The Essentials of Healing Sexual Trauma

Sponsored by: Jennifer Kempfert, LMFT, SEP, CGT

 Sold Out 
DATE(S): July 18, 19 & 20, 2025
LOCATION: Live Online
PRESENTER(S): Ariel Giarretto, LMFT 
All of us work with clients who have experienced sexual trauma as a child, sexual assault as adults, with couples who grapple with sexual incompatibilities, or people who struggle with debilitating shame, dissociation, flashbacks, sexual/gender identity, body image and just generally resist being in their bodies. This workshop is designed to tackle just these issues, and is aimed at helping practitioners acquire a variety of new and effective tools to best serve these clients—even the toughest ones. Introducing material and exercises not covered in the Somatic Experiencing training.
 

Presenter

Ariel Giarretto, LMFT, SEP, CSSE

Ariel Giarretto is a body-oriented therapist, trainer, and Somatic Sex Educator.  After completing her post-graduate education in counseling psychology and license as a Marriage and Family Therapist in California, USA, she studied a wide variety of somatic and touch therapies.  She is primarily informed by Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing (SE).  She was introduced to SE in 1999 and became a full-time teaching faculty in 2005.

Throughout the 1990s, Ariel was on staff at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA as a workshop leader, group leader, private therapist, and part of the body work crew.  There she studied with sexuality/tantra experts Carolyn and Charles Muir, Margo Anand, Jack Rosenberg, Paul Carter, and others.  She also has extensive training in prenatal birth therapy with Ray Castellino, as well as attachment and early childhood developmental trauma. 

In 2015, she received her certified as a Somatic Sex Educator at The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco.  She now specializes in sexual and gender-based violence, as well as all sexuality and relationship challenges.  She has been requested to train therapists dealing with Ukraine war refugees and war rape.  She is the co-developer of "The Full Embodiment Model" which offers gentle, transformative workshops for people wanting to heal from the effects of sexuality trauma, sexual abuse, and disembodiment.  Her specialities include working with couples challenged by childhood sexual abuse, incompatible libido, sexual dysfunction, and infertility.  Since moving to the Netherlands, she closed her private practice.  Her larger mission is to support all people regardless of their trauma history, identity, or sexual orientation to find pleasure, ease, and even ecstacy in their bodies and in connection with others.

 

Course Description

All of us work with clients who have experienced sexual trauma as a child, sexual assault as adults, with couples who grapple with sexual incompatibilities, or people who struggle with debilitating shame, dissociation, flashbacks, sexual/gender identity, body image and just generally resist being in their bodies.  This workshop is designed to tackle just these issues, and is aimed at helping practitioners acquire a variety of new and effective tools to best serve these clients—even the toughest ones. Introducing material and exercises not covered in the Somatic Experiencing training.

 

Target Audience

Social Workers, MFTs, Counselors, Psychologists, Substance Abuse Counselors, Psychiatrists

 

Learning Objectives

Identify the unique ways in which sexual trauma impacts individuals, taking into account cultural, developmental, and systemic factors.

Demonstrate the ability to implement trauma-informed strategies to support clients in rebuilding and repairing a sense of sexual safety.

Assist clients with complex trauma histories in identifying clear, achievable therapeutic goals to guide the treatment process.

Establish and maintain a therapeutic alliance based on informed consent, collaboration, and mutual respect to support client recovery.

Apply titrated, body-centered interventions to support clients in gradually reconnecting with their physical selves and experiencing comfort and pleasure.

Explain current, evidence-based information about human sexuality in ways that reduce stigma, promote client understanding, and foster self-acceptance.

Utilize somatic and grounding techniques that promote self-regulation and decrease daily triggers without requiring clients to revisit traumatic content.

Integrate mindfulness-based interventions to reduce somatic reactivity and desensitize startle responses to safe, consensual touch.

Facilitate the re-establishment of embodied safety for clients, especially in the context of interpersonal contact and relationships.

Implement boundary-strengthening interventions that help clients develop assertiveness, recognize personal preferences, and make empowered choices.

Apply evidence-informed approaches to reduce shame and promote self-compassion and resilience in clients affected by sexual trauma.

Demonstrate competence and cultural humility when engaging in therapeutic conversations about the body, sexuality, and intimacy-related issues.
 

 

Agenda

Day 1
11:00-11:15  Walking mindfulness Intervention and Exercise.
11:15-11:30  Class Orientation, Expectations, and Guidelines.  Overview of intentions and what to expect.  
11:30-12:15 Class Lecture: Common mistakes therapists make when working with sexual trauma and Identifying biases
12:15-12:30  Break
12:30-1:00 Introduction to practice groups, setting intentions and naming support resources.
1:00-2:30 lunch
2:30-3:15 Class Lecture:  Early therapeutic interventions, establishing therapeutic cooperation, understanding resistance through the Dual Mode Model
3:15-4:00 Demonstration.  Practice in two’s with a debrief.
4:00-4:15 Break
4:15-4:45  Demonstration.  
4:45-5:15  Experiential exercise on ideal embodied self 
5:15-6:00  Class Discussion, questions, case examples.


Day 2
9:30-10:30 Class Lecture: Embodiment exercise involving self-touch and when to use it.
10:30-11:00 Questions, reflections, integration from yesterday
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15-12:00 Class lecture: specific interventions when people with sexual trauma are hesitant to sense their bodies
12:00-1:00 Demonstration and practice 
1:00-2:30 lunch
2:30-3:15   Class lecture: importance of body awareness to facilitate self-regulation. 
3:15-4:00 Identification, discussion and practice of numerous ways a sexually traumatized client might feel safe enough to sense into the body
4-4:15 break
4:15-5:00  Class Lecture: continuation of working with body avoidance, questions that facilitate cooperation and consent
5:00-5:30  Practice in small groups.
5:30-6:00 Follow-up on practice with discussion and questions

Day 3
9:30- 11:00 Class Lecture: Importance of re-establishing choice and preference--how to ask a proper question
11-11:15 break
11:15-12:30 Class Lecture: More exercises on making the body a friendly, less scary place
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-2:00 Class Lecture: Working with shame
2:00-2:30 Demonstration
2:30-3 Group practice
3:00-3:15 Break
3:15-3:45 Class Lecture: Integration and homework
3:45-4:00 Final mindfulness exercise/walking intervention
 

 
 
 

Continuing Education

Satisfactory Completion
Participants must have paid tuition fee, signed in, attended the entire seminar, completed an evaluation, and signed out in order to receive a certificate. Failure to sign in or out will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. Certificates available after satisfactory course completion at credits.education

Counselors/Marriage and Family Therapists
Credits.Education is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs. Credits.Ecucation maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.  Course meets the qualifications for 15 hours of continuing education credits for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
 

Special Needs - If you require ADA accommodations please contact our office 30 days or more before the event. We cannot ensure accommodations without adequate prior notification.

Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often. If you have questions or concerns about this course meeting your specific board's approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling.

 

Refund and Grievance Policy - Click here to see our Refund and Grievance Policy.

Attendance Policy and Certificate Delivery Information - Click here for information about receiving credits.

Questions about Certificates and Accreditation? - Click here to Contact the CE Director