Dear JFKU PsyD Administration: We submit to you a complaint regarding the elective course,PSD7309.3Sex Therapy for Couples, that took place on February 27-28th, 2015 and was taught by Victor Bernstein, PhD. Enclosed herewith please find a petition signed by students who attended the course, and would like to voice their frustrations. There were significant failures to meet learning objectives, for which there were no objectives outlined whatsoever. Dr. Bernstein's inexperience in teaching, and his misunderstanding of the caliber of scholarship which is required from an APA Accredited institution is extremely problematic for students who left with no additional skills following this course. We were not taught any specific therapeutic techniques regarding sex therapy. We simply discussed the instructor’s experiences running a private practice for the last 30 years, and talked about our own knowledge in the subject. In addition, his teaching style was from a heternormative, white male perspective, with no empirical support to back up his claims, suggesting that we "follow our gut" with such topics as dual-relationships. We understand that this is Dr. Bernstein's first experience teaching at JFKU, and understand he has a wealth of experience to teach, however, his manner of teaching, and lack of presentation of evidence based theory of clinical treatment does not qualify as a doctoral level course. The members of the class who are in agreement with this perspective have signed the petition submitted herewith, not by undue influence, and by their own choice, which was held in utmost respect.

We ask that the PsyD department take action with this petition by responding to our request with either a) a full refund for this course or b) a new course, assured to be of doctoral level scholarship.