Carole Clements, MA, MFA

Carole Clements is Associate Professor of Contemplative Psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Human Sexuality, Dynamics of Intimate Relationships, Erotic Intelligence and Sexual Narratives. Carole is also a contemplatively trained LGBTQIA+ informed, inclusive, and responsive therapist in private practice, specializing in issues of gender and sexuality for monogamous and consensually non-monogamous partnerships and relationship constellations. Carole identifies as queer and prefers the pronouns they/them/their for multiplicity sake. [Multiplicity (n) the quality of being multiple, manifold, or various; a state of being many, or multiplex; the condition of being numerous.]
Carole’s research interests involve sexual complexity and the role White Supremacy plays in shaping affectional and sexual normativities. Carole has presented extensively on such topics, including: “The Shadow Side of Sex Positivity: Uncovering the White Fragility Taboo” at the Annual Conference of the American Association for Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT); “Queering Whiteness in Sexuality Leadership: An Exploration of White Fragility, Heteropatriarchy, and Sex Positivity” at the International Lecture Series of the Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians (ABSC); “Illuminating the Shadow Side of Sex Positivity: An Art Therapy Approach” at the Annual Conference of the American Art Therapy Association (AATA); “Queering Time and Space: Beyond the Binary of Gender and Sexual Orientation in Group Psychotherapy” and “Straddling the Gap: Gender and Sexuality in the Group Context” at the Annual Meeting of the American Group Therapy Association (AGPA).

Carole’s article “The Erotic Academy: How Mindfulness Misses the Mark,” addressing how mindfulness without erotic embodiment fails to uphold ethics of social justice, was published in Naropa Magazine in November 2016. Carole has co-authored “Addressing White Fragility Through Mindfulness-Based Inquiry in Sexuality Leadership” in the Handbook of Sexuality Leadership, published by Routledge in 2020 and “White Fragility and Decolonizing Sexuality Research” in Locating Critical Sexuality: Forecasting the Trends of ‘Glocal’ Sexual Literacy, published by Anthem Press in 2021. Carole is currently writing a book titled Sex Positivity and White-sex Supremacy: Ending Complicity in Black Body Erasure to be included in book series on Leading Conversations in Black Sexualities and Identities, to be published by Routledge in 2023.