Sexual health course satisfying community needs

An understanding of sexuality is a vital pre-requisite for any professional who interacts with people on a day-to-day basis, according to Dr Patricia Weerakoon.

The coordinator of the University of Sydney's sexual health Master's program, Dr Weerakoon says there is currently an acute shortage of people qualified to offer much-needed sexual health guidance and counselling within the community.

"Anybody who deals with human beings has to deal with the sexual side of their being," she says. "It's an integral part of our personality. If you're dealing with human beings, you're dealing with sexual health. We'd love to have every professional who's dealing with human beings as any part of their job to be trained in some way to deal with sexual concerns."

Dr Weerakoon says key aspects of the Master's course continue to see it regarded internationally as a groundbreaking academic initiative.

"The whole ethos of the course is about being holistic in terms of sexual health," she says. "We approach sexual health from the paradigm of health and pleasure and wellness. We're probably the only course anywhere in the world that has that particular feature."

Offered as a one-year full-time or two-year part-time program, Dr Weerakoon says the Master's course is designed to benefit a broad spectrum of professionals.

"We have everyone from sexual health physicians, sex educators, tertiary teachers through to social workers, nurses and people who are working in the media," she says. "We've even had a couple of sex workers go through our coursework program. Our students are generally people who are interested in counselling and therapy, or have a desire to go into PhD research or sexuality education."

The program's online component, meantime, is also allowing students in countries including the US, Canada, Egypt, Cyprus, Malta, Pakistan, Norway, Ireland and the UK to access the degree.

A respected academic and sex educator, Dr Weerakoon is also involved in transforming attitudes towards sex within the Church while providing Christians of all ages with guidance on reconciling their faith with sexual desire.

"I have been at church meetings where we have taken in sex toys, vibrators and lubricants and discussed them in church," she says. "We passed them around and discussed how pleasuring each other within a committed relationship is part of what God's plan is all about."

Interacting as a counsellor with a variety of Church groups for the past four-years, Dr Weerakoon says the stigma traditionally associated with sex within a religious context can largely be attributed to inaccurate interpretation of certain biblical texts.

"It goes back to the old Augustinian belief that sex was the original sin," she explains. "But nowhere in the Bible does it say that sex was a sin. It has nothing to do with sin. But unfortunately a lot of parts of the Bible, like what the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians Ch 7), says about it being better to be single, and that if you can't bear your urges then get married, are often misinterpreted."