health professionals, but also leaders in our religious communities vis-à-vis pastoral counseling, the need for a model that focuses on counseling (providing formal sexual health advice versus sex education or sex therapy) is apparent.
This workshop, open to all, will not only provide the history and structure of the PICARD model, but it will invite participants to move through its stages using case studies and roleplays as well as to see its various applications through a “Be IDEAL Justice” lens. Afterall, the model was created on one side of the proverbial Pond and refined ten years later on the other – all by engaging caring members of multiple, intersectional professional communities and their constituents.
CE Credit
4 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)
AASECT Annual Conference
Wednesday, June 7 – Sunday, June 11
Join us live and in person at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco for the 2023 program:
Rediscovering Connection: Inspiring Our Collective Imagination.
The following are listed in Pacific Time.
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 | In-person Programming
12:00 pm – 4:00 pm PT
Badge Pick-Up and Information
ADVANCED SAR: Connections of Our Own Making: Ethically Nonmonogamous, Consensually Nonmonogamous, and Polyamorous Relationships and Sexuality (Part 1/2)
Presenters
Coltan J. Schoenike, MS, MFT-IT, LAMFT (they/them)
Jeong Eun Park, MS, LMFT (zie/he)
Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT (they/them)
Markie L. C. Twist, PhD, LMFT, LMHC, CSE-S (they/she)
Requirements
Must have completed a previous AASECT SAR to participate.
CE Credit
8 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)
About the SAR
This Advanced SAR serves an important purpose in providing space for professionals who have already begun their reflective journey and done some of their own work in previous SARs where they can dig deeper. The growing visibility of relationships and families outside of the monogamous structure has led many practitioners and educators to seek more information so that they may become more culturally attuned with clients who are engaged or want to engage in consensual nonmonogamy.
SARs are instrumental in a sexuality educator, counselor, or therapist’s training because we know that all of the information in the world will only serve us to a point, if we have not looked within ourselves to understand our own biases and narratives as well. Noting the increased demand for information and training around consensual/ethical nonmonogamy and polyamory, this Advanced SAR serves a similar purpose by inviting participants to look within themselves to identify their own biases, values and beliefs. Through media viewing, reflective and experiential exercises, and small and large group discussions and dialogues, this space will get to the core of what we have been told about relationships and intimacy and how those messages might influence us when we work with our clients as educators, counselors or therapists.
We will explore what structures and systems have informed these narratives and how compulsory monogamy is pervasive in the overculture. As we critically examine these messages, we also hope to foster and facilitate imagination and autonomy as individuals and as a collective.
What do we want relationships to mean, rather than what we’ve been told?
What can partnership and commitment be, rather than what it’s looked like before?
Does ethical non-monogamy offer us new possibilities regardless of whether we intentionally choose monogamy or not?
Thursday, June 8, 2023 | In-person Programming
8:00 am PT
Badge Pick-Up and Information
9:00 am PT
Board of Directors Meeting
9:00 am – 5:00 pm PT
Poster Presentation Set-up
ADVANCED SAR: Connections of Our Own Making: Ethically Nonmonogamous, Consensually Nonmonogamous, and Polyamorous Relationships and Sexuality (Part 2/2)
Presenters
Coltan J. Schoenike, MS, MFT-IT, LAMFT (they/them)
Jeong Eun Park, MS, LMFT (zie/he)
Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT (they/them)
Markie L. C. Twist, PhD, LMFT, LMHC, CSE-S (they/she)
Requirements
Must have completed a previous AASECT SAR to participate.
CE Credit
8 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)
About the SAR
This Advanced SAR serves an important purpose in providing space for professionals who have already begun their reflective journey and done some of their own work in previous SARs where they can dig deeper. The growing visibility of relationships and families outside of the monogamous structure has led many practitioners and educators to seek more information so that they may become more culturally attuned with clients who are engaged or want to engage in consensual nonmonogamy.
SARs are instrumental in a sexuality educator, counselor, or therapist’s training because we know that all of the information in the world will only serve us to a point, if we have not looked within ourselves to understand our own biases and narratives as well. Noting the increased demand for information and training around consensual/ethical nonmonogamy and polyamory, this Advanced SAR serves a similar purpose by inviting participants to look within themselves to identify their own biases, values and beliefs. Through media viewing, reflective and experiential exercises, and small and large group discussions and dialogues, this space will get to the core of what we have been told about relationships and intimacy and how those messages might influence us when we work with our clients as educators, counselors or therapists.
We will explore what structures and systems have informed these narratives and how compulsory monogamy is pervasive in the overculture. As we critically examine these messages, we also hope to foster and facilitate imagination and autonomy as individuals and as a collective.
What do we want relationships to mean, rather than what we’ve been told?
What can partnership and commitment be, rather than what it’s looked like before?
Does ethical non-monogamy offer us new possibilities regardless of whether we intentionally choose monogamy or not?
