A useful heuristic: a credential means something in proportion to what it required. Supervised hours, an examination, a governing body that can revoke it, and a continuing education requirement are the four markers. Certifications with none of those are marketing.
Clinical licenses — the highest bar
Psychologist (PhD, PsyD), LMFT, LCSW, LPCC and equivalents. Graduate degree, thousands of supervised hours, state examination, a licensing board that disciplines, mandatory continuing education.
Verifiable publicly. Every US state publishes license status and disciplinary history, searchable by name, and it takes two minutes.
Sexuality-specific
AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (CST). The strongest credential in this field: a clinical license plus specialist coursework, supervised sexuality-specific hours, and a required attitudes process.
AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator (CSE) and Certified Sexuality Counselor are real and narrower — education and short-term counselling respectively, not psychotherapy. Worth checking which one someone actually holds, since the badges are frequently used loosely.
AASECT maintains a searchable directory. If someone claims certification, it’s checkable.
Somatic and body-based
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). A three-year training. Substantial, and note carefully: an SEP who isn’t otherwise licensed isn’t a clinician and shouldn’t be treating trauma as primary care.
Hakomi Certified Practitioner or Therapist. Multi-year training with supervision.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, delivered in levels — Level 1 covers trauma, later levels developmental material.
Focusing (TIFI certified), and board-certified dance/movement therapy (BC-DMT), which is a clinical credential.
Coaching
ICF credentials — ACC, PCC, MCC. The most established general coaching standard: logged coaching hours, mentor coaching, and an examination. It says the person is a trained coach. It says nothing about sexuality or trauma competence.
VITA, Somatica, Sex Coach U and comparable programmes. These vary considerably in length and rigour, and the better ones involve months of training with supervision. Worth asking how long it took and whether it included supervised practice — the answer separates them.
What means little
A weekend workshop described as a certification. A certification from an organisation founded by the person who trained them. Anything self-conferred — “master”, “expert”, “guide” — with no issuing body. Testimonials in place of credentials. And an impressive-sounding modality that returns nothing when you search for its governing organisation.
How to check, in three minutes
Search the state licensing board for a clinical license. Search the AASECT directory for a CST claim. Search the ICF directory for a coaching credential. And search the name of any training programme alongside the words “training requirements” — if you can’t find out what it took, that’s the answer.
Asking directly is also entirely reasonable: what is your training, how long was it, and did it include supervised practice? A well-trained practitioner answers this happily. The ones who don’t are covered here.