PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR RELIGIOUS MALE PROFESSIONALS
A Professional Training Programme with Ta'ir Wasserman
Equipping male therapists and other professionals with the knowledge, clinical understanding and confidence to work effectively with intimacy-related issues.
January 2027 intake
Course Outline
As a male clinician, you will work with married men, with couples, and with single men seeking marriage. In each case,understanding intimacy from a professional female perspective is essential. It is common for clinicians to feel confident inthis area, sometimes drawing on personal experience as men. But working from instinct, however well-intentioned, is notthe same as working from a clinical framework, and this holds true regardless of gender.
In our community in particular,where men and women largely occupy separate spaces, it is especially important for male practitioners to gain a genuineclinical and halachic understanding of the female experience. This serves female clients indirectly, and deepens yourunderstanding of both genders in every case you hold.Intimacy, sex, and sexuality are subjects that surround us. They are discussed, portrayed, and referenced constantly, yetrarely addressed in a constructive, professional way. Even experienced clinicians often avoid these topics directly withclients.
Working effectively in this area requires both accurate knowledge and the professional comfort to engage with itdirectly.While many in the religious community first formally encounter this subject matter during chosson or kallah classes, its relevance in a person's development and life begins earlier and continues throughout.
This course has two aims. First, to provide an in-depth grounding in sexuality and intimacy for use in your professionalwork: educating, guiding, assessing, and referring clients appropriately. Case material will be used throughout to practiceapplying what is learned. Second, to support your own professional readiness in this area. Comfort and clarity in your ownunderstanding of sexuality is part of what allows you to create a safe, effective space for clients to raise these issues withyou. Structured journaling prompts are provided to support this personal processing between sessions.
This course combines Torah hashkafah with current clinical and scientific knowledge on this sensitive subject.
Course Schedule
Tuesday evenings, 8:00-10:30 PM (Israel time), starting January 5, 2027.
05.01.27 Introductions, syllabus, attitudes and conceptions about sexuality and intimacy.
12.01.27 To be a man, to be a woman: differences in response, including sexuality across the life cycle.
19.01.27 Physiology and anatomy, including teaching adolescents about intimacy.
02.02.27 Sexual Difficulties I: pain, lack of desire, pathology, comorbidity, infertility.
16.02.27 Sexual Difficulties II: erectile dysfunction, same-gender attraction, pornography and addiction.
02.03.27 Couples dynamics. An understanding of couples dynamics and its influence in the bedroom, using different couples approaches and their use for treatment of intimacy-related issues.
09.03.27 Treatment. Learning about different treatment methods for the difficulties discussed, such as sensate focus, laser, physical therapy, psychotherapy, dilators, medication, and more.
30.03.27 The PLISSIT model: practical application. Introduction to trauma.
06.04.27 Sexual (and non-sexual) trauma. (C)PTSD and its ramifications on intimacy. Final assignment due.
18.05.27 Working in this field within the religious community, and as a religious person. Challenges, sensitivities and solutions. Case studies. Closure.
About the Presenter
Ta'ir studied clinical psychology at the VU University in Amsterdam, and after moving to Israel, went on to receive her Kallah Teacher and Balanit certificates from the Rabbinate of Israel. Since then she has continued working as both a Family and Marital Therapist and a Sex Therapist.
Ta'ir is a graduate of the post-master's program in sexology at the Sexual Health Department (“Shesek”) of Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, and is trained in EFT, IFS, AEDP, and Gottman.
She lectures widely on sexuality within the religious community, and is the creator of the “Dollit” doll, used by therapists, medical staff, and kallah teachers in sex education and counseling.
Ta'ir Wasserman, her husband, and their seven children live in Petach Tikvah.
Attendance
This course involves in-depth material that builds session over session. If you miss a class, you are expected to view the recording before the next session.
Participation
Group discussion is a core part of this course, and screens must be on throughout so the group can see one another.
Course Requirements
Final Assignment
A written assignment is handed in at session 9. Your journaling can serve as inspiration for it, but the journals themselves remain private and are never handed in.
Journaling
Weekly journaling prompts will help you process the material personally. This is a private practice; journals are not submitted or reviewed, and are not used as a discussion tool in class.
Learning Partner
This course must be attended together with a designated learning partner, visible together on camera for the full session. Participants joining without their learning partner present will not be admitted to that session.
Rifka, Jerusalem
The content was phenomenal and the delivery was second to none. Tair was so professional yet still so understanding and empathetic.
D.T, NY
Thank you so much for telling me about it. Really good training with excellent combination of information and delivery​​
Shoshana, Beit Shemesh
Absolutely fantastic!! She is a great presenter...very human..very practical...gained a lot and look forward to using this to better service the couples in my practice...