Become a Chemsex Specialist
Built for clinicians who want to do this work better.
Therapists • Addiction Counselors • Psychologists • Social Workers • Sex Therapists • Physicians • Coaches • Treatment Professionals • Harm Reduction Professionals
Launching February 2027
Join the Chemsex Collective waitlist to be among the first to receive information about curriculum, training dates, enrollment, and upcoming events. Email chemsexcollective@gmail.com or sign up through the
What is a Chemsex Specialist?
A Chemsex Specialist is a clinician or helping professional who has received advanced training to address the complex intersection of sexuality and substance use. These specialists are prepared to assess and support people engaged in sexualized drug use with both clinical skill and deep cultural understanding. This approach combines harm reduction, relapse prevention, sexual health, and sexual integration, all within a sex-positive and affirming framework. The aim is not limited to achieving abstinence from substances or sexual behaviors, but rather to help clients build greater choice, connection, pleasure, and personal agency in their lives.
This course has been developed and will be taught by Dr. David Fawcett, Mell McCracken, and Dr. Patrick Lockwood.
Our Story
Why We Teach
Chemsex sits at an intersection that many clinicians were never taught how to navigate. Conversations about substance use often leave sex and sexuality out. We created the Chemsex Collective because we believe clinicians need a place where conversations about sexuality and substance use can happen together.
For all three of us, this work comes from years of sitting with people whose experiences did not fit neatly into traditional models of addiction or sexual health. We have seen what happens when sexuality is misunderstood, when difference is mistaken for dysfunction, and when shame enters the treatment room disguised as clinical concern. We have also seen what becomes possible when people are met with curiosity, skill, compassion, and respect for their sexual agency.
That is why we teach. We want clinicians to leave this training with more than information about chemsex. We want them to have the confidence to ask better questions, recognize their own assumptions, understand the function beneath behavior, and help clients move toward greater choice, pleasure, and agency.
Chemsex Collective exists because better understanding can lead to better care—and better care can change what recovery makes possible.
The Training Program
Advanced training for clinicians working at the intersection of sex and substance use.
Chemsex requires more than an understanding of substance use alone.
The Chemsex Specialist Training brings together clinical education, case application, assessment, treatment planning, sexual health, harm reduction, and supervised practice to help clinicians develop a more nuanced approach to sexualized drug use.
Rather than beginning with the assumption that sex or substance use is inherently pathological, participants learn to ask a more important question:
What is happening for this person and what kind of support do they actually need?
WHAT’S INCLUDED
30+ Hours of Advanced Clinical Training
10 Hours of Group Supervision
Three Intensive Training Modules
Case-Based Learning + Clinical Application
Knowledge Checks + Integration
Practical Assessment + Treatment Planning Tools
Access to a worldwide network of other clinicians working in Chemsex spaces
Meet our facilitators
Dr. David Fawcett, PhD, LCSW
Dr. David Fawcett is a clinical sexologist, psychotherapist, author, and internationally recognized expert in chemsex and sexualized drug use. With more than three decades of experience in addiction, mental health, and sexual health, his work focuses on the intersection of substance use and sexuality and on helping individuals develop sustainable recovery while rebuilding healthy, fulfilling sexual lives. Chemsex Recovery Guide
He is the author of Lust, Men, and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery and Sex Under the Influence: Understanding and Healing from Sexualized Drug Use. He also co-created a residential treatment program addressing sex, pornography, and chemsex and has provided training and consultation to clinicians and organizations in the United States and Europe. Chemsex Recovery Guide
David brings decades of clinical experience, research-informed practice, and deep understanding of LGBTQ+ communities to the Chemsex Collective, helping clinicians move beyond stigma and develop more informed, nuanced approaches to chemsex assessment and treatment.
Dr. Patrick Lockwood, PsyD
Dr. Patrick Lockwood is a licensed clinical psychologist, educator, and clinical consultant with extensive experience in addiction treatment, mental health, clinical supervision, and program development. His work emphasizes evidence-informed, ethical, and individualized care, with particular expertise in substance use disorders, complex relational dynamics, and LGBTQIA+-affirming treatment. Lockwood Consulting Solutions
Dr. Lockwood is a professor at California Lutheran University and has worked across treatment centers, nonprofit organizations, private practice, and consulting settings. He is also the author of The Fear Problem and host of The Psychology Checkup, where he explores mental health, psychology, wellness, and neuroscience. The Psychology Checkup – YouTube
His work with the Chemsex Collective brings together addiction psychology, neuroscience, clinical assessment, and a nuanced understanding of the motivations underlying sexualized drug use. He approaches chemsex with curiosity rather than assumption, helping clinicians understand not only the behavior itself, but the function it may serve for the individual. His recent public work specifically includes chemsex and frameworks for understanding different motivations for sexualized drug use.
Mell McCracken, CADC II, ASAT, RACS
Mell McCracken (they/them) is the National Director of Chemsex and LGBTQ+ Programs at No Matter What Recovery and a nationally and internationally recognized educator, author, treatment developer, and speaker specializing in chemsex and sexualized drug use. They oversee chemsex programming and curriculum development across No Matter What Recovery’s clinical programs and have spent over a decade working at the intersection of substance use, sexuality, and LGBTQ+ health. https://nomatterwhatrecovery.com
Mell’s work focuses on developing sex-positive, affirming approaches to chemsex treatment and recovery, with particular attention to shame, moral injury, sexual integration, and the ways bias can shape clinical responses to sexuality. They are also a faculty member with the International Institute of Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP) and regularly provide professional education on chemsex, sexualized drug use, and LGBTQ+ affirming care. IITAP
Through the Chemsex Collective, Mell brings a clinical and community-centered perspective that challenges clinicians to move beyond simply asking how to stop a behavior and toward understanding what the behavior means, what function it serves, and how people can build lives that include greater choice, connection, sexual agency, and possibility.
LAUNCHING FEBRUARY 2027
Chemsex Specialist Training
Professional education through the
International Institute for Clinical Sexology
Join the waitlist to receive information about training dates, enrollment, curriculum, and upcoming events.
