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I’m Martha Kauppi, a marriage and family therapist and AASECT-certified sex therapist. 

I have a private practice in Madison, Wisconsin and I train therapists all over the world to work with sex issues and consensual non-monogamies. I founded the Institute for Relational Intimacy to help people navigate the most intimate aspects of their personal relationships.

I’m Martha Kauppi, a  marriage and family therapist and AASECT-certified sex therapist. 

I founded the Institute for Relational Intimacy to help people negotiate the most intimate aspects of their personal relationships.

Live Training

Assessing and Treating Sex Issues in Psychotherapy (ATSIP) is a 15-week course that begins again in March 2024. Already completed Level 1? Join a consulting group to achieve Level 2 and for ongoing support.

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Learn Anytime

Webinars and on-demand courses to help you skillfully discuss sex and relational intimacy in therapy. Learn treatment interventions that will change your practice and your clients’ lives right away.

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Hire Martha

Hire Martha to facilitate a workshop, present a keynote, or train your team. She also consults with therapists individually about sex issues, polyamory and relational challenges.

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Polyamory: A Clinical Toolkit for Therapists and their Clients

by Martha Kauppi

Whether you're a therapist looking to expand your scope of practice, a polyamorous client seeking practical skills to apply to your own relationships, or someone who wants to learn more about healthy relationships, this book has something for you.

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Testimonials

   
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"Martha provides a very safe learning environment for what can be a sensitive subject. She not only explains why therapists should open the door to a dialogue about sexuality, but also provides an incredibly effective screening tool and information about what to do or ask, as many different scenarios unfold in sessions. As my knowledge base grew exponentially, I learned many ways to help my clients articulate what they want with regard to sex and how partners can express this to each other. Martha gives a tremendous amount of herself and her knowledge to the course and she is committed to each person’s learning and understanding. This is very clearly her passion."

 

- Lauren Ostrowski

"Martha has an incredible talent to teach complicated material in a digestible way…I am incredibly grateful for all I have learned from her."

 

- Kelly Scharver

"Martha is a consummate professional and dynamic teacher and speaker, with an amazing breadth and depth of knowledge about work with sexuality and couples…Martha’s work is really one of a kind"

 

- Katherine Waddell

"Martha’s course material is excellent, and I can't tell you how much I enjoy having access to quality information. I am asking my clients about sex more often, and am becoming more relaxed in my approach to it. I put a link to Sex Resources on my website's homepage, and consequently, I am getting more clients who have issues pertaining to sexuality. It's great!"

 

- Caron Smith

"One month after the end of Martha’s course, I am still organizing, integrating, and most importantly using the amazing wealth of very useful material. I will be happily referring colleagues when her course opens again!"

 

- Brenda Kerr Minno

"Martha is such an incredibly skilled teacher. She has such clarity in the way she presents, and she’s the complete expert in what she does. Her passion for her work comes across very strongly, and she has a way of being able to make complicated subjects really easy to understand."

 

- Nancy St. John

"Martha is amazing; her very calm and matter of fact approach to this topic creates an openness and acceptance in the class environment I have seldom experienced with other teachers.She makes herself available to answer questions, and is accepting and supportive of every student wherever they may be on the learning curve.I have taken many, many courses about sex and this was the best course I have ever taken."

 

- Alexa Elkington

"Martha is so generous and welcoming with her information and abundant resources, experience, online seminar leadership, and knowledge."

 

- Dian Rains Allen

"I started therapy with Martha after a significant life event, as many people do. It might sound a little odd, but after the second appointment with Martha it seemed like somehow she had the “instruction manual” for me. She always seemed to know how and when to challenge my limits around perceptions of issues. Martha was always respectful, but was not afraid to ask the important questions that really made me think about the ideas I was holding onto and whether they really served me well or not.

I saw Martha for about a year and managed to move a lot of “baggage” that I had carried with me for my entire adult life. After being able to leave some of this baggage behind, life is easier and more enjoyable. Things don’t upset or derail me like they used to, I have a new found ability to manage the problems that life throws at me with relative ease.

I can’t say enough good things about Martha, she was instrumental to the progress I made during my therapy and the tools she gave me to work out problems outside of therapy make all the difference."

 

- B

"After 20 years together, the two of us had fallen into some pretty non-effective communication ruts, but knew we were deeply committed to each other and our relationship. Through just a handful of sessions with Martha, we were able to explore new ways to be genuinely interested in each other’s point of view and access a deeper level of love, passion, communication and understanding. Martha’s gentle and focused approach allowed us to feel comfortable and safe to explore areas of ourselves that previously had held us back from being better partners for each other. We continue to use the tools Martha taught us, to broaden our relationship with ourselves and each other. Connecting with Martha has been a blessing for our marriage."

 

- C&B

"I’m a psychotherapist myself. When my 30-year marriage had sexual challenges, I had a hard time finding a therapist to work with. But with Martha, there was a difference: she could comfortably and confidently talk about intimate and potentially embarrassing topics, without any agenda about what I “should” do. She helped me discover where my feelings of shame and anger came from. I went home and rediscovered my love for my partner as we talked about things we should have discussed years ago. A year after Martha’s sessions, my relationship with my partner has shifted dramatically. We’re having fun and enjoying each other again, and our sexual relationship is the best it’s ever been."

 

- E

"Martha is like the Rosetta Stone of translating non-monogamy issues from a big, swirling mess of confusion to bite-sized pieces of clarity. It’s amazing how she can take the jumbled questions and issues I have in my head, and boil them down to a few simple basic principles. Having that kind of clarity, along with the hope that I’m not doomed, is one of the many reasons I feel SO lucky to have her expertise available."

 

-M (the daughter of therapists AND seeing a therapist, so I know good therapy!)

Free Training

Whether you're a therapist or a client looking to build relational skills, these free resources from Martha are a great place to start.

FREE E-BOOK: 10 Reasons Every Therapist Should Talk About Sex In Therapy

Discover why your clients need you to be prepared to discuss sex issues in the therapy room, and learn a quick and easy way to open the conversation.

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FREE WORKSHOP: How to Get A Strong Start Talking About Sex Issues In Therapy

In this two-part video series, Martha gives you the skills and language to confidently and competently tackle sex issues in therapy.

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FREE GUIDE: Handling Sexual Challenges Like a Rockstar

A sex therapist’s guide to building a stellar intimate relationship, no matter what challenges life throws at you.

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FREE GUIDE: 8 Steps To Opening Up Your Relationship

Would you like to feel comfortable, confident, and competent working with relational challenges involving polyamory and other forms of consensual non-monogamy?

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FREE GUIDE: Relationship Repair: Co-Creating Trust

This free guide will help you learn strategies to repair damage caused by deception and build honesty in your relationship - a key to supporting healthy polyamory.

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