AASECT Requirements for Sexuality Counselor Certification

The AASECT Office will verify your membership upon receipt of your application.

A check-box in the application will ask you to confirm that you are a current AASECT member, and that you remained a current member throughout your AASECT Supervision.

Be sure to read the AASECT Code of Conduct for Certified Members. By submitting your application, you agree to adhere to this Code of Conduct.

There will be a signature line in the application verifying that you have read and understood the AASECT Code of Conduct for Certified Members.

Only coursework from regionally accredited colleges or universities, nationally accredited faith-based institutions, and/or AASECT sponsored (offered by AASECT) or AASECT approved (offered by an AASECT CE provider) trainings will be accepted to fulfill this requirement for certification.

You can determine if a college or university is accredited by searching the institution’s website for “accreditation.”

Visit this link for more details on regional vs. national accreditation: www.edsmart.org/regional-vs-national-accreditation/

The following are the criteria for required hours of professional experience based on academic degree:

1. A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree plus three years of professional counseling experience.
   
   - OR -
2. Master’s or Doctoral degree plus two years of professional counseling experience.

Applicants from outside the United States must document equivalent academic experience.

A copy of your official academic transcripts. Digital versions are accepted and do not need to be sent directly to AASECT from your college or university.

Of the one thousand (1,000) hours, at least one hundred (100) hours of counseling should be conducted while under supervision of an AASECT certified professional.

Sexuality counseling shall have been conducted in settings such as the following:

• medical offices and clinics
• human service agencies
• community and public health clinics
• family planning centers
• rape crisis centers
• college and universities
• schools and professional schools
• religious institutions

This experience will have included observation, demonstrations of counseling techniques, role-playing and the development of communication skills. The applicant will have been exposed to a variety of human sexuality issues.

This supervised experience may have been obtained prior to or following the receipt of the terminal degree.

A document tracking your hours of professional experience. This can be a table of professional experience hours and/or a description of how your current role meets these hours.

All candidates must have knowledge of the following as they relate to sexual health and pleasure:

1. Ethics and ethical behavior.
2. Developmental sexuality from a bio-psycho-social perspective across the life course.
3. Socio-cultural, familial factors (e.g., ethnicity, culture, religion, spirituality, socioeconomic status, family values), in relation to sexual values and behaviors.
4. Issues related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity: heterosexuality, issues and themes impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual people; gender identity and expression.
5. Intimacy skills (e.g., social, emotional, sexual), intimate relationships, interpersonal relationships and family dynamics.
6. Diversities in sexual expression and lifestyles, including, but not limited to, polyamory, swinging, BDSM and tantra.
7. Sexual and reproductive anatomy/physiology.*
8. Health/medical factors that may influence sexuality, including, but not limited to, illness, disability, drugs, mental health, conception, pregnancy, childbirth & pregnancy termination, contraception, fertility, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infection, other infections, sexual trauma, injury and safer sex practices.*
9. Range of sexual functioning and behavior, from optimal to problematic, including, but not limited to, common issues such as: desire discrepancy, lack of desire, difficulty achieving or maintaining arousal, sexual pain, penetration problems and difficulty with orgasm.
10. Sexual exploitation, including sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
11. Cyber sexuality and social media.*
12. Substance use/abuse and sexuality.*
13. Pleasure enhancement skills.
14. Learning theory and its application.
15. Professional communication and personal reflection skills.
16. History of the discipline of sex research, theory, education, counseling and therapy.
17. Principles of sexuality research and research methods.

*Please note: CKAs G,H,K,L are time sensitive and should have reasonable up to date information and training.

Coursework from accredited academic institutions will be accepted towards the Core Knowledge Area requirements at a 1 clock-hour to 1 AASECT CE credit hour calculation. For example, a 3-credit college or university course on a semester cycle is calculated at 45 clock hours.

AASECT sponsored or approved CE credit trainings will also be accepted to fulfill content required for AASECT Certification, with one (1) hour equaling one (1) AASECT CE credit hour.

All other professional trainings that offer CEs from other certifying bodies (e.g., APA, NCHEC, ACCME) are considered ‘non-AASECT CE credits.’ These CEs will apply at half value, with two (2) non-AASECT CE credits equaling one (1) AASECT CE credit hour.

Acceptance of coursework, AASECT sponsored/approved CE credits or non-AASECT sponsored/approved CE credits is at the discretion of the AASECT Certification Committee member reviewers.

More information about alternate methods of earning credits can be found here.

If you completed a comprehensive training program for sexuality counselors (all Core Knowledge Areas), submit the transcript, certificate of completion, and/or any other relevant documentation.

