MAINTAINING & RENEWING YOUR SEX EDUCATOR CERTIFICATION
EDSE requires certificate holders to maintain and renew their certification by continuing their education and professional training. This is to ensure that EDSE certificate holders stay up to date with the ever-changing research, knowledge, language, experiences, and facilitation skills that are unique to the sexuality field. More information about this renewal requirement can be found in our FAQs.
EDSE’s Sex Educator Certification is valid for a term of three years. This term begins on the date that each attendee received their certificate.
Current certificate holders should refer to this schedule to confirm their renewal requirements and due dates.
In order to renew EDSE certification at the end of the term, the following requirements must be met:
1. Certificate holders must complete the EDSE x ANTE UP! Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR), if they have not already.
This Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR) is a unique professional development experience that helps attendees evaluate and examine their beliefs and value systems around sexuality, body autonomy, relationship dynamics, and more, and help facilitate an even more expansive view on the unique and diverse ways humans live and express themselves. Completing this SAR is a requirement for completing the Sex Educator Certification.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have not yet completed the EDSE x ANTE UP! SAR, doing so will NOT count toward renewal. The SAR is required as part of the certification itself.
click here to learn more about the edse x ante up! sar.
2. Certificate holders must complete a minimum of 18 Continuing Education hours (CEs) over the three-year period.
At least 6 hours must focus on LGBTQIA+ education, experiences, history, expansiveness and inclusion, community organizing, advocacy, or relevant areas of learning.
CEs used to renew and maintain EDSE certification will be reviewed and approved by the EDSE educator team. Continuing Education hours will be added up using the following methods:
EDSE-approved programming: 1 hour = 1 EDSE credit.
Non-EDSE-approved programming: 1 hour = 1/2 EDSE credit.
CEs can be obtained in a variety of ways, and certificate holders are encouraged to consider and explore professional development experiences that are not exclusively academic in nature.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have not yet completed the EDSE x ANTE UP! SAR, doing so will NOT count toward your 18 CE hours. The SAR is required as part of the certification itself.
CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF APPROVED AND NON-APPROVED PROGRAMMING THAT COUNT TOWARD EDSE CERTIFICATION RENEWAL.
3. Certificate holders must document the CE hours they complete each year.
You can document your CEs in a variety of ways, including:
Obtain a certificate of completion from any workshops, trainings, or related programs you attended. If no certificate is available, request a letter of completion that includes the program name, date it was completed, and a signature from the host.
Provide copies of any contracts that outline the work agreements between you and your supervisor(s), publisher(s), or organizations.
Provide a copy of the curricula or teaching tool you developed.
Provide a copy of the manuscript, thesis, or dissertation that you authored and/or edited.
Provide an abstract of the research you completed.
Provide a letter of recommendation or endorsement from the organization(s) that you volunteered for.
Provide scheduling confirmation for each one-on-one session or group class you hosted.
Provide the event or conference website, schedule, and any promotion materials that show your involvement.
Provide proof of the seminars, workshops, roundtables, or panel discussions you attended at each conference or summit.
Questions about documenting CE hours? Email us at hello@everyonedeservessexed.com.
4. Certificate holders must complete and submit a Certificate Renewal Form in order to document their CE hours for approval.
To allow time for the approval process and avoid a lapse in your certification, please submit this form at least 4 weeks before your certification expires.
This form has a nonrefundable $100 fee. Forms and/or documentation sent past the expiration date will incur an additional $50 late fee. These fees are divided among EDSE and the staff responsible for reviewing each application, communicating with applicants, reviewing CE documentation, and keeping accurate up-to-date records of every certificate holder. All EDSE staff are compensated for their labor. We do not utilize unpaid internships or volunteer work.
No one will be refused certification renewal due to financial hardship or limitations. If this fee is beyond your means, please email hello@everyonedeservessexed.com to discuss alternative options. If this renewal form is submitted without payment and/or without emailing us about financial hardship, it will not be reviewed and your certification will not be renewed.
If you are unsure of your certification's expiration date, please email hello@everyonedeservessexed.com. Certificate holders have a 6-month grace period. Should your certification lapse longer than 6 months, your certification will be rendered inactive and you will be required to complete the EDSE certification process a second time.
5. Certificate holders must be in good standing with EDSE’s Certificate Holder Agreement.
This includes conduct, commitment to sex-positivity, and being current with payments and/or payment plans.
Certificate holders agreed to this when they submitted their original application.
Why do I have to renew my certification?
The sexuality field in the U.S. is still very much in its infancy. The study of sexuality in this country initially began in the late 19th century, but it wasn’t until 1938 that research of sex, relational dynamics, orgasm, desire, and pleasure — especially that of cisgender women, largely believed at the time to be non-sexual — began in an official capacity, thanks to Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and the students of the Association of Women at Indiana University who helped spark his transition from entomology to sexology.
The sex research field continued to develop despite social stigma and political outrage, most notably with Virginia E. Johnson and William H. Masters focusing on human sexual response starting in 1957, Elaine Hatfield and Ellen S. Berscheid focusing on romantic love and attraction starting in the 1960s, Shere Hite focusing on female sexuality and orgasm starting in the mid-1970s, Fred “Fritz” Klein focusing on bisexuality starting in the late 1970s, Beverly Whipple focusing on female ejaculation and the “G-spot” starting in the early 1980s, and Leonore Tiefer focusing on rape prevention and awareness in the 1970s and the medicalization of female pleasure starting in the early 1990s. These are just a few important figures and there are many more, including many whose work and names have been unjustly left off the academic record.
Notice how recently sex research started and how much more work there is still to do — and undo. Sex research has contributed to the pathologization of human sexuality as well as helped to de-stigmatize it, and it is common for research and knowledge that was once considered the standard to later be successfully challenged, reframed, or replaced with new, more accurate research and knowledge.
In the U.S., a wide range of common human sexual feelings, experiences, and identities were classified as mental illnesses and disorders — some even criminalized — until very recently. Among them:
Cross-dressing or wearing clothing associated with a gender other than your own (decriminalized in late 1990s, declassified as a mental illness until 2010, currently re-criminalized in several states)
Having anal sex (decriminalized in some states in the 1960s and 1970s, others still have anti-sodomy laws in place)
Feeling uninterested in or grossed-out by sex (mental disorder until 2013)
Being transgender, genderqueer, or anything other than cisgender (mental illness until 2012)
Enjoying BDSM (mental illness until 2010)
Having a fetish or a kink (mental illness until 2010)
Being gay, bisexual, or anything other than heterosexual (mental illness until 1973)
and so many more
These are just a few reasons why continuing education for sex educators, sex therapists, and other sexuality professionals is essential in order to do expansive, accurate, and ethical work. EDSE is doing its part to help make this standard practice while also ensuring that the continuing education that is pursued is in line with understandings and representations of human sexuality that do not exclusively center white, cisgender, allosexual, and heterosexual norms, identities, and expectations.
Have more questions? Click here to visit our FAQs.