Transcend Training Institute
Built by clinicians
who do this work.
Tami-Lee Duncan and Cassandra Kleefman are registered psychologists with specialized practices in sexual health. This program exists because both of them kept having the same conversation with colleagues: there is no training program that does this properly. So they built one.
Program Director
Tami-Lee
Duncan
Registered Psychologist · M.Ed., Counselling Psychology · Victoria, BC and Edmonton, AB
I have been a registered psychologist since 2012, and sexual health has been the core of my practice for most of that time. It started by accident. Early in my career, my supervisors thought it would be amusing to send clients with sexual dysfunction my way. It turns out I do not rattle easily, and I discovered a genuine skill for making uncomfortable topics feel safe. I have been working in this area ever since.
My practice spans sexual dysfunction, pelvic pain, trauma, and couples therapy, with locations in Victoria, BC and Edmonton, AB. Alongside clinical work, I have spent nearly a decade as an annual guest lecturer at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine, teaching medical students how to take a sexual history and assess and treat sexual dysfunction. I am also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta, where I have trained and consulted the next generation of counsellors since 2017.
I developed managingsexualpain.com, a five-module online workshop for clients navigating pelvic and vulvar pain, which reflects the same instinct that drives this training program: if the resources do not exist, build them. This certification program is the clinical training version of that same conviction.
- Practice
- Transcend Wellness, Victoria BC (2024 to present) and Transcend Psychological Services, Edmonton AB (2012 to present)
- Academic
- Adjunct Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta (2017 to present)
- Medical ed.
- Annual guest lecturer, U of A Faculty of Medicine MED 526 Physicianship (2016 to present, 15 consecutive years)
- Recognition
- Top 40 Under 40, Edify Magazine (2020) · Acknowledged in Canadian Family Physician (2025)
- Registration
- College of Alberta Psychologists #3777 (2012 to present) · College of Psychologists of BC #2425 (2018 to present)
Program Co-Director
Cassandra
Kleefman
Registered Psychologist · M.C., Counselling · Edmonton, AB
I am a registered psychologist with a specialty in sexual health, pelvic floor pain, and couples therapy. What drew me to this area was not a single moment but a pattern: I kept noticing how many people were arriving in clinical settings having already spent years being under-served, misdiagnosed, or told that what they were experiencing was not a real clinical concern.
My training spans intensive sex therapy, pelvic health, EMDR, Gottman couples therapy, and emotionally focused therapy. I completed intensive sex therapy training at the University of Guelph and a sexual health certificate at the University of Alberta, and I have trained extensively in the intersection of psychological and physiological contributors to sexual pain. I am currently an Associate Professor at City University of Seattle and a Sessional Instructor at Concordia University of Edmonton.
Alongside my clinical work, I speak publicly on sexual health at professional conferences and in the community. I presented at the Sexual Health Alliance Annual Conference in 2025 and the ASPSH Biannual Conference in 2024, and I am a regular invited speaker at MacEwan University. Education and clinical work are not separate for me. This program is an extension of both.
- Practice
- Transcend Psychological Services, Edmonton AB (2022 to present)
- Academic
- Associate Professor, City University of Seattle (2025 to present) · Sessional Instructor, Concordia University of Edmonton (2025 to present)
- Conferences
- Sexual Health Alliance Annual Conference (2025) · ASPSH Biannual Conference (2024) · Canadian Psychological Association (2017)
- Training
- Intensive Sex Therapy, U of Guelph · Sexual Health Certificate, U of Alberta
- Recognition
- Indigenous Student Scholarship, U of Alberta (2023) · Dean's List, City University of Seattle (2020, 2021)
Medical advisory
Physician Contributor
& Medical Reviewer
The medical content in this program is reviewed and co-developed by a physician with specialized expertise in reproductive, sexual, and women's health. Dr. Kostov ensures that the clinical medicine embedded in this curriculum reflects current evidence and practice standards, and she leads the video instruction for all medically focused content.
Physician Contributor
Dr. Sanja
Kostov
MD, CCFP, FCFP · Associate Professor, Family Medicine, University of Alberta · Edmonton, AB
Dr. Kostov is a family physician with fellowship-level certification and a practice focused on reproductive, sexual, and women's health. She holds dual academic appointments at the University of Alberta as Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is the Reproductive, Sexual and Women's Health Consultant Physician at MacEwan University Health Centre and serves as Pre-Clerkship Director for the MD Program at the University of Alberta.
