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
CERTIFICATE IN
SEXOLOGICAL BODYWORK
T R U S T I N G S P O N T A N E I T Y
6 month Online and In-Person
September 1st 2024 - February 28th, 2025
12 DAY IN-PERSON EMBODIMENT RETREAT ~ 15TH - 26TH OCTOBER 2024
This 6 month online Certificate in Sexological Bodywork is scheduled to run again
1st April 2026 - 30th September 2026 with the 12 day Embodiment retreat in May 2026
The Certificate in Sexological Bodywork prepares practitioners to teach somatic sex education to individuals, couples, and groups. It is an experiential training that provides direct somatic learning opportunities that emphasise erotic embodiment. These modalities are learned primarily through experiencing them in your own body. The erotic education in this course is communal: we learn from each other and with each other.
Enrolments are only open to previously Sea School of Embodiment trained CSBs for half-price £2,400 to gain access to the newly revised curriculum, update your Wheel of Consent and Session Structure skills, including the Right use of Power training to meet the current IRHS standards of ethical practice. This is a value-for-money opportunity for you if you want to become part of our vibrant leading-edge community of practitioners and participate in our built-in supervision structures available only to IRHS graduates.
We offer this opportunity to support practitioners who are practicing alone and unsupported and might be outdated with current ethical practices. We welcome you to become part of our IRHS community. This includes 12 days of in-person embodiment practice in Portugal in October.
The Certificate in Sexological Bodywork
The 6-month Online AND In-Person Certificate in Sexological Bodywork professional training
September 1st 2024 - February 28th, 2025
In-Person 12-day Retreat IN PORTUGAL ~ October 15th - 26th 2024
TOTAL INVESTMENT £4,800
The Online AND In-Person Certificate in Sexological Bodywork September 1st 2024 - February 28th 2025
In-Person 12 day Retreat ~ October 15th - 26th 2024
Participation in this 6-month training is available to practitioners who have completed the IRHS 6-month Sexological Intimacy Coaching OR Previously trained as a CSB in the outdated Sea School of Embodiment syllabus (Half price £2,400 to previously trained CSBs)
OR the exceptions would be practitioners well versed in Body Poem and Clean Language (Trained with Katie Sarra), Completed at least 2 “Like a Pro” - Wheel of Consent training, Completed the Right Use of Power Core Training, a minimum of 2 years of repeated experiences in erotic community spaces (eg tantra training etc), and have a Minimum of two years of professional practitioner experience trained in a therapeutic or bodywork modality
OR you were previously trained as a CSB and want to join the IRHS's cutting-edge community of thriving practitioners and update your practice to meet current ethical standards. You will be included in the IRHS Postgraduate community, which is only available to practitioners trained with the IRHS due to the Right Use of Power training and skills required to participate.
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The next intake for the Sexological Intimacy training is from September 1st, 2025, to February 28th, 2026.
This 6-month online Certificate in Sexological Bodywork is scheduled to run again from 1st April 2026 - 30th September 2026
COURSE STRUCTURES AND TIME COMMITMENT
Certificate Sexological Bodywork
6 - M O N T H S O N - L I N E & IN-PERSON
September 1st, 2024 - February 28th, 2025
(Please note that This 6-month online Certificate in Sexological Bodywork is scheduled to run again from 1st April 2026 - 30th September 2026)
The next intake for the Sexological Intimacy training is from September 1st, 2025, to February 28th, 2026.
We begin with our Earth Ceremony Webinar on the first Wednesday of September
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 join a pod group facilitated by a Coach meeting twice monthly to support each other with your learning edges.
Research explorations are a combination of:-
Solo practice
Practising with assigned classmates in pairs in the Client and Practitioner roles
Practicing with assigned classmates in triads in the Client, Practitioner, and Witness roles
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:-
Mondays ~ responding to classmates by Wednesday
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.
Three of these will be required to be recorded which is sometimes easier with classmates for confidentiality.
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 to continue professional development practices and research to meet these and celebrate the Core Competencies you are inhabiting towards certification to practice professionally.
You have approximately 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.
After Certification, you can:-
Join the ACSB as full members and be included on the Practitioner listing
Join ASIS as a full member with permission for Insurance and be included on the Practitioner listing
Be included on the IRHS website practitioner listing
Be included on the Sea School of Embodiment Practitioner listing
Join the IRHS Postgraduate program
The time commitment for six 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 and achieve Learning credits towards certification.
Attending the twice-monthly Webinars, participating in 2 Research Explorations each week, posting 300-word reflections on the forum on time, and responding to 2 classmates on the forum—excluding the weeks when you will be required to attend the 12-day in-person embodiment intensive held in Portugal from October 16th to 27th 2024.
There are two webinars on the first and third Wednesday of each month between September and February - 5 - 7.30 pm.
