Trauma Educator, Advocate Kristine Ives Joins EDSE

LOS ANGELES—Licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional counselor Kristine Ives, LMFT, has joined the educational organization Everyone Deserves Sex Ed, and will train attendees of EDSE’s upcoming 25-hour sex educator certification program, scheduled April 6-7 and 13-14 in Los Angeles.Ives will discuss trauma-informed care and how to maintain a client-centered approach, giving EDSE attendees a framework with which they can appropriately and professionally support survivors and their loved ones.“Anne and I share a similar drive for empowering clients with compassionate, unbiased information and I’m excited to join the EDSE team,” Ives said. “Working with trauma is one of my specialties, and this program is a great opportunity for educators and facilitators to learn what ‘trauma-informed’ really means. I look forward to helping EDSE attendees form a fundamental understanding of this important topic and support them on their career paths.”EDSE founder and lead educator Anne Hodder-Shipp, ACS, tapped Ives to teach this portion of the certification because of her years of experience working with trauma in all its forms, as well as her professional understanding of how trauma can impact a clinical or educational environment.Ives is a passionate advocate for those who feel they do not have a voice, feel unempowered to heal, or cannot envision a hopeful future. From her extensive experience working with issues related to trauma, relationship dissatisfaction, eating disorders, addiction, and mood disorders, Ives has helped clients chart a course out of the maze of dysfunction and onto the path of authentic connection to self and others. Drawing from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, as well as her own transformative life experiences, Kristine believes that the therapeutic relationship is the most powerful context for change.“Kristine and I have been friends and colleagues for years and I’m honored to have her teach this important section of our training,” Hodder-Shipp said. “Kristine’s straight-forward facilitation style and interactive teaching techniques will be a great fit, and attendees will leave feeling more confident about how to respond to and support clients who have experienced trauma. Attendees also will be informed of what to do if abuse or neglect is disclosed during a session.”Ideal for budding sex educators, health and social service workers, and anyone looking to bolster their sex ed knowledge, the EDSE certification program prepares attendees to have informed, inclusive and confident conversations about sex. Over the course of two weekends, EDSE attendees will learn key information about human sexuality, intimate health, consent, and communication skills and be trained to respond to sex-related questions in a concise, intersectional, and nonjudgmental manner. Attendees also will leave with new insight into their own sexuality—a fun side effect of sex education training.“During my time as a sex educator, and a sex blogger before that, there was one thing I noticed most people had in common: a lack of confidence in, and even a little fear about, talking about sex,” Hodder-Shipp said. “This insecurity has a dramatic trickle-down effect. It leaves professionals feeling unprepared for workplace dynamics, parents terrified of having ‘the talk,’ and service providers caught off-guard during sensitive conversations with their clients. My goal with EDSE is give people access to the kind of professional and educational support so many of us have lacked throughout our personal and professional lives.”The next EDSE certification will take place April 6-7 and 13-14 in Los Angeles. Individual certification is $995 and payment plans are available upon request.To apply, fill out the form at EveryoneDeservesSexed.com/certification. An EDSE representative will review and be in contact within 48 hours of submission.More information can be found at EveryoneDeservesSexEd.com/certification, or email Hodder-Shipp directly at [email protected].