Why Northwest Institute on Intimacy?
The mission of the Northwest Institute on Intimacy is to make it standard of care that all people seeking psychotherapy can expect to see someone with expert training and supervision in individual, couple, sex and spiritual intimacy therapy. We believe that no matter what client issue is being presented, whether relational, sexual, historical, circumstantial, intrapersonal or other, the therapist needs to be adept at assessment, diagnosis and treatment without a lack of training or self-of-the-therapist issue interfering with care.
Holistically Trained Therapists
The Institute was created to meet a need generated by a significant deficit in the training of psychotherapists. Most individual and couples therapists and psychologists have little to no training in sex therapy. Yet sexuality is core to intimacy in most relationships. In addition, sex therapists have little to no training in couple’s therapy. Yet couple dynamics effect every sexual relationship. And both have little to no training in the spiritual aspects of how to nurture a lifetime erotic partnership.
The Most Efficient Cost-Effective
AASECT Sex-Therapy Training Program in the Country
Did you know you DO NOT have to do a 150 hour sex therapy training program to become AASECT certified? You can apply hours from your graduate training toward the 17 topic areas! We at NWIOI help you go through your transcript and apply hours. We then have courses that are sex specific and typically NOT covered in grad school. This means you can take our two 5-day intensive courses and get 90-95% through your AASECT educational requirements. Over the next 18 months, while you are completing your supervision, we will help you get that last 5-10% completed. No need to waste a year and another $2,000 – $5,000 the other programs will cost you. The Institute provides this advanced training in a succinct and streamlined way for local and distant therapists. It then allows you to take your holistically trained status and reach people seeking highly qualified therapists.
High Caliber Referral Source
The Institute also seeks to be a one-stop referral source for pastors, doctors, teachers and community leaders … really anyone, looking to find the highest qualified individual, couple or family therapist. In order to be listed on the institutes’ site, a professional must demonstrate that they are trained in individual, couple, family, sex and spiritual intimacy therapy. These therapists listed on our site are called Certified Integrated Intimacy Practitioners (CIIP).™
If you qualify and choose to be listed on our site, you will receive referrals from physician, clergy, and kink aware groups that only refer to our practitioners. You will also be allowed to return to any course you have previously taken, for free, forever. This is our commitment to our CIIPs to help them stay current on the latest information. Opportunities for leadership, teaching, training, presenting and leading workshops are available to our CIIPs, as well as discounts on workshops that the institute holds.
The Northwest Institute on Intimacy was founded by Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers, PhD. Dr. Sellers is a nationally known speaker on religious sexual shame. She is associate professor of sexuality and director of medical family therapy in the Department of Psychology, Family and Community at Seattle Pacific University, in Seattle, Washington. Tina serves on the board of The American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and is a Co-Creator of She Is Called – a Leadership Collective for Women. As a preeminent voice on purity culture and Hebrew Mystic Sexuality, Dr. Sellers is frequently featured on podcasts, TV, documentaries, articles and radio, including Spirituality & Health magazine, and NPR’s All Things Considered. In her acclaimed 2017 book, Sex, God and the Conservative Church – Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy, Dr. Sellers reveals how the western conservative church in collusion with consumer driven culture and politics, has infiltrated our core ability to attach to our partners, and instruct our children to attach to theirs. Similar to the ItGetsBetter Project, Tina developed the website, ThankGodForSex.org, where people can find videos of individuals who were effected by abstinence education and the purity movement who have found healing through therapy and other forms of emotional healing. Professionals and the public can learn more here: www.TinaSchermerSellers.com