Sex Therapy Track
Sentio University offers a Sex Therapy Track for enrolled students in the Marriage and Family Therapy program. The track consists of two courses taught by Angela Jensen-Ramirez, LCSW, an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, and is built on the same Deliberate Practice training model that runs through everything Sentio does.
What Is Sex Therapy?
Sex therapy is a form of talk therapy that helps individuals and couples understand and work through sexual concerns and build more satisfying, connected intimate lives. It considers the full picture of sexuality, including the emotional, psychological, relational, and physical factors that shape it, and it treats sexual difficulties as common and workable rather than a source of shame. Like any psychotherapy, the work happens through conversation. A sex therapist does not perform physical exams, and there is never any sexual contact between a therapist and a client.
People come to sex therapy for many reasons, on their own or with a partner, and at every stage of life. Common concerns include:
- Low, mismatched, or changing sexual desire
- Difficulty with arousal or reaching orgasm
- Pain during sex, including conditions such as vaginismus
- Erectile difficulties and concerns about ejaculation
- Anxiety about sexual performance, confidence, or body image
- The sexual effects of trauma, medical conditions, medications, aging, or menopause
- Communication, trust, and intimacy between partners
Sex therapy is collaborative and educational. Sessions usually begin with a careful conversation about a person's history, health, and goals, and much of the work involves replacing myths and misinformation with accurate knowledge, strengthening communication, and practicing new skills. When physical factors may be involved, a sex therapist coordinates with medical providers. A typical course of sex therapy often includes:
- Education about sexual health, anatomy, and the sexual response
- Communication skills for talking about sex and intimacy
- Structured exercises, such as sensate focus, practiced privately at home
- Cognitive and behavioral strategies for easing anxiety and unhelpful patterns
- Coordination with medical or other providers when appropriate
- Support for individuals and couples of any orientation or relationship style
Training Sex Therapists Through Deliberate Practice
Most sex therapy training in the field today is academic. Clinicians attend lectures, weekend workshops, and continuing education courses, and they leave with knowledge about sexual health but little rehearsal of the skills themselves. Knowing the research on desire, sexual functioning, and intimacy is not the same as being able to sit with a couple and open a conversation about sex with confidence and skill.
The Sentio Sex Therapy Track takes a different approach. In keeping with the University's Deliberate Practice model, students do not just study sex therapy. They rehearse it. Students practice the real clinical skills of sex therapy, including raising sexual health directly with clients, responding to disclosures with steadiness and warmth, and working with the wide range of concerns that bring individuals and couples to sex therapy, and they receive direct feedback from faculty as they refine those skills through repetition.
This is the same training philosophy behind the entire Sentio curriculum: therapists develop real competence through structured rehearsal and feedback, not through lecture alone.
Meet the Faculty: Angela Jensen-Ramirez, LCSW
Angela is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and an ICEEFT Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist. She received her Master of Social Work from Portland State University and has been the director and primary clinician of Anew Therapy, PLLC since 2017, providing individual, couples, and family psychotherapy with a specialization in couples therapy, sex therapy, and women's reproductive health, including work with diverse relationship styles such as ethical non-monogamy. She is a licensed clinical supervisor in both Texas and California and has completed advanced training in Deliberate Practice supervision.
Angela teaches sex therapy well beyond Sentio. She serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Austin's Steve Hicks School of Social Work, is a faculty member at the TalkSex Institute, an advanced training institute for sex therapists, and is an approved Continuing Education provider through the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). At Sentio, she also teaches Theories and Models II in the MFT program.
How to Learn More
Enrolled students receive full details about the Sex Therapy Track directly from the University. If you are considering the Sentio MFT program and want to know more, you can Request Information or Attend an Open House.