Students receive:

A specialized & pace-accessible online learning platform

• Including articles, discussions, engaging projects, and media facilitated by SHA

Live webinars with Q+A led by Dr. Elisabeth Sheff & Other Guest Speakers

• All webinars are recorded for you to watch and learn at your own pace.

Case consultations with Dr. Elisabeth Sheff & Other Guest Speakers

• Directly following the live webinars, stay online to discuss current cases and learn more from example case studies. Don’t have a specific case to discuss? Listen & learn for your future work.

Monthly Special Topic Recorded Webinars with expert guests

• Special Guests will challenge your notions on poly+, swinging & other CNM relationships

A Specialized SHA Certification in Consensual Non-Monogamy

• Receive a specialized certificate and extensive knowledge to assist in all forms of designer relationships in your work in the helping professions.

Meg-John Barker

Meg-John Barker is the author of a number of popular books on sex, gender, and relationships, including Queer: A Graphic History, Gender: A Graphic Guide, How To Understand Your Gender, Life Isn’t Binary, Enjoy Sex (How, When, and IF You Want To), Rewriting the Rules, The Psychology of Sex, and The Secrets of Enduring Love. They have also written a number of books for scholars and counsellors on these topics, drawing on their own research and therapeutic practice.

Kitty Chambliss

Kitty Chambliss is a polyamorous, sex-positive author, educator, relationship coach, speaker and activist who has been the founder and creator of this website and revolution, Loving Without Boundaries since December of 2012 with over 300 blog posts to date – including many personal interviews. Kink-friendly Kitty founded the blog and website originally as an outlet and one-stop toolkit for everything that she was learning on her own polyamorous journey. But she quickly realized that what she was creating was a resource for the poly and poly-curious – to form a community, share experiences, and help guide each other on their respective journeys of poly-relationship exploration. It became clear that even more was needed to support this under-served community. And Kitty’s passion to serve others lead her to become a certified relationship coach, with a specialty in unconventional relationships.

DR. ZELAIKA HEPWORTH CLARKE  

Zelaika S. Hepworth Clarke, PhD, MSW, MEd, is a sexuality educator, African-centered social worker, cultural and clinical sexologist, sexecologist, decolonizing autoethnographer, sexosopher and consultant. Zelaika has studied internationally in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Trinidad, Jamaica, Netherlands, Brazil, Barcelona, and Cuba. Zelaika is the first Jamerican (Jamaican-American) to receive three degrees in human sexuality from accredited universities in the United States: Bachelors of Arts from NYU in Sexuality, Culture and Oppression (2007); Masters of Education in Human Sexuality(2012) and Doctorate of Philosophy in Human Sexuality (2015) from the Center for Human Sexuality Studies at Widener University. Dr. Hepworth Clarke specializes in human sexualities, gender and relational diversity, clinical and cultural sexology, African-centered social work, sexuality education, autoethnography, and Ọ̀ṣunality, an African-centered, sex-positive, post-colonial paradigm that affirms diversity in sensuality, sexual pleasure and eroticism. Dr. Hepworth Clarke co-founded a sexuality studies concentration program at Goddard College. Dr. Hepworth Clarke's passions include increasing critical thinking, sexual literacy, expanding self-awareness and self-reflexivity, empowerment, counter-oppressive discourses, unlearning colonial mentalities, decolonial considerations, mindfulness, justices (social, racial, erotic, epistemic, ecological etc) and healing. 

Elizabeth Duke

Elizabeth Duke is the Clinical Director at LifeWorks Psychotherapy Center.  She began in the mental health field focusing on Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, Therapeutic Riding, and Animal Assisted Therapy. She spent several years researching and teaching in these areas and although she is no longer practicing AAT/EAT, the time she spent learning with and from animal co-therapists continues to impact her therapeutic stance. She clients of diverse identities (including poly/non-monogamous, kinky, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, gender diverse,  asexual, sex workers and more) get to know themselves better so that they can encounter new and challenging experiences in a way that feels congruent and meaningful.

Bethany Stevens

Bethany Stevens JD, is a wheelchair using queer doctoral student in Sociology at Georgia State University (GSU) specializing in sexuality and the life-course infused with critical disability studies and phenomenological analysis. As a passionate lecturer and workshop facilitator, she has given invited talks internationally with a focus on the politics of pleasure and other intersectional sexual health issues of disabled people. One of her passions, developed while working in the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is working to train peer educators to prevent sexual violence using protective measures, such as teaching sexual health and bystander intervention. Within her years of teaching at Morehouse school of Medicine (MSM), GSU, San Francisco State University, and Widener University, pedagogy is vibrantly engaged to work to manifest the transformative space of learning. She maintains a blog, cripconfessions.com, which analyzes contemporary issues related to disability and other marginalized identities to call for coalition building. Stevens’ work has been published in several peer-reviewed venues. Stevens is a member of the inaugural class of Center of Excellence for Sexual Scholars program at MSM, working under the 16th Surgeon General of the United States Dr. David Satcher (author of the Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior, 2001). From 2009 to 2013, she was a policy analyst and faculty member in the School of Public Health at GSU. In 2013 and 2014, Stevens was the co-chair of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists Annual Conference. Stevens has dedicated her life to promoting sexual and disability justice through scholarship and advocacy. 

