I had occasion to drive to the Midlands recently and noticed that fuel was 30p more per litre than non-motorway petrol stations. The same product, vastly different price. How could this be?
It led me to considering recognised and approved PRT trainings. Many of which are around the same price, but are they the same ‘product’?
In my opinion the approved/accredited courses in the UK differ, they each have their own style and ethos. I have no reason to believe that each course provider does not think they are the best and yet best for whom? When prospective students do their research, what are they looking for that is beyond the course website? What informs their decision to apply? What is at the root of their decision to embark on the training?
The NHS website states:
A sex therapist helps people with sexual problems.
Sex therapists are qualified counsellors, doctors or healthcare professionals who have done extra training in helping people with problems relating to sex.
This statement is, for me, terribly lacking in a descriptor of the work we do. In the first instance, and I speak from an LDPRT perspective, it is a psychotherapy training at its core, which certainly has medics, healthcare workers and counsellors/generic therapists in its student group.However,these folk elect to train to fully embrace an area of specialism with sexuality in all its presentations and inclusive of relationship psychotherapy.
The Cleveland Clinic describes it:
A sex therapist is a licensed professional who can help with the mental or emotional aspects of sex-related issues. They have a thorough understanding of human sexuality and use psychotherapy (talk therapy) to help you work through sexual issues. Sex therapists work with individuals and romantic/sexual partners.
In the past, sex and relationship therapy became conflated, a shorthand so to speak. Now we have different delineations, one can be a psychosexual psychotherapist, a relationship psychotherapist or both – a psychosexual and relationship psychotherapist. The ‘product’ then changes but again there is similarity between the training providers both in cost and time commitment.
Does this make it easier or more challenging for prospective students to choose their pathway? How do people distinguish between the two? Psychosexual or Relationship. It has long been my view that these two elements cannot be separated but are part of the same continuum. I suspect many would disagree, but for me the totality of the people/person and the inclusion of their emotional and sexual worlds is paramount. I cannot imagine working with individuals and relationships and not paying serious reference and enquiry to all the elements of their personhood. I accept that for some they have a desire and preference to work within one domain and that this is part of the richness of the profession.
Coming back to my fuel gripe it pleases me that most approved trainings are in the same ball park in terms of fees which seems to me a recognition of the reality of what is costs to host a dedicated training. Shame the petrol stations do not feel the same!
– Judi Keshet-Orr, Founder and Course Director LDPRT
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