From September to January, you will meet with a pod group and your coach for peer supervision either weekly or twice monthly for an hour each time. During February, you will self-organise 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, 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 you agree to inform the teacher team if you are unable to meet these commitments so that arrangements can be made ahead of time and 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, 28th February 2025, up until 30th August 2025. You pay your coach for supervision during this time (1 coaching session per 5 learning credits) £60 per session
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 in this training are required to practice in alignment with the ACSB code of ethics and sign up for the course container agreements for supporting communal learning and ethical practice. This involves:-
Learning and practising the Wheel of Consent
Using Clean Language and practising radical acceptance of each other’s versions of self and perspectives
Practising 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
“The Sexological Bodywork training of The Institute for Relational Harmony Studies is the most comprehensive sexuality training I have found.
The syllabus is rich and covers an incredible breadth of subjects - neuroscience, embodied boundaries & consent, emotional command systems, somatic coaching techniques, rupture & repair processes, session structure, hygiene protocol, and of course, all the anatomy & physiology Sexological Bodywork tools.
This training teaches the core competencies of how to meet another Human in their wholeness - with radical acceptance of all of their parts, including their erotic & sexual expression. It encourages you as a practitioner to trust your spontaneity, creativity, and intuition while equipping you with everything you need to build an ethical, trauma-informed practice. Katie’s passion, skill, embodied experience, and wisdom are the essence of this training which make It come alive with joy, love, care & laughter.”
- Luzi Pods (IRHS Approved CSI, CSB & CSSE)
Parrots fly in pleasure, like humans in altered states, when they know their way home.
The Sexological Bodywork Curriculum offers explorations where the body becomes a portal for somatic openings.
“from Sphincter to Great Spirit.”
This is the fire medicine of Eros where exiled aspects of humanity have the potential to integrate with radical acceptance.
Radical Acceptance is central to this training coaching model facilitating loving kindness and generosity.
We have witnessed over the 12 years of facilitating this training, many practitioners discovering their true service in life transforming their Core Erotic themes into supporting others coming home to naturalness.
These practices facilitate expansions of consciousness which can pattern interrupt limiting habits of addictive hedonistic compensation for pain and suffering that so many of us are at the effect of while living in adaption and endurance.
The Wheel of Consent and bodywork practices open the direct routes to pleasure from the spaghetti junctions of indirect and time-wasting ones.
This is intimacy skills training for professionals to deepen and enhance emotional & erotic fluency. Explorations include updating intimate internal and external versions of ourselves.
This training is not for the faint-hearted but with dedication, like learning any new language, the rewards offer erotic and emotional fluency and a return to spontaneous naturalness.
Combining bodywork that touches multi- dimensional somatic memories with Body Poem enriches metaphorical life and opens possibilities for erotic and sensual creative self-expression that so many of us long for. The training is an antidote to civilisation’s collective shaming of this.
You will be guided step by step in a series of touch and embodiment explorations using the Wheel of Consent™ for co-creating clear relationship agreements that support us resourcing ourselves and being in service with others.
We welcome you on this journey through the gates
Katie Sarra and Dr Phoebe Garland - Course directors of Training with over 30 years of experience in erotic facilitation
“A sensual soma-nautical adventure into exploring the depths of the waters within, bringing the pearls of wisdom from the depths back to the shore of awareness.”
- Makia CSI, CSB training in the IRHS 2024 Cohort
IRHS Training Schedule ~2024 - 5
Certificate in Sexological Intimacy Coaching (CSI) ~ February 1st, 2024 - July 31st, 2024 (6 months online training) €3,900 - enrolments closed
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) - enrolments closed
THE ETHICALLY ENHANCED
IRHS CERTIFICATE IN SEXOLOGICAL BODYWORK
You will be guided step by step in developing your professional skill base using the Wheel of Consent™ for co-creating clear relationship agreements and The Right Use of Power training, which supports us in resourcing ourselves and being in service with others with the skills to navigate repair processes and the necessary resilience and humility in receiving difficult feedback in a field where harm has happened.
This training is part of the necessary repair for our profession. If you're working alone and without supervision, we welcome you to this cost-effective way of being connected and supported. This course is open only to Sea School of Embodiment CSB graduates trained in the old curriculum who wish to update their professional, ethical practices and join our IRHS Postgraduate community. Other internationally trained CSBs will be considered at the interview to see if there is enough congruence with your past training. If there isn’t, we will recommend you join the next Sexological Intimacy Coaching cohort to gain the necessary skills for ethical practice.
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 dates to be announced
CERTIFICATE IN SEXOLOGICAL BODYWORK
Program - 6 Months of Online and In-Person study & practice
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~ and noticing
your breathing massaging your heart and lungs like a jellyfish in water expanding and relaxing with the currents of the ocean …
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~ and noticing
your spine moving with each in and out breath like a snake shedding skins and inhabiting new ways of being …
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~ 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 …
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~ and practising
Radical acceptance with everything you are discovering and knowing that you can come back onto the beach and rest from your adventures …
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~ 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 …
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~ 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.
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~be a Turtle
While you are swimming in deep waters and coming home to shore to harvest the eggs of your journey. Be the warm beach for welcoming you home.
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~ like a Jellyfish
A conduit attuned to the currents of feeling states.
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~ like a Parrot
with Body Poem communications as you fly and experiment with multicoloured feathers in multidimensional paradigms. Be the leafy branches of your tree to land softly in as you feel your roots again.