Ruby Bouie Johnson

Ruby Bouie Johnson is a sex therapist and educator in Plano, Texas. She serves clients who identify as nonmonogamous, queer, genderqueer, and kinky. She is a writer, blogger, and an active advocate that challenges injustices. Her expert opinion has been sought by Playboy Magazine and Women’s Health magazine. She wrote the forward for the ground breaking book Love’s Not Colorblind by Kevin Patterson, which explores intersectionality and polyamory community. She received the Professional Standard of Excellence Award from American Association of Sexology, Educators, Counselors, and Therapist.

Diana Adams, Esq.

Diana Adams, Esq. is a leader in support of polyamorous families and nontraditional family structures. Diana is passionately dedicated to helping form healthy, stable families, whether between same-sex couples, platonic co-parents, polyamorous families, or different-sex couples, by facilitating conversations that support the creation of clear personal agreements, as well as solid legal agreements to protect their families. Diana taught a semester long course at Cornell Law School on “Advanced Topics in Family Law: LGBTQ & Nontraditional Family Law.”

Kathy Labriola

Kathy Labriola is a nurse, counselor, and hypnotherapist in private practice in Berkeley, California, providing affordable mental health services to alternative communities including the poly, kink, LGBTQ, and sex worker communities, and political activists. Kathy is author of three books, Love in Abundance, The Jealousy Workbook, and The Polyamory Break-up Book. She has been a card-carrying bisexual and polyamorist for 50 years. She is political activist and community organizer. She is extra crunchy, lives in a housing cooperative, rides a bike, and raises chickens and organic vegetables.

Jim Fleckenstein

Jim Fleckenstein is a relationship educator, coach, researcher and activist. He currently heads The Earth Moved, LLC, an educational and coaching practice helping individuals and groups. He is the creator of the Affirmative Intimacy ™ approach to building healthy and sustainable relationships. A polyamory activist since 1998, in 2000 he co-founded the Institute for 21st Century Relationships, now the Foundation of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF), and served on the NCSF board 2006-2018. He has spoken at PolyLiving, NYC Poly Pride, CatalystCon East, and the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit. He’s been interviewed by the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian (UK), and on TV and radio. Jim is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Jim’s research has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy.

Lexi Sylver 

Lexi Sylver is the Montreal-based erotica author of Mating Season and All the Queen’s Men. She enjoys having a kinky and unconventional lifestyle and sharing her stories and experiences with others. Lexi hosts and produces SDC.com’s sexuality podcast, Seek, Discover, Create with Lexi Sylver. As an entrepreneur, advocate, educator, public speaker and coach for consensual non-monogamy and the swinging lifestyle, she journeys the world to attend travel events and conferences. She regularly contributes articles about sexuality and relationships to Pornhub’s Sexual Wellness Center, ASN Lifestyle Magazine, SDC.com and her personal blog. 

Dr. Sharon Flicker

Dr. Flicker earned her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University and her M.S. and Ph.D., both in Clinical Psychology, from the University of New Mexico. She held a predoctoral clinical internship at the Louisiana State University Health Services Center, where she worked with adults and children in inpatient and outpatient settings, and an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where she researched women in abusive relationships. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at California State University, Sacramento. Dr. Flicker’s clinical expertise lies in family therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy for adults, adolescents, and parents. Her recent research examines attachment and relationship satisfaction in consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships, personality predictors of attitudes towards CNM, and, along with Dr. Michelle Vaughan, the development of a quantitative scale of compersion.

Tamara Pincus

Tamara Pincus is a licensed clinical social worker with over 15 years of experience in mental health treatment. She has maintained a private practice specializing in sex therapy since 2011. She is an AASECT certified sex therapist with a specialty in working with kinky, poly and LGBTQ clients. Her practice has a commitment to racial justice. She has experience using cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, mindfulness and imago approaches in therapy with individuals and people in relationships. She has a certification in working with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Dr. Daniel Cardoso

Daniel Cardoso holds a PhD in Communication Sciences by the NOVA University, and is a Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and a part of RCASS and its Gender and Sexuality Research Group. He remains associated with the LUSOFONA University, in Lisbon, where he taught for ten years. His main areas of research are consensual non-monogamies, BDSM, gender and sexualities, young and new media, and cybercultures.

