Kink Aware Certification Program Outline

Program Objectives:

• Understand the ethnographic concepts of open relationships, alternative relationships, communities and their role, as a medical provider, in their care.
• Understand the difference between healthy polyamory and unethical non monogamy
• Learn therapeutic interventions and common issues seen with kink
• Ethical and Legal Issues related to kink
• Evaluation of the science and research of kink
• Special topics and ethical challenges when working with alternative relationship styles and kink clients.
• Understand the fundamentals of Gender Spectrum Care
• Power Exchange Fundamentals
• BDSM Play Fundamentals
• Marketing and Business Practice

Kink Aware Certification Program Requirements: 

• 18 years of age or older
• Completion of school application process
• Recommendation from instructor of work supervisor
• For therapist recognition, the student must be a licensed therapist
  

KTCI 101 – FUNDAMENTALS OF KINK

This course is designed to give medical and mental health professionals an introduction of the various types of alternative relationship and sexual cultures that they will encounter in their medical or therapeutic practice. It will also present the current position of sexual medicine and research in the United States.

KTCI 102 – KINK COMMUNITIES AND CULTURE

This course is an ethnographic examination of kink culture and subcultures of the kink communities.

KTCI 103 – Ethical Non-Monogamy I: Fundamentals and the Science of Open Relationships

This course is a foundation class for understanding and navigation of various non- monogamous relationships.

KTCI 104 – Ethical Non-Monogamy II: Working with Open Relationships

This course will focus on how to work with non-monogamous clients. Ethics, pathology, interventions and case studies will be included. Course includes tools and interventions used with Ethical Non-Monogamous Clients.

KTCI 105 – Power Exchange Relationships I: Fundamentals and the Science of Kink

This course will discuss power exchange relationships, their etiquette, and dynamics.

KTCI 106 – Power Exchange Relationships II: Working with D/s Relationships

This course will focus on how to work with clients participating in D/s relationships. Ethics, pathology, Interventions and case studies will be included.

KTCI 107 – BDSM Play: The Scene, Equipment and Community Etiquette

This course is an introduction to BDSM scenes, equipment and etiquette.

KTCI 109 – Negotiation, Boundaries, and Contracts

This course is an introduction and examination of negotiation techniques; boundaries and relationships/ play contracts as they related to clients who participate in kink related activities.

KTCI 108 – Kinky Laws, Rules, and Ethics

This course is an examination of professional ethics and laws as they relate to working with kinky clients.

HART 402 – Intimate Partner Violence: Hidden Victims of Sexual, Gender, and Relationship Minorities and Special Populations

The Mental Health Community’s efforts to address domestic and intimate partner violence (DIPV) have often neglected members of the kink, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) populations and men. Heterosexual women are primarily targeted for DIPV screening, community support and intervention despite the similar or greater prevalence of DIPV in LGBTQ+ individuals and its detrimental mental and physical health affects. In this course we will highlight the burden of DIPV in LGBTQ+ relationships, discuss how LGBTQ+ and traditional heterosexual relationships, discuss how LGBTQ+ and traditional heterosexual DIPV differ, and outline steps clinicians can take to address DIPV in their LGBTQ+ patients.

KTCI 500 – Fundamentals of the Gender Spectrum

Gender is more than the mainstream binary: male and female. The gender spectrum also includes non-binary, queer, transgender, and gender fluid. KTCI 500 explores the fluidity of gender and the ways it is expressed throughout the world.

KTCI 501 – The Gender Transition Protocols and Experience 

This course describes the experiences of various individuals undergoing or who have gone through gender reassignment surgery or body modification to closer to their true self. Learning the protocols will help the kink aware professional understand how to identify the symptoms of gender identity disorder and body dysmorphia as it pertains to gender. The combination of protocols and experiences provide a blue to help guide an individual who identifies as transgender, gender fluid, queer, or non-binary.