What to do to be a sexologist

Find out what to do to be a sexologist or sexologist, that is, a specialist in sex and sexuality with expertise in sex education, sex therapy and sexology.

Hello friends!

A dear reader of the site, Eliza, asked us what to do to be a sexologist or sexologist. In this text, I will try to answer this question.

Well, only a very little observant person would not have noticed the importance of sex and sexuality in human life and in the lives of other species that live with us on this planet that we call Earth. It is important to start at this point because sex and sexuality are not always placed on their proper level.

Many people thus forget that they were born out of sex and that sex is fundamental to the survival and continuation of any species. This simple fact alone justifies an in-depth and scientific study in this incredible area.

But, as always happens in what involves human beings, sex for us is not simple, natural and instinctive. And, roughly speaking, we can even talk about two aspects of sex:

1) The somatic (bodily) experience: the development of the sexual organs from the maternal womb, puberty, sexual excitement in the penis/vagina and erogenous zones;

2) Psychic experience (thoughts and feelings): sexual curiosity in childhood, erotic fantasies, dreams, desires, interest in other people, falling in love, loving, on the one hand and, on the other, repression, sexual repression, morbidities, sexual dysfunctions (impotence, premature ejaculation, frigidity, vaginismus), etc.

Although, ultimately, it is extremely difficult to separate the two aspects, this division is useful for thinking about training in sexology. For those who don’t know, the word sexology means, etymologically, the discourse, the study, the (scientific) knowledge about sex. So the sexologist or sexologist is that person who specializes in sexuality.

Training, obviously, would be much simpler, easier and faster if we had a college of sexology. At least in Brazil, this is not the case. And, to be a specialist in sexuality, we have to have a previous degree. The most common grades are:

1) Medicine

2) Psychology

After having attended one of these two faculties, the person interested in being a sexologist will then be able to do a postgraduate course. In turn, the most common graduate degrees in sexology are:

– Sex Education

– Sex Therapy

– Sexology

However, we should note that the names may vary from institution to educational institution. We must, therefore, pay attention to the objectives of the postgraduate course and whether it is a specialization postgraduate course (lato sensu) or a teaching postgraduate course (stricto sensu) of a master’s and/or doctoral degree.

Common questions about Sexology Courses

As I said, there is no degree in sexology. The area of ​​studies that involves sex education, sex therapies and sexology as a whole are studied at the postgraduate level. By definition, a graduate degree is what comes after graduation.

However, as with other areas without a specific graduation (such as psychoanalysis), market demands end up giving rise to improvement courses, open courses and some even free.

Here it is necessary to distinguish between having more knowledge and having training.

For example, I can take a course on high school equations, online and free, but this will not mean that I will have a degree in mathematics, right?

That’s more or less the difference. We can take lots and lots of courses, online and face-to-face, but we can only say that we are sexologists if we have complete training. As it is easy to understand, human sexuality is quite complex and involves several factors that are not immediately clear.

Another very common doubt is whether other graduations can also specialize in sexology, in addition to psychology and medicine.

Well, although there is no totally clear rule about this, it is possible for graduates in other areas to do postgraduate studies in sexology. After all, for example, a person trained in pedagogy (and, therefore, who has studied education and learning processes in depth) could be an excellent specialist in sex education, right?

Other professions such as journalism, history, philosophy can also become good professionals in the field of sex education because they can study the most adequate way of communicating about sex and sexuality (journalism), about the history of sexuality (such as studies of Foucault) or from a philosophical point of view.

However, with regard to the area of ​​sexual therapy, the most common thing is for professionals to be physicians or psychologists, as these two professions have a whole theoretical framework to treat physical and psychological illnesses. Note that I said – the most common – because some postgraduate programs also open the possibility of enrolling for all those who have a graduation degree (to teach).

For example, one of the graduate programs I researched says their audience is:

“All Degrees, Pedagogues, Psychologists, Bachelors in Social, Human, Medical and Biological Sciences, Social Work, Social Workers, Social Communication, Nursing, Advertising and Marketing, Journalism, Physical Education, Physiotherapy, Human Resources Management, Law, graduates and technologists holding a higher education diploma recognized* by the Ministry of Education”.

Another graduate, specializing in sexology, points out:

“Those mental health professionals, such as Psychologists and Psychiatrists who have a specialization in Sexology, will be able to perform Sexual Therapy where they can guide the patient and/or couple”.

What is studied in sexology?

At the beginning, I mentioned that we can didactically divide sex into its biological and psychic aspects. But what is specifically studied in such courses on sex and sexuality?

Below, see the definition of the Graduate Program in Sexual Education at Unesp:

“In the 19th century, research on sex led to the emergence of sexology, and names such as Richard Von Kraft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis stood out as precursors of scientific studies that focused on defining, identifying and treating the pathological aspects of human sexuality. In Brazil, it was precisely in the first decades of the 20th century that the first scholars appeared who defended the need for sex education for children and young people. Until the 1950s, a large number of works on sex education were published, aimed at a public that was very interested in the subject.

There is much to research about sexuality and sex education, sexual hygiene, gender relations, the sexual behavior of individuals, the literature produced by the pioneers of Brazilian sexology, in short, from the end of the 19th century to the present day, we will be able to study various phenomena of a moral and social nature that altered or suggested ways of experiencing sexuality.

From the fight against syphilis and venereal diseases, which marked the passage from the 19th to the 20th century, until the advent of AIDS, around 1980, also with the changes in sexual behavior resulting from the hippie movement and the dissemination of the contraceptive pill , we can have several clippings that would allow the development of important studies, divided in order to be able to understand and deepen the whole.

Issues related to human sexuality have been the object of study and research in the human sciences in general, particularly in education, anthropology, psychology and the like, sociology, history and medical sciences. That is, studies and research in this field are essentially interdisciplinary”.

See too:

Online Course on Sexuality – Normal and Pathological

Freud Sexuality Course – 3 Essays on Sexuality

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