In Person Pre-Con: Community Building via Intergroup Dialogue in the Sex Ed Classroom
Presenter
Dr. Tracie Gilbert (she/they)
About the Workshop
Part of forging community among diverse sex ed professionals is by addressing the barriers that keep it from being realized. IGD, or Intergroup Dialogues, is one strategy that serves to help overcome hurdles for emergent sexuality professionals at Widener University’s Center for Human Sexuality Studies. In this session, recent facilitators for CHSS’s IGD course will review basic philosophies behind intergroup dialogues, while sharing specific ways its strategies have made the course an impactful learning process for both students and faculty alike.
CE Credit
4 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)
12:30 pm – 1:00 pm PT
Lunch (on your own)
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm PT
Volunteer Check-in, Hotel Tour & Orientation
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm PT
Eastern Region Meet & Mingle
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm PT
Western Region Meet & Mingle
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm PT
Mid-Continent Region Meet & Mingle
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm PT
International Region Meet & Mingle
6:00 pm – 8:15 pm PT
Conference Kick-off and Whipple Plenary (1 CE)
Presenter:
Shemeka Thorpe, PhD (she/her)
About this Plenary:
Black feminism was created to uplift, empower, and center the voices of Black women by using their experiences to make meaning and create knowledge. Yet, so often Black women’s voices and stories regarding their sexual wellness and lived sexual experiences are silenced both within practice and community. This plenary will explore the ways in which Black women’s collective sexual wisdom is represented in sex research, while also providing implications for sexuality professionals that centers the voices of Black women.
8:15 pm – 9:30 pm PT
Welcome Reception, Poster Session (1 AASECT CE) and Exhibits!
Friday, June 9, 2023 | In-person Programming
7:30 am – 4:00 pm PT
Badge Pick-Up and Information
7:30 am
Breakfast with the Exhibitors!
7:30 am – 5:30 pm PT
Exhibits Open
Morning Mixer + Virtual Schiller Plenary (1 CE)
Presenter
Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP
In-person Morning Mixer and Plenary Viewing
Let’s catch breakfast and a movie! In-person participants will mingle at breakfast and enjoy a viewing of Resmaa Menakem’s pre-recorded Schiller Plenary presentation followed by an informal discussion.
Virtual Registration
For attendees unable to join us in San Francisco, you can register for access to of Resmaa Menakem’s pre-recorded Schiller Plenary presentation for $40. This recording can be watched asynchronously on your own time.
Additional details about this session coming soon!
11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT
Concurrent Sessions (1 CE)
Black Couples Therapy: Clinical Theory and Practice
Presenters
Yamonte Cooper Ed.D, LPCC, NCC, CST-S
Erica Holmes PsyD
Jeshana Avent-Johnson PsyD
Danielle Drake Ph.D.
Daktari Hicks PsyD
Psychedelics, Drugs, Sex, Chocolate and How We Connect
Presenters
Adrian Scharfetter PhD, LMFT, CST (he/him)
Caregiver Kinks: An Introduction to Imaginative Power Exchange
Presenters
Stefani Goerlich LMSW-Clinical, LISW, LCSW, CST (she/her)
Dismantling Sexual Ageism: Implications for Sexuality Professionals
Presenters
Jane Fleishman PhD, MEd, MS, CSE (she/her)
Abortion On Our Own Terms: Fighting Criminalization of Self-Managed Abortion
Presenters
Tamara Marzouk LICSW, MPH (she/her)
Lauren Paulk, JD (she/her)
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm PT
Lunch (on your own)
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm PT
Concurrent Sessions (1 CE)
The Impact of COVID-19 on Transgender Mental Health and Lessons for Future Community Health Crises
Presenters
Nomi Ostrander PhD, MPH, LICSW (she/they/fae/faer)
Birds, Bees, and Porn?!: How to talk to youth about porn
Presenters
Jess Melendez BS (she/her)
Age-(Play) Theory
Presenters
Draven Alexander M.Ed., CMHS (they/them)
Clinical Care for Sex Workers: A Sex-Positive Model for Collaboration and Connection
Presenters
Jamila Dawson MA, LMFT (she/her)
Theodore Burnes PhD, MSEd, HSPP, LPCC (he/him)
Childbirth and Pleasure
Presenters
Suzannah Weiss (she/they)
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm PT
General Plenary (1 CE)
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm PT
Concurrent Sessions (1 CE)
Building a Foundation of Trust Through Surrogate Partner Therapy
Presenters
Melvin Phillips EdD, LCSW, CST (he/they)
Michelle Renee SPT (she/her)
Brian Gibney (he/him)
Broadening Borders of Inclusion. Black women, Sex and Sex Therapy
Presenters
Angelique Brathwaite DSW, MSW, LICSW (she/her)
Deep Sex-Positivity: It’s Not About Sexual Enthusiasm. It’s About Sexual Justice
Presenters
Hear from author and cultural sexologist, Carol Queen (she/they).
Caring for the Whole: Suggested Considerations for the Sexual Health Care and Education Of Black Womxn
Presenters
Tiffany Reddick LPC (she/her)
Davondra Brown M.Ed, MCHES (she/her)
What Aromanticism Can Teach Us
Presenters
Nathan Bernstein (they/he)
TBD
Evening special event
More info coming soon!
