Sex Educator Training Classes
(this information from
http://sfsi.org/wiki/Training)
San Francisco Sex Information offers a unique class on human sexuality twice each year.
The mission of the SFSI training is to train people to provide accurate, nonjudgmental sex information to the public. At the end of training, a trainee should make significant progress in basic sex information, communication and education skills, and personal insight.
San Francisco Sex Information’s Sex Educator Training Is Now More Accessible
San Francisco Sex Information offers unique classes on human sexuality twice a year. SFSI’s Sex Educator’s Training is now available to you 3 different ways:
1. Professional Development & Volunteer Intensive Track. The Traditional SFSI Training Experience. Take advantage of the time-proven SFSI training of every other weekend for 2 months. You'll experience more than 57 hours of instruction on human sexuality in just 2 months, which is more than most medical students receive during their professional education. You'll hear from individuals and panels of speakers, as well as watch videos, slides, and films covering all aspects of human sexuality. This is the most direct way to become a SFSI volunteer, switchboard or other. 'We highly recommend this route because of the experience most people have as they immerse themselves into the SFSI brand of sex education and begin networking with their classmates, training staff, and the larger SFSI community. Roughly 2/3 of our spaces are reserved for people who wish to complete the training in one cycle.
2. Professional Development & Volunteer Extended Track, taken over 1 year. Full SFSI training in 2 training cycles. Do you want the advantage of the continued training of volunteering on the SFSI switchboard, but do not have the time to take the training all at once? Now you can stretch the training over 2 training cycles by completing 2-3 weekends this training cycle and coming back to finish in the next training cycle. Weekend one must be taken during your first training cycle.
3. Professional Development by the weekend. Have you always wanted to take SFSI training but can’t commit to 4 weekends? Are you interested in augmenting your professional training with certain topics, without duplicating your existing training? Now you can take just one weekend at a time. We recommend this track to health care professionals, mental health care providers, educators, and other in the helping professions.
Course Content & Objectives
Basic Sex Information
One of the objectives of training is to impart information about human sexuality. While it is not possible to cover every aspect of sexual behavior in detail, our aim is to give each trainee at least some information about as many areas of sexuality as possible. Full course trainees should leave the training with at least a passing familiarity with core sexuality subject areas. These include:
* sex, gender, and orientation
* sexual anatomy and physiology
* sexual function and dysfunction
* pregnancy/birth control/fertility
* STD symptoms, treatments, and prevention
* harm reduction
* safer sex
* masturbation and fantasy
* BDSM, fetishes, variations
* relationships
* oral, anal, and penis-vagina sex
Communication and Education Skills
A unique feature of the "SFSI experience" offered in the full SFSI training is the emphasis on communication. Many of our graduates feel that the communication skills they learn from this class have helped them become more effective communicators in everyday life.
Trainees should be able to communicate information about human sexuality and their own sexuality to others, whether in an educational or private context. This includes the ability to:
* Listen effectively.
* Communicate about sex without becoming emotionally overloaded.
* Ask pertinent clarifying questions.
* Suspend judgments.
* Present information in a way that is clear, comprehensible, and appropriate personal insight
Throughout the training, trainees are exposed to information, ideas, lifestyles, practices, and opinions that may be unfamiliar or challenging. Our goal is that trainees develop increased insight about their own sexual desires, history, and attitudes. This includes:
* Being aware of judgments and assumptions.
* Being aware of how their own histories, families, contexts, and cultures have informed their feelings and attitudes about sexuality.
* Being able to recognize emotional triggers that interfere with their abilities to process information about sexuality.
The full class series is includes more than 57 hours of instruction on human sexuality — more than most medical students receive during their professional education. You'll hear from individuals and panels of speakers, as well as watch videos, slides, and films covering all aspects of human sexuality.
Training Schedule
Fall 2010 Training Dates
* Weekend One: October 9th & 10th SFSI-Style Sex Ed
* Weekend Two: October 23rd & 24th Sex & Medical Science
* Weekend Three: November 6th & 7th Sex & Social Science
* Weekend Four: November 20th & 21st Sex: All The Rest
The First Weekend is required in the inital training cycle of the Professional Development & Volunteer Extended Track option.
Please fill out an application if you are interested in attending an orientation/group interview. Please note that we cannot offer alternative or individual interviews; so if you cannot attend either of the scheduled orientation/group interview sessions for a given training, you will have to wait to apply to a later training.
For more information, please contact the training coordinators at
tc@sfsi.org.
To sign up, please fill out our Training application form.
Tuition
The tuition for either of the Professional Development and Volunteer tracks is $250-$500 with a sliding scale. The tuition for the Professional Development by the weekend track is $125-$250 per weekend.
* If you have questions about your tuition, please talk to our training staff during your orientation.
* A limited number of partial scholarships are available for the volunteer intensive track.
* Payment plans are available for the volunteer tracks.
* Training fees are due in full on your first day of class.
* No scholarships or payment plans are available for the Professional Development by the weekend track.
* SFSI does not provide refunds for non-attendance.
Training fees cover the actual expenses of teaching the class: rental of space, printing of materials, etc. Any surplus goes to support the operating expenses of the switchboard itself.
Our training staff and speakers donate their time and have a strong belief in the importance of freely available information. We have operated the switchboard for over 30 years, trained more than 1,500 students, and provided free information to tens of thousands of callers.
