May 3-5, 2024
9 a.m.-1 p.m. PT
$450 general / $525 pay it forward / $299 accessible
10 AASECT CEs
This is an enlightened and unconventional professional development training for sex educators, sex therapists, and other sexuality professionals who want to build a more accurate and expansive understanding of sex dreams and fantasy without the influence of patriarchy, heteronormativity, allonormativity, and sexual shame.
In an open-minded digital space, attendees will explore their own relationship to sex dreams and fantasy, identify common misconceptions and myths, and learn how to apply the concepts outlined in this workshop to their clients’ personal and relational work. Fantasy, Sex Dreams, & the Subconscious is co-facilitated by Anne Hodder-Shipp, CSE, and Paula Leech, LMFT, CST, CSTS.
This workshop is for you if:
Your clients feel confused, challenged by, or eager to make sense of their sex dreams and fantasies
YOU feel confused, challenged by, or eager to make sense of sex dreams and fantasies
Your clients often describe their pleasurable fantasies or sex dreams as “bad,” “wrong,” or against their core values
You want to better understand the functional role fantasy and sex dreams play in our lives, relationships, and understanding of ourselves
You are ready to let go of Freudian ideas of sex dreams and fantasies as repressed desire
You are curious to learn more about the meaning behind sex dreams that involve infidelity, fear, exes, and other uncomfortable themes
Your clients feel shame or guilt about the fantasies and sex dreams they experience
You or your clients fear that sex dreams or fantasies reveal sexual secrets and desires that are buried deep under the surface
You want to better understand sex dreams and fantasies involving sexual themes, behaviors, or identities that differ from a client’s “waking life”
You are ready to challenge common misconceptions of sex dreams and fantasy as infidelity or “micro cheating”
You work with clients who believe that their or their partners’ porn consumption is a threat to the relationship
You want to unlearn the pathologization of consuming porn, erotica, and fantasy content
You are looking for tools and best practices for navigating your or your clients’ complex feelings about fantasy, desire, masturbation, and explicit media
You want to better understand how fantasy can be a tool for learning, growth, and intimacy with self and others
You are willing to look at your own relationship to fantasy and sex dreams, stepping into a more expansive view of your own creative complexity
You seek a more expansive understanding of the role the subconscious mind plays in our sexual self-concept, both awake and asleep
By the end of this course participants will:
Feel more comfortable thinking about and discussing sex dreams in and out of clinical settings
Better understand the role fantasy plays in building and maintaining an authentic connection to ourselves and others
Gain a more expansive perspective of sex dreams and fantasies free from pathology and personal judgment
More confidently understand sex dreams and fantasies as relationship enhancers, not threats
Feel less rattled by the provocative, challenging, or downright scary narratives and visuals of some fantasies and sex dreams
Be better prepared to skillfully think about and discuss sex dreams and fantasy beyond their literal presentations
Develop compassionate curiosity about their own sex dreams and fantasy experiences
Gain practice working with fantasy and sex dreams as shame-reduction and harm-reduction tools
Better understand the complexity and creativity of the subconscious mind and how it helps us process our emotional selves
Gain an expansive conceptualization and grounded methodology for assessing and exploring sex dreams and fantasies
Feel prepared to help clients navigate, process, and let go of emotional entanglement in their fantasies and sex dreams
Learning objectives:
- Identify key similarities and differences between fantasies and sex dreams
- Name the hazards of taking fantasy and sex dreams literally or at face-value
- Describe the role fantasy plays in our sexual and relational development
- Unlearn common misconceptions about the meanings behind specific sex dream themes
- Reflect on how non-sexual fantasy shows up in day-to-day life
- Discuss consent as it relates to the characters in fantasy and sex dream content
- Explain the function fantasy serves and the reasons we benefit from participating in it
- Explain the function sex dreams serve and how to explore them in a clinical setting
- Understand the role that emotional experience plays in sex dreams and fantasy formation
- Locate the stance of the therapist, counselor, or educator when interacting with our client’s challenging or provocative sex dream and fantasy content and their feelings/judgments
- Indicate the specific ways relationships can benefit from the presence of sexual fantasy and sex dreams
- Review how fantasy works to preserve and protect our realities (should we be invested in protecting them ourselves)
- Understand how cultural norms related to gender, heteronormativity, monogamy, purity culture, and white supremacy shape our relationship to sex dreams and fantasy
This program meets the requirements of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for 10 CE credits. These CE credits may be applied toward AASECT certification and renewal of certification. Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT certification. For further information please contact info@aasect.org.
This workshop covers the following AASECT Core Knowledge Areas:
A. Ethics and ethical behavior
C. Socio-cultural, familial factors (e.g., ethnicity, culture, religion, spirituality, socioeconomic status, family values) in relation to sexual values and behaviors.
D. Issues related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity: heterosexuality; issues and themes impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual people; gender identity and expression.
E. Intimacy skills (e.g., social, emotional, sexual), intimate relationships, interpersonal relationships and family dynamics.
O. Professional communication and personal reflection skills.