Saturday, June 10, 2023 | In-person Programming
7:30 am – 4:00 pm PT
Badge Pick-Up and Information
7:30 am
Breakfast with exhibitors!
7:30 am – 4:00 pm PT
Exhibits open
9:30 am – 11:00 am PT
General Plenary (1 CE)
11:30 am – 12:30 pm PT
Concurrent Sessions (1 CE)
Modern Love Languages: An Expansive Reframe of the Popular Relationship Theory
Presenters
Anne Hodder-Shipp CSE (she/they)
Laughing 'til it Hurts (No More): Decolonizing Mental Health and Sexuality Through Irreverent Comedy
Presenters
Patricia Morency LCSW, M.Ed. (she/her)
Creating a New Paradigm for Managing Sexual Consent and Dementia
Presenters
Lawrence Siegel, Sex Educator & Supervisor
The Sacred and The Sacral: Reclaiming Sexuality in Spiritual Communities
Presenters
Angelica Lindsey-Ali (she/her)
Farhia Farah (she/her)
Deep and Meaningful: Myths, Metaphors, Fairytales and Imagination in Sex Therapy Praxis
Presenters
Laura Westmoreland LMFT, CST (she/her)
12:30 pm – 2:30 pm PT
Lunch (on your own)
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm PT
Concurrent Sessions (1 CE)
Facilitating Human Connection Through Touch: A Panel Discussion with Somatic Sexuality Professionals
Presenters
Brian Gibney (he/him)
Amy Weissfeld (she/her)
Keeley Shoup (she/they)
Rediscovering the Benefits of Sexual Mindfulness Meditation and Erotic Yoga for Black Women’s Sexual Wellness
Presenters
Natalie Malone MS, 200RYT (she/her)
Imagining and Adapting Sexual Health and Safety Education for Neurodivergent, Autistic, and Disabled Students
Presenters
Landa Fox MA, BCBA, CSHE (she/her)
Barb Gross MA, MEd, MS, BCBA LBA CSE (she/her)
Sex After Sexual Assault – Helping Clients Rediscover Pleasure and Play
Presenters
Laura Wood LMHC (she/they)
Polyamory, BDSM, & Psychedelic Consciousness: Fostering Decentralized Networks of Care
Presenters
Jessica Blake M.Ed. (she/they)
Caylie Gnyra MMST (she/they)
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm PT
Original Research Session (1 CE)
Double Gifted: Kinky and Neurodiverse
Presenters
Stephen Ratcliff MA, LPCC, LPC, NCC, CST (he/him)
Ketamine Assisted Sex Therapy: Facilitating Sexual Fulfillment Through Psychedelic Medicine
Presenters
Lisa Gold Ph.D., LMFT, LPC, CMHC (she/her)
The Heaviest Weight: Minor Attraction and Therapeutic Rapport
Presenters
Jan Tate LCSW, MED, CSOTP (she/her)
Equitable Sexuality Education For Real: Hint, It’s Not Just About Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Presenters
Bee Gehman CSE, MEd (they/them)
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm PT
General Plenary (1 CE)
7:00 pm PT
Dinner (on your own)
TBD
Evening special event
More info coming soon!
Sunday, June 11, 2023 | In-person Programming
8:00 am PT
Breakfast
9:30 am – 10:00 am PT
Closing and Looking Ahead to 2024
10:15 am – 11:15 am PT
Concurrent Sessions (1 CE)
From the Clinic to the Sheets! (Not So) Radical Views of How Clinical Work, Sex Therapy and Erotic Professional’s Work Overlap in Services We Provide For Our Clients
Presenters
Ayom Ament MA, LMHCA, SUDPT, MPH (they/them)
Sex and Love After the Cancer Diagnosis: Providers Helping Partners Stay Connected
Presenters
Stephanie Buehler MPW, PsyD, CST-S, IF (she/her)
Pebble Kranz MD, FECSM (she/her)
Mark Buehler MPW, JD (he/him)
Therapy of The Future: Clinical Practice with Organic-Synthetic Relationships
Presenters
Markie Twist PhD, LMFT, LMFT, CSE-S (she/they)
Neil McArthur PhD (he/him)
Teaching Restorative Justice in Sex Education
Presenters
Eva Goldfarb PhD, MA (she/her)
Wendy Gibilisco M.S.Ed. (she/her)
11:30 am – 12:30 pm PT
Concurrent Sessions (1 CE)
Treating the Community You Are a Part of: Ethical Discussions Around Dual Relationships
Presenters
Hannah Wilson LCPC, CST (she/her)
Ty Lerman LPC-S, CST (he/him)
Yearning for Pleasure: The Radical Work of Connecting Religious Clients to Personal Healing & Social Transformation
Presenters
Beverly Dale DMin (she/her)
11:30 am – 12:30 pm PT
Original Research Forum (1 CE)
Sexual Health Education for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities – The Road to Sexual Health Equity
Presenters
Coming soon
Culturally Relevant Sex Education for Black Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Study
Presenters
Coming soon
Supporting Sexuality Education Pedagogy: A Cross-curricular Analysis of Middle School Classrooms
Presenters
Coming soon