Hello colleagues: July and August have been months of regrouping at AASECT. After June’s marathon Board meeting and mega-activity Conference, reflecting about where we are, who we are, and where we need to go as an organization has become the focus of board attention. Tasks put on hold to meet demands of governance and conference organizing in June now press for attention, and September annual planning is here. The themes that are preoccupying leadership this year are strategic planning and revision of governance documents and ways of doing things.

The 2019 AASECT Institute kicks-off in New Orleans on Friday, November 1 at 6:00 pm. This event has sold-out, in large part due to an esteemed lineup of speakers we have in store. Meet the body whisperers:

The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors & Therapists (AASECT) invites abstract proposals for presentation at the Annual Conference in Palm Springs, CA, on June 4 – 7, 2020. Do you have an innovative idea that would make an engaging conference or pre-conference workshop offering? Along with proposals for workshops, panel presentations, original research sessions and poster presentations, we are also soliciting proposals for potential pre-conference workshops of four hours or eight hours in length and for a SAR that is 12 hours in length.

We are pleased to announce the following AASECT Members have obtained their certifications as sexuality counselors, counselor supervisors, educators, educator supervisors, therapists, or therapist supervisors. Congratulations! New Certified Sexuality Counselors Debra Wickman, MD Habib Sadeghi Melanie Davis, MEd, PhD, CSE, CSES Heather Edwards, MPT  Renee J Flores, MD Tammy J Senn, MSN, WHNP, CNM, RN-C

"How do we center creation and desire as integral to liberation?  That is a question we’re going to have to keep asking ourselves .  .  . this world begs .  .  .[us to] move out of scarcity, move out of fear, move out of crisis, .  .  [that we be] powerful, fully living beings.”                                                                     Adrienne Marée Brown. Pleasure Activism Dear colleagues,

PESC Chair SAR Requirements Reviewed

Tina Schermer Sellers, PhD, LMFT, CST, CSTS

It is with a great deal of pleasure and excitement that I agreed to chair this committee several months ago. The EAC is a terrific group of hard-working individuals who are striving to create an ethically sound and ethically sensitive AASECT environment. The committee members include Reece Malone, Heather Raznick, Larry Siegel, and Lisa Schwartz. We have been meeting every month or two to deal with ethics matters including complaints and educational programming.

Hello colleagues, Conference planning is underway and we wanted to provide you with more information on this year’s extraordinary conference. Last fall, we gathered input from a wide variety of sources. We scoured the evaluations from the last conference, we invited others to offer new ideas, and we asked our committee members to offer suggestions for the theme for this year. We all agreed on it enthusiastically. Let the Body Rejoice: The Interplay of Sexuality Education, Sex Counseling and Therapy

Happy Holidays, Colleagues, I hope you will be with those you love during your holidays. Before we all get totally into the flow of holiday schedules, however, I want to take a moment to share some of what AASECT board members have been working on since July 1, when we assumed our new leadership roles.  We had our first in-person board training and meeting November 2 and 3, and I want to share some of these highlights.