If you did not complete a comprehensive training program, submit documentation such as certificates of completion, syllabi, course outlines, etc.

1. Theory and methods of personal/individual counseling.
2. Theory and methods of sexuality counseling approaches to specific populations (e.g., youth, older adult, couples, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, ethnic/ cultural/ faith-based populations).**
3. Theory and methods of different approaches to intervention in relationship systems.
4. Theory and methods of decision-making concerning sexually related medical interventions.**
5. Ethical issues in sexuality counseling.
6. Theory and practice of consultation, collaboration, and referral.

**Please note: Content areas B and D are time sensitive and should have reasonable up to date information and training.

The difference between the requirements in Section 5 (Human Sexuality Education: Core Knowledge Areas) and this section is that the education requirements in Section 5 are directed at general knowledge about human sexuality, while the training requirements in this section are directed at specific skills in sexuality counseling. The two categories of requirements are sufficiently different; therefore, documentation is necessary in each.

If you completed a comprehensive training program for sexuality educators (all Sexuality Counseling Skills Training content areas), submit the transcript, certificate of completion, and/or any other relevant documentation.

If you did not complete a comprehensive training program, submit documentation such as certificates of completion, syllabi, course outlines, etc.

Such training may not be personal psychotherapy or an academic experience in which the primary emphasis is on cognitive information. It is strongly recommended that this experience occur early in the applicant's training to be most beneficial.

If counting SAR hours, the applicant must have been an attendee in the SAR and not been functioning as facilitator or co-facilitator in any capacity. The SAR requirement can be fulfilled either virtually or in-person.

The SAR must be AASECT sponsored or approved.

• A certificate of completion or similar documentation for the 14 hours of experience.
• A one-page comprehensive professional philosophy, which must include how this attitudes and values training experience affected this philosophy.

Supervised sexuality counseling experience is the crux of certification. It is the counseling milieu where competence is demonstrated.

Individuals starting supervision must hold an active AASECT membership and be a member in good standing at the time supervision contract begins.

Supervision must occur over a minimum twelve (12) months, with a maximum of six (6) hours allowed per month, across which a supervisee has provided 100 hours of sexuality counseling.

The supervisory process will have had continuity and be a systematic learning experience. The goal of supervision will have been directed toward the further development of professionalism by the emphasis upon the enhancement of counseling skills and the continuation of the educative process. Supervision should also encourage the further development of the applicant's body of knowledge, community resources for information and referral networking, and experience in short term counseling.

Supervision can take place in either an individual or group context, with group supervision accounting for no more than 50% of the supervision hours. Individual supervision means one-to-one supervision.

Any hours of AASECT supervision accrued prior to signing a supervision contract with an AASECT certified supervisor will not count toward certification.

The following examples do not qualify as supervision:

• Personal psychotherapy or counseling.
• A process that is primarily didactic, such as a workshop or seminar, where teaching is focused on material other than the raw data of the supervisor's clinical practice.
• Management and/or administrative meetings with an organizational director or executive.
• Peer supervision.
• Co-therapist supervision.
• Supervision from a family member or significant-other person.
• Supervision from a colleague with whom one is involved in a partnership.

We acknowledge that some supervision may include some didactic training. We continue to support that concept. However, if you have the need, you can complete a maximum of five (5) additional hours of supervision to meet the requirements in Section 6. Sexuality Counseling Skills Training. Please note that these five (5) hours cannot be double counted toward the minimum of thirty (30) hours of supervision required in this section.

• Supervisor Endorsement Form and Letter of Recommendation from the primary supervisor.
• Supervisor Endorsement Form and Letter of Recommendation (when applicable) from any additional supervisors.
• First Professional Colleague Endorsement Form and Letter of Recommendation from a professional colleague.
• Second Professional Colleague Endorsement Form and Letter of Recommendation from a professional colleague.

These letters should comment on the applicant’s professional responsibilities, professional ethics, and overall ability as a sexuality counselor.

Group supervision, to be most effective, should contain no more than four (4) supervisees per individual supervisor and, where possible, should be extended beyond one (1) hour. If two (2) supervisors meet together to do group supervision, they may have five (5) - eight (8) supervisees in the group. The time that each group meets should be equivalent to one (1) hour per each supervisee. If there are four (4) supervisees, the group should then meet for four (4) hours, credited as GROUP supervision hours. If the group meets for three (3) hours with three (3) supervisees, each supervisee will be credited with three (3) hours of group supervision time. Supervision sessions are not permitted to last for more than four (4) hours per session.