Nourishing Relationships
Trust, Intimacy and Consent
Course Description
Trust, intimacy, and consent are essential to all relationships – including connections found within wider collectives and communities, whether they be personal or professional. Nourishing connections is not a static process, rather one that must be tended to over time for connections to flourish and endure. Centered accountability is a cornerstone of sustaining these bonds, making it possible to heal wounds and navigate conflict with intention and care when it emerges.
In this class, we will explore tangible practices to nurture relationships and move towards a more liberatory future. Faculty will guide participants to consider how these values can be applied in both interpersonal and collective work, introducing tools and practices that can be deployed in virtual and in-person contexts. Participants will walk away with an understanding of how to attend to our individual wants, needs, and desires to show up more fully in our work and in our personal lives. We will also discuss how to strengthen ties with ourselves and each other when tested.
What you’ll learn:
Strategies to cultivate trust and consent in provider/client, interpersonal, and collective relationships
How to apply strategies such as harm reduction, boundary mapping, and safety and care planning to deepen intimacy and connection and cultivate networks of care
How to define consent in relationships beyond a binary, yes/no structure
Practices to build our collective capacity for accountability in a transformative way
Strategies to cultivate relationships and intimacy virtually and in online spaces
How embodied pleasure can serve as a pathway toward presence, boundaries, and connection
Faculty
Dawn Serra, Sex & Relationship Coach and Pleasure Advocate
Dawn is a therapeutic sex and relationship coach and pleasure advocate. As a white, cis, disabled, queer, fat, survivor, Dawn's work is a fiercely compassionate invitation for each of us to deepen our relationships with our bodies and our pleasure as an antidote to the trauma, disconnection, and isolation so many of us feel. Your pleasure matters. Your body is wise. And Dawn's work is all about creating spaces and places for you to explore what that means on your terms
Kai Werder, Educator, Care Laborer, and Writer
Kai aims to curate healing spaces that invite curiosity, connection, and transformation. Kai is a community social worker, certified sex educator, community care coach, and writer who has a decade of experience providing social-justice informed education and 1:1 healing support. They believe that individual and interpersonal healing lends itself to systemic transformation and vice versa. Kai currently serves as care lead with Spring Up, a transformative-justice collective focused on cultivating a culture of consent and liberty for all.
“Excellent education. Very attentive and attuned to accessibility needs. The notion of consent in therapy is so nuanced and I felt like I got a lot more ideas and approaches for how to handle this.”
What You Get
18 videos (2+ hours of content) full of history, research, and unique perspectives
Exclusive readings and resources
Discussion with a creative community of professionals and advocates inside the course
A reference and resource list to aid ongoing learning and exploration on the course topics
Audience
This course is for:
Mental health and physical health professionals, including: clinicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, peer specialists, recovery support specialists, housing specialists, nurse practitioners, wellness support workers, coaches, holistic practitioners
Students
Activists
Family members and advocates
Anyone who works or plans to work with people experiencing mental health-related challenges
“I especially loved the framing of increasing choice as part of consent, and the work around care planning. The instructors had a very yes and…’ viewpoint.”
Take the Class
This self-paced course is hosted on Mighty Networks, home to IDHA's School for Transformative Mental Health. This virtual community space supports sustained learning, engagement with other students, access to supplemental resources, and opportunities to interact with your faculty.
We provide the option of enrolling for at the general ($20) or supporter rate ($40) to ensure the sustainability of IDHA’s work and enable us to create more accessible, cutting-edge training content.
CLICK THE BUTTONS BELOW TO JOIN US ON MIGHTY NETWORKS!
If you already have an account, simply log in to proceed to the course.
If you’re new to IDHA’s Mighty Network, you will be prompted to create an account and then receive access to course content.
FAQ
When does the course start and finish?
This is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course, content, or platform?
We love hearing your feedback on what we can do to improve our efforts to bring transformative mental health to the public! Shoot us an email at contact@idha-nyc.org and let us know your thoughts. If you disagree with any of the perspectives shown in this course - that's great! We encourage differing perspectives, so feel free to leave a comment in the course - so long as your comments remain respectful and you speak from your own point of view.
I am a person struggling with mental health issues/a family member of someone who is struggling. Can I take the course?
Absolutely! Just note that this course is geared towards professionals in the field, and will speak mostly to those working in a formal support role. However, we welcome anyone who wants to join!
Are refunds available?
At this time, all sales are final, we cannot offer refunds after purchase.