Supervision toward AASECT certification.
If you’re a clinician working toward certification as a sex therapist — or you simply want to get better at the sexual material your clients are already bringing you — I supervise from a systemic, differentiation-based lens, and I’ve been through the certification process myself.
You’re probably one of these three people.
You’re pursuing AASECT certification
You need supervision hours with an AASECT-certified supervisor, and you’d rather they came from someone whose clinical thinking you actually want to absorb rather than someone who just signs the form.
Sexual material keeps showing up and you feel underprepared
You’re a competent therapist. But nobody trained you for this, your clients keep raising it anyway, and you can feel yourself steering around the topic. That’s worth fixing whether or not you ever certify.
You want to build a practice, not just a caseload
Clinical skill and a viable private practice are two different problems. I can help with both — see the section on the business side below.
What AASECT certification actually takes.
The requirements confuse almost everyone at first, partly because they’re genuinely substantial and partly because they’re spread across several documents. Here’s the shape of it.
Sexuality education coursework
Human sexuality curriculum across a specified set of content areas — not a weekend workshop. This is the piece most people underestimate.
Supervision with an AASECT-certified supervisor
This is the part I provide. It has to be with someone AASECT has certified as a supervisor specifically — being a certified sex therapist isn’t sufficient on its own.
A Sexual Attitude Reassessment
An experiential process examining your own attitudes, reactions, and blind spots about sex. Uncomfortable by design, and genuinely useful.
Clinical hours treating sexual concerns
Direct client contact where sexual issues are the actual work, alongside your existing license and clinical degree.
Requirements do change. Always check the current standards at aasect.org before planning your route — and if you’d like help reading the map, that’s a perfectly good reason to get in touch. I’ve been through it.
Systemic, differentiation-based, and specific.
My roots are in family systems and differentiation theory. I trained extensively with David Schnarch in the Crucible approach, and I’ve done EFT training alongside it. That combination shapes how I hear a case: I’m listening for the system between two people, not for one person’s symptom.
If you want to work with couples, that lens matters. A great deal of sex therapy training is individually oriented, and it leaves clinicians well equipped for one person in the room and rather adrift with two. If that’s the gap you’re trying to close, we’ll get on well.
I’m direct in supervision, the same as I am in therapy. I’ll tell you what I’d have done differently and why. I’d rather be useful than comfortable, and I assume you would too, or you wouldn’t be paying for supervision.
And I still see couples every week. This isn’t theory I taught from a decade ago — it’s what I’m doing on Tuesday.
Two ways to work with me.
Scheduled to suit you
One to one, by video. Your cases, your questions, at whatever frequency suits your certification timeline and your budget. This is the most efficient way to accumulate hours and the most tailored to what you’re actually stuck on.
Roughly every other Friday, 9–11am Pacific
Open format — you’re not committing to a series. Come to the sessions that fit your calendar. You get more hours per dollar, and you get to hear other clinicians’ cases, which is often where the unexpected learning happens.
Everything is by video, so where you practice doesn’t matter — I supervise clinicians well beyond Washington. Email me to ask about the next group date or to set up individual sessions.
Building a practice is a separate skill.
You can be an excellent clinician and still have an empty calendar. Nobody teaches this in graduate school, and most supervision never touches it.
Alongside clinical supervision I mentor therapists on the business of private practice — branding, marketing, advertising, networking, and business planning. How to describe what you do so the right clients recognize themselves in it. How to be findable. How to set fees you can actually sustain.
I’ve built a practice, written a book, and run a podcast for years, and I’ve made most of the available mistakes at least once. You’re welcome to skip a few of them.
This can be part of your supervision hours or entirely separate — some people come to me only for the business piece. Just say which you want.
What supervisees ask me.
Do I have to be pursuing AASECT certification to work with you?
No. Plenty of supervisees come simply because sexual material keeps arriving in their sessions and they want to handle it competently. Certification is one good reason to come; it isn’t the only one.
Do your supervision hours count toward AASECT certification?
Yes — I’m an AASECT-certified supervisor of sex therapy, which is the specific credential AASECT requires for those 50 hours. Being a certified sex therapist alone is not enough, so it’s worth checking that of any supervisor you’re considering.
Can I do some hours in group and some individually?
Yes, and most people do. Group is more economical and gives you exposure to a wider range of cases; individual lets you go deep on your own. A mix usually serves people best.
I don’t work with couples. Is your approach still useful?
Yes, though I should be straightforward: my lens is systemic and differentiation-based, and it shows. If you work exclusively with individuals you’ll still get a great deal from it, but you should know what you’re getting. If you want to move toward couples work, that’s exactly what I’m built for.
How often do we need to meet?
Entirely up to you. Some people come weekly to move through hours efficiently, some fortnightly, some monthly and slowly. We’ll set a rhythm that fits your timeline and your budget.
How do I start?
Email me at change@jessazimmerman.com or call 206-919-9488. Tell me where you are in the process, whether you want individual or group, and what you’re hoping to get better at.
Let’s talk about where you are.
Whether you’re mapping out certification, stuck on a case, or trying to work out how to fill a practice — tell me what you’re working on and we’ll figure out whether I’m the right supervisor for it.