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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.
“When we are touched, or we touch another, we are touching memory channels from this lifetime and lifetimes that have gone before us - generations of unintegrated aspects of humanity emerge out of the soup of the collective conscious to be witnessed and accepted.”
Your Application and Enrolment Process
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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.
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.
This is a meeting for you to ask questions and for us to meet you (30 - 60 minutes)
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STAGE 2
~ After your interview and we have decided this is a harmonious fit, we will write to you with an offer of place as part of the upcoming cohort with the next steps towards enrolment.
In the event of us not being in a position to offer you a place at this time, for example, if we have reached 24 capacity, we will offer you the opportunity of the first option next intake.
IRHS Faculty for the Sexological Bodywork, Sexological Intimacy Coaching & Somatic Sex Education professional training.
ORGANISATIONAL CORE TEAM
The Organisational core team choreograph and administrate the training designing structures that support and facilitate everybody’s ability to participate and learn with ease and inspiration from enrolment through to certification and beyond into the postgraduate program.
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Arantxa is dancer, singer, performing artist & mother of 3, and communicates fluently in English, Spanish & Portuguese.
She is a CSB & CSSE awaiting completion.
She has dedicated 20 years to teaching Laban Creative Dance & West African Dance in the Community, & to performing with various companies around Europe.
Arantxa cultivates a deep passion for guiding others into connecting deeper with their bodies, their natural joy and erotic expression & encourages them to develop the parts of themselves that are fully alive, where their deepest truth and wisdom reside, ripening their relationship to Eros, Life force Intelligence & the innocence of their pleasure & bodies.
She has created a modality called ESSENSUAL Movement & Expression, that weaves together principles from CSB training with Creative & Authentic Dance practices, inspiring others to express pleasure through movement & their bodies, unapologetically.
Empathy, compassion, curiosity and ethical integrity are qualities she embodies as a facilitator/practitioner & she offers these & other gifts in service to the emergence of future practitioners, that n turn are too in service to the love of life & the love for humanity.
Certified Sexological Intimacy Coach, Sexological Bodyworker, & Somatic Sex Educator
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Katie Sarra is the founder of the Institute of Relational Harmony Studies where she choreographs and teaches professional certification in Body Poem, Sexological Intimacy, Somatic Sex Educator and Sexological Bodywork, training in the UK, Ireland and Portugal with an international team of leading-edge educators. She follows the Code of Ethics of the Association of Certified Sexological Bodyworkers (ACSB).
Katie has developed her practice over 35 years of professional clinical practice. She specialises in facilitating radical acceptance and integration of exiled aspects of ourselves. She is an Art Psychotherapist, Founder of Body Poem, Artist, Certified Wheel of Consent facilitator, Certified Somatic Sex Educator, Certified Sexological Bodyworker, and Playback Theatre Practitioner.
I believe every human being has gifts to share and that these are often grown from where we have suffered the most. Our self-acceptance, kindness and ease with ourselves, when we have felt witnessed, can ripple out to support ease with others.
Certified Sexological Intimacy Coach, Sexological Bodyworker, & Somatic Sex Educator
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Dr Phoebe Garland is a certified CSB and CSSE. She brings over 30 years of experience as a GP and mindfulness teacher as well as her own life-long journey of seeking and personal growth practices, including working with Dr Claudio Naranjo in the SAT program.
Her passion is to bring her expertise to the profession of somatic sex education, developing the curriculum, supervision and continued professional development structures and resources to support excellence in the profession.
At the Institute of Relational Harmony Studies Phoebe is developing and leading the 2nd year CSSE training, bringing teachings from The Right Use of Power to the CSB and CSSE curriculum, developing Core Competency assessment and providing supervision for practitioners.
Certified Sexological Intimacy Coach, Sexological Bodyworker, & Somatic Sex Educator
The Syllabus includes
Explorations in body image and gender identity
Exploring intimate sensual & erotic self-expression
Understanding play and trusting spontaneity
Exploring Core Erotic Themes
Exploring and identifying where you are in service to the collective
Working ethically with altered states and arousal
Genital identity, stories, mapping, and massage
Anal identity, stories, mapping, and massage
Scar tissue remediation
Co-regulation skills, understanding and holding space for Trauma
Access to the latest Affective Relational Neuroscience research
Understanding the Emotional Command Systems and instinct drives
Breathwork practices for choice and agency in changing state
Somatic Assessment practices
Chest, breast, and nipple explorations and the intrinsic cardiac system
Belly and digestion massage and the enteric nervous system
Practice active receiving in altered States of consciousness
Inhabiting and representing erotic sovereignty that is integral to our personal power.
Session Structure teachings
Right Use of Power training applied to Sexological Bodywork
Wheel of Consent training applied to Sexological Bodywork
“Coming from a work background that is totally unrelated to Sexological Bodywork the formal presentation of the course is accessible and enjoyable. The research explorations and practical presentations are providing me with the skills to become a competent Sexological Bodyworker and coach.”
- Deirdre IRHS CSI & CSB in the 2024 Cohort training
CERTIFICATION & INSURANCE
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.
