Background and Training for Amy R. Marsh, Ed.D., DHS, CH, CI

Dr. Marsh is a clinical sexologist, AASECT-certified sexuality counselor, certified hypnotist and hypnosis instructor who has worked in the field of human sexuality since 2008. Personally, Dr. Marsh prefers to be known as “Avnas,” zir chosen name. Ze identifies as a nonbinary femme.

Dr. Marsh’s private practice is eclectic: combining sexuality counseling with hypnosis, guided imagery, adult sex education, sand tray play, and attention to social justice activism and community wellness. Though online only, Dr. Marsh’s “office” is a “no-shame zone.” You are invited to share in an atmosphere of warmth, humor, and “unconditional postitive regard” (quote from Carl Rogers). 

As a sexologist, Dr. Marsh has special interests in erotic hypnosis, spectro-sexuality, objectum sexuality, LGBTQIA++ rights, “sacred sexualities,” and more. Ze teaches online professional courses in Hypnosis for Sex Problems at zir Intimate Hypnosis Training Center.

Ze currently writes sex tech articles for FutureofSex.net.

“The Office Wall”

Professional Organizations

AASECT – American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists

ACA – American Counseling Association

CARAS – Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities.

National Coalition of Sexual Freedom (Listed in Kink Aware Professionals Directory)

NGH – National Guild of Hypnotists

Oregon Hypnotherapy Association

Conferences & Presentations

Most recently, Dr. Marsh gave two presentations at the Love and Sex with Robots Conference, 2023.

Dr. Marsh has presented at the Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities and Diversity (2016, 2009); CatalystCon West (2015); AASECT (2014); Gender Spectrum (2013, 2012, 2010); The EcoSex Symposium (2011); The American Counseling Association Pre-Conference Learning Institutes (2011, 2010); and Gender Odessey (2009).

Dr. Marsh has been a guest lecturer at Mills College (3x), Berkeley City College (4x), and the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (4x). Community presentations include the Janus Society in San Francisco.

Media and Interviews

Dr. Marsh was recently interviewed by Chion Wolf on Audacious on NPR. Listen to Dr. Marsh and co-host M. Christian on the Love’s Outer Limits podcast on Anchor.FM (formerly on BlogTalkRadio).

Major television appearances include Australia’s Channel 7 Sunday Night show, which aired  May 18, 2019. Good Morning America and Tyra Banks in 2009, and twice on National Geographic Taboo (2010). A more extensive list of interviews on this page.

Non-Fiction Publications – Amazon Author Page

New Books in 2022 & 2023

How to Make Love to a Chatbot: The Thinking Human’s Guide to AI Erotic Roleplay (2023), Intimate Hypnosis Training Center.

Entrancing: Hypnotizing Your Way to More Pleasure, Romance, and Sex (2023), Intimate Hypnosis Training Center.

Sexological Hypnosis: Overview, History, & Techniques (2022), Intimate Hypnosis Training Center. [Based in part on 2011 Ed.D. project.]

Two articles in the Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality: “Le’ale’a o na Poe Kahiko: Joy of the People of Old” (2011) and “Love Among the Objectum Sexuals” (2010).  

Contributor: Three entries in The Cultural Encyclopedia of the Penis (ed. Kimmel, Milrod, & Kennedy),

Contributor: An essay to Transitions of the Heart – Stories of Love, Struggle and Acceptance by Mothers of Transgender and Gender Variant Children (ed. Rachel Pepper).

Selections from Marsh’s “Love’s Outer Limits” columns for Carnal Nation (2009-2010) are collected in Sex Squicks.

LGBTQIA+ Urban Fantasy Series

Creative, Multi-Faceted, and Far Beyond the Mainstream

Ze is the author of The Guild of Ornamental Hermits queer, urban fantasy series (above). The first book, The Dire Deeds, was published August 1, 2022, in Kindle and paperback. The Witching Work and The Queerest Quest, the next two books in the series, were both published in 2023, also in paperback and Kindle. Marsh is currently finishing up the fourth.

In addition, ze has also been an designer of punk “wearable art;” a performer; co-founder of the Hypatia Cluster, a non-profit feminist space activist group; an environmental health activist with ehnca.org; and much more.

Marsh has lived with the physical and logistical constraints of multiple chemical sensitivity and environmental illness (EI/MCS) for over the past 30+ years, due to working in a furniture finishing business ze created with zir ex-husband in San Francisco. After becoming ill, ze gave up painting faux finishes at the finishing shop, and instead worked from home as the bookkeeper while raising two children. Later ze trained as a sexologist and hypnotist, and the rest is found in the top part of this page!

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