Her academic work in sexual health is extensive and peer-reviewed. She authored "The 5 Ps need an update: toward a comprehensive sexual history" in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (2023), co-authored research on lubricant use in sexual activity published in the Canadian Family Physician (2025), and served as Course Director for Reproductive Medicine and Urology in the University of Alberta MD program. She received the Janus Research Grant from the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2024 and was recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 by Edify Magazine in 2023.
Her contribution to this program reflects a shared conviction that psychological and medical training in sexual health belong in genuine dialogue, not in separate silos. The medical modules in this curriculum are stronger for it.
- Appointments
- Associate Professor, Family Medicine, U of A (2025) · Adjunct Associate Professor, Ob/Gyn, U of A · Pre-Clerkship Director, MD Program (2025)
- Clinical
- Reproductive, Sexual & Women's Health Consultant Physician, MacEwan University Health Centre (2024 to present) · Family Medicine Obstetrics, Royal Alexandra Hospital (2014 to present)
- Publications
- CMAJ (2023) · Can Fam Physician (2025) · J Grad Med Educ (2023) · Journal of Sexual Medicine (2024)
- Recognition
- Janus Research Grant, CFPC (2024) · Top 40 Under 40, Edify Magazine (2023) · Teaching Excellence Award, U of A (2022)
What we believe
The training gap is real.
So is the cost of it.
"The training gap is real. So is the cost of it."
Graduate programs in psychology, social work, and counselling devote fewer than three hours to human sexuality on average. Clinicians leave their training without the language, the diagnostic knowledge, or the clinical framework to meet one of the most common concerns people bring to therapy.
What follows is predictable: clients are not asked. Referrals go nowhere. People spend years being told their concerns are normal, psychological, or not worth investigating, by clinicians who simply were not trained to investigate them. This is not a failure of individual clinicians. It is a structural gap in how training programs are built.
This program is our answer to that. Built from years of combined specialized practice, medical education, and a shared conviction that clinicians who want to do this work deserve training that actually prepares them for it.
The curriculum is designed in alignment with the proposed competency standards of the Canadian College of Sex Therapy, currently in development as Canada's national credentialing body for sex therapists.
Recognition and media
The work speaks.
Occasionally, so does the press.
Tami-Lee Duncan
- CBC Radio: recurring expert contributor on Edmonton AM and RadioActive across 20 episodes (2015 to 2023), covering sexuality, relationships, and pandemic effects on couples
- Global News Morning: television appearances on COVID and relationship health, infidelity, and job-related relationship strain (2020)
- Chatelaine Magazine: referenced as a leading Canadian voice on sexuality (2016)
- Flare Magazine: expert reference on sexuality and pandemic-related desire (2020)
- Canadian Family Physician: acknowledged as contributing expert (2025)
- Vue Weekly: biweekly Sex-Ology column (2015 to 2017)
- Re:Pro Health Podcast: three episodes on sexual resilience, shame, and sexual dysfunction (2022, 2025)
- Top 40 Under 40, Edify Magazine (2020)
- U of A Hospital Psychiatry Grand Rounds: invited presenter on sexual health in clinical practice and vulvodynia (2017, 2018)
Cassandra Kleefman
- Sexual Health Alliance Annual Conference: "A Clinician's Guide to Treating Pelvic Floor Pain" (2025)
- ASPSH Biannual Conference: "From Sexual Pain to Pleasure" (2024) and ASPSH Online Workshop: "Unmasking the Myths of Sexual Pain" (2025)
- MacEwan University: annual invited speaker on sex therapy and sexual health (2023, 2024, 2025)
- Reproductive and Perinatal Trauma Centre: "Sex Therapy for Couples" (2026)
- Podcast appearances: Girls Gone Wellness, The Pepper and Dylan Show, Soul Haven Podcast, It's Okay Man Podcast, All I Ever Wanted Podcast, Breaking Free Foundation (2023 to 2026)
- Canadian Psychological Association Annual Conference: poster presentation on sexual assault characteristics (2017)
- Indigenous Student Scholarship, University of Alberta (2023) and Dean's List, City University of Seattle (2020, 2021)
Train with people who
do this every day.
Every module in this program is built from direct clinical experience, not synthesized from textbooks or assembled from a distance. When you train with us, you are learning from clinicians who are still in the room with these presentations, every week.
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