Elaine Sheff, Clinical Herbalist, RH (AHG)

Elaine Sheff is the Co- Director of Green Path Herb School, located in Missoula, Montana, where she strives to inspire and empower students and clients to remember their connection to the earth, the plants and their own healing process. She is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild and teaches workshops, and at conferences, both nationally and internationally. Elaine has an International Certification in Aromatherapy from the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy. As a certified Instructor of the Natural Family Planning and Fertility Awareness Methods, Elaine has helped many couples to avoid or achieve pregnancy naturally. She has written numerous articles about her family’s journey with epilepsy and a special needs child. Elaine has written for publications including the Journal of Medicinal Plants and their Applications, Mamalode and Aromaculture magazine.

Chrissy Holman

Chrissy is a queer and polyamorous asexuality educator and activist from NYC. She is president emerita of Open Love NY, a member of the Poly Leadership Network, the Communications Lead for the APA Division 44 Consensual Non- Monogamy Task Force, and on the communications team at the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. She recently graduated from Columbia University with her M.S. in Nonprofit Management, after a decade- long stint in the music industry. When she isn’t teaching nationally on ethics, negotiation, asexuality, inclusion, and mental health, she resides on the upper west side with one of her anchor partners and children.

Kenneth R. Haslam

Ken Haslam, MD is a retired anesthesiologist who for the past 15 years has been living and teaching about responsible, ethical, and consensual multi-partnering or Polyamory. Ken is a founding member and past Vice President of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness, a past board member of the Institute for 21st Century Relationships and a past board member of his Unitarian fellowship. In 2005 he established the Kenneth R. Haslam, MD Polyamory Archive Collection at the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University to preserve polyamory history.

Dr. Haslam has presented many workshops, sermons, and lectures on Polyamory, such as “Kinsey and the Roots of Polyamory” at Loving More and “Polyamory Enters the Mainstream at AASECT. Currently he presents workshops on aging and sexuality. He is both a practicing Poly and a Poly activist.

Dr. Apryl Alexander

Dr. Apryl Alexander, PsyD (she/her) is an Associate Professor at the University of Denver. She serves as Director of Denver FIRST's Outpatient Competency Restoration Program (OCRP), which provides outpatient competency education and restoration for low-risk, court-ordered adult defendants and juveniles. She is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Scrivner Institute for Public Policy. Dr. Alexander is the Co-Founder (with Dr. Ashley Hamilton and Rachael Zafer) and former Co-Director for the University of Denver’s Prison Arts Initiative (DU PAI), which provides therapeutic, educational creative arts programming to incarcerated men and women in Colorado state prisons.

Dr. Alexander's research has been published in leading journals including Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice; Criminal Justice Review; International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology; Child Maltreatment; Journal of Child Sexual Abuse; Journal of Sexual Aggression; and Sexual Abuse.

Tikva Wolf

Tikva Wolf is a freelance author and illustrator focusing on the topics of healthy communication and relationship dynamics. Wolf’s work is used as an aid by therapists and educators, has been translated to several different languages, and is a part of the Kinsey Institute’s archive collection as well as the Ivy Plus Libraries Global Webcomics Archive.

Having always taken delight in making people laugh, and in doing so also unveiling hidden perspectives, Wolf uses humor as a way of encouraging others to deeply see themselves and each other. Wolf is most well-known for the webcomic Kimchi Cuddles, which draws from real life stories and experiences to spread awareness about poly, queer, and genderqueer issues. Kimchi Cuddles’ authentic vulnerability is deeply relatable to anyone regardless of relationship or sexual orientation.

Cindy Trawinski, PsyD

Cindy Trawinski, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, a Diplomate in Process-oriented Psychology (also known as Process Work) and a certified Imago Relationship Therapist. She is a founding partner of LifeWorks Psychotherapy Center and North Shore Psychotherapy Associates and has offices in Skokie, IL. Cindy is the former CEO of the Process Work Institute, in Portland, OR and a member of the International Association of Process-oriented Psychology (IAPOP), in Zurich, Switzerland. Cindy is a frequent speaker on topics including: Diversity and Multicultural Issues; Sex Positivity; Rank & Power; Therapist Bias; and Polyamory.

Danielle Carlson, LMFT

Danielle Carlson, LMFT holds a Masters of Science in Marriage & Family Therapy from The Family Institute at Northwestern University where she focused on working with gender and sexuality. Danielle received her bachelor’s degree in English from Princeton University. Danielle offers affirming, sex-positive space that acknowledges clients’ varied and marginalized identities, their experiences in the world as well as their own personal strengths and struggles as an individual. Danielle’s special focus is working with queer and trans couples and individuals, as well as alternative relationship configurations and erotic practices, such as non-monogamy and kink.

Daniel Copulsky

Daniel Copulsky is a Ph.D. student in Social Psychology at UC Santa Cruz. He researches LGBTQA, nonmonogamous, and kink/BDSM identities, with particular interest in how people choose and make sense of identity labels. Daniel's writing on intersections between the asexual and polyamory communities is available in the Journal of Positive Sexuality and the anthology Expanding the Rainbow. His recent work looks at changing ideas about what kinds of identities can be considered sexual orientations. Daniel also serves on the board of directors for the Center for Positive Sexuality.