I’m half way through my SFSI (San Francisco Sex Information) training and I absolutely love it. They’ve been doing it for a really long time (decades) and they’ve got their shit down. The days are 8 hours long, but they don’t seem like 8 hours because they’ve structured the day so well that each one just flies by.

They have training twice a year and hold an orientation/interviews for prospective students. I knew what it would entail, but when I got there I was actually much more nervous than I thought I would be. I think there were about 60-65 people who wanted to attend and about 25-30 got chosen. I’m not entirely sure why I got picked but am pleased as hell. Most of my classmates are either working in the field doing therapy, teaching, counseling, or are in school getting undergraduate or graduate degrees. I think (IIRC from our introductory class) there are a couple of other people like me in the class — we work regular, non-sex or education related jobs and are just personally interested in the information and want to do volunteer work.

I’m doing it because I’m fascinated by sex and want to help educate people about it and really want to volunteer answering questions from people that contact SFSI. But I’ve also learned a lot from it. Before I would have said that I was fairly open minded and comfortable talking about sex, but even with what I consider my “open minded-ness”, I’ve realized how many pre-conceived notions I’ve had or how much mis-information I’ve gathered and relied upon over the years.

Their non-judgmental communication style is not just good for giving out unbiased sex information, but it’s good for general communication as well. So is the ability to really listen to what someone is saying and getting what that person needs, not assuming what they need. I can’t say enough good things about this class and am thrilled that I’m taking it. I can’t wait to man the switchboard and take questions. I think it’ll be really educational, but it’ll also feel good to help empower people with information.