Tina Schermer Sellers
Professor Emerita of Marriage and Family Therapy
Email: tsellers@spu.edu
Education: BA, San Diego State University, 1982; MS, Seattle Pacific University, 1991; PhD, Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, 2012. At SPU since 1992.
Without a doubt Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers is doing unique and necessary work in the fields of marriage and sex therapy. As a PhD therapist who emphasizes a “sex-positive Gospel,” she wears many hats: licensed marriage and family therapist, associate professor of sexuality and medical family therapy, writer, speaker, and blogger on marriage and religious sexual shame.
Her blog, which is read by thousands each month, is filled with inspiring ideas on marriage, parenting, religion, sexuality, and culture. Dr. Schermer Sellers has also launched the Northwest Institute on Intimacy, whose mission is to provide training in sex therapy and spiritual intimacy to psychotherapists, and to provide a solid referral source for pastors, physicians and community leaders. Ironically, therapists typically do not get training in sexual health, and most clinical sexologists do not get training in relationship dynamics.
Dr. Sellers is also the founder of thankgodforsex.org, an online community of people who have experienced religious sexual shame and in their own words “tell stories of how, over time, they discovered a new way to relate to their bodies, sexuality, and God.”
Selected publications
Sellers, T. Beloved Sex – Healing Shame and Restoring the Sacred in Sexuality. In Sex, Gender, and Christianity, edited by Priscilla Pope-Levison and John R. Levison (Cascade Books, 2012).
Sellers, T. “Working with Couples Whose Sex Life Isn’t Working: Current Cultural Factors Diminishing Couple’s Sexual Satisfaction” in Persons and Sexuality – Interdisciplinary Reflections, edited by Alison Moore and Carlo Zuccarini. Interdisciplinary Press, 2009. Oxford, United Kingdom.
Grauf-Grounds, C., Sellers, T. “Collaboration in Action: Creating Internships and Potential Jobs for Medical Family Therapists: Lessons Learned”. Family, Systems and Health. Spring 2006. Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 230–37.
Sellers, T., Batts, J., Thomas, K., Ostman, C. Women Called: A qualitative study of Christian women dually called to motherhood and career. The Journal of Psychology and Theology – 2006 Special Edition on Gender and Christianity. 2005. Vol. 33, No. 3, 198–209.
Sellers, T. (Spring 2000) “A Model of Collaborative Healthcare in Outpatient Medical Oncology.” Families, Systems & Health. Vol 18, No. 1: 19–33.
Please view Dr. Schermer Sellers’ CV (PDF) for additional publications.