An area most clinicians
sidestep. I've made it
my life's work.

Most clinicians aren't trained in this

Sexual health receives minimal coverage in most graduate psychology programs. A general therapist may be warm and skilled — and still not have the clinical vocabulary, diagnostic knowledge, or treatment frameworks to actually help. Fifteen years of focused practice in this area is genuinely different from a generalist who occasionally sees these concerns.

The body and the mind aren't separate

Sexual health concerns almost always involve both. Pelvic pain has psychological components. Low desire has physiological ones. Anxiety around sex lives in the nervous system, not just in thought patterns. I work across all of these dimensions because treating one in isolation rarely produces lasting change.

You deserve to be taken seriously

A lot of people arrive having already been dismissed — told their pain isn't real, their concerns are normal, or that there's nothing to be done. That experience of not being believed is its own kind of harm. I take these concerns seriously because I know how common, how disruptive, and how genuinely treatable they are with the right support.

Vulvodynia

Chronic vulvar pain without an identifiable cause. Often described as burning, stinging, or rawness — it can be constant or triggered by touch or pressure. Frequently misdiagnosed or dismissed for years before receiving a name.

Vaginismus

Involuntary muscle contractions that make vaginal penetration painful or impossible. Often rooted in the nervous system's learned protective responses — which means it responds very well to treatment that works at that level.

Vestibulodynia

Pain localized to the vestibule — the tissue at the vaginal opening — typically provoked by touch or pressure. One of the most common causes of painful sex, and one of the most underdiagnosed.

Dyspareunia

Painful intercourse — before, during, or after. Can have multiple contributing causes that require coordinated assessment across medical, physiological, and psychological dimensions to address effectively.

How I Work With Pelvic Pain

Psychological treatment for pelvic pain is not about suggesting the pain is in your head. It's about addressing the very real ways that chronic pain reshapes the nervous system, affects how you relate to your body, and creates patterns of avoidance, fear, and relationship tension that take on a life of their own.

I work alongside physiotherapists, gynecologists, and other specialists when appropriate. I help clients understand their diagnosis, navigate a healthcare system that often fails this population, and build a life that isn't organized around pain.

Online Workshop

Sexual Pain: A Psychological Approach

A five-module video course covering the psychology, physiology, and treatment of sexual pain — including communication with partners and strategies for rebuilding pleasure. Developed from 15 years of clinical work. Available anywhere, at your own pace.

Low Desire

A persistent absence of interest in sexual activity that causes personal distress or relationship difficulty. Low desire has physiological, psychological, and relational contributors — and usually more than one at a time. Effective treatment starts with understanding which factors are actually driving it for this particular person.

Stress, hormonal shifts, medication side effects, relationship dynamics, unresolved conflict, and a history of negative sexual experiences can all play a role. So can simply never having had a sexual experience that felt worth wanting to repeat.

Mismatched Libido

Desire discrepancy — where one partner consistently wants sex more than the other — is one of the most common sources of relationship tension I see. It creates a dynamic where the higher-desire partner feels rejected and the lower-desire partner feels pressured, which makes desire decrease further.

This is a relational issue as much as an individual one, and it benefits from being addressed in that context. I work with both individuals and couples navigating this pattern.

Performance anxiety

Worry about how you're performing during sex — maintaining arousal, satisfying a partner, doing things "right." This kind of self-monitoring is incompatible with genuine arousal and tends to create the very outcomes it's trying to prevent.

Anticipatory anxiety

Dreading sex before it happens — often because of past negative experiences. When past pain, embarrassment, or disconnection gets encoded as a prediction about the future, avoidance becomes a reasonable-feeling response that keeps the anxiety intact.

Body image and self-consciousness

Difficulty being present during intimacy because of preoccupation with how your body looks or what your partner is thinking. This is more common than people realize and responds well to approaches that address both the thought patterns and the underlying beliefs driving them.

Anxiety following difficult experiences

Sexual anxiety that develops after a painful experience, a period of illness, relationship rupture, or sexual trauma. This often has a strong neurological component — the nervous system has learned to treat intimacy as a threat — and benefits from trauma-informed approaches like EMDR or ART.

What's actually happening

Erection depends on a complex interplay of vascular, neurological, hormonal, and psychological factors. Anxiety alone is sufficient to interfere with arousal — and a single difficult experience can create an anticipatory anxiety cycle that makes future difficulties more likely.

Even when there are physiological contributors, the psychological layer almost always requires attention. Medical treatment without addressing the anxiety, avoidance, and relationship impact typically produces incomplete results.

How I work with this

I work with men and couples navigating erectile concerns with honesty and without judgment. That means understanding the full picture — what's contributing, what's been tried, what the relationship context looks like — and developing an approach that addresses the actual drivers rather than just the symptom.

For couples, this is relational work as much as individual work. A partner's response — however well-intentioned — can either maintain the anxiety cycle or help disrupt it. I bring both people into that conversation when it's appropriate.

Identity & Orientation

Questions around sexual identity and orientation deserve thoughtful, unhurried space. I work with people across the full spectrum of gender identity and relationship structure — without a predetermined framework or agenda about what the answers should be.

Compulsive Sexual Behaviour

When sexual behaviour starts to feel out of control or is causing real harm — to relationships, work, or self-esteem — it's worth exploring what's underneath it. I approach this without shame and without moralistic frameworks that often make this kind of help harder to seek.

Sex After Illness or Injury

Cancer treatment, chronic illness, injury, and major surgery can profoundly affect sexuality and intimacy. I've delivered workshops at cancer centres and worked directly with individuals navigating these transitions — bringing clinical expertise into a space where it's often missing.

Intimacy After Relationship Rupture

Infidelity, betrayal, and relationship trauma leave marks on intimacy that don't resolve on their own. Rebuilding — whether in the same relationship or a new one — often requires deliberate work on the patterns, beliefs, and nervous system responses that formed in response to what happened.

Clinical Approach

Evidence-based. Neurobiologically
grounded. Tailored to you.

The clinical foundation I bring to every session is consistent. How I actually work with each person is entirely individual. I draw from a range of evidence-based approaches — using whichever combination actually fits the person in front of me.

Most sexual health concerns have neurological underpinnings — meaning they're not just about how we think about things consciously, but about how the brain and nervous system have been shaped by experience. Understanding that is often genuinely therapeutic in itself. A lot of people have spent years blaming themselves for things their nervous system was doing entirely without their permission.

Not Ready for Therapy?

Start with the workshop.

The online workshop on sexual pain covers what most people would get in the first 5–10 sessions of therapy — at your own pace, from anywhere. Individual modules or the full package.

First Session

Full refund if it isn't the right fit.

If after the first session you decide not to continue, I offer a full refund — no questions asked. You can come in, experience the work, and leave without financial risk.

Common Questions

What does a session cost?

Sessions are $235 for 50 minutes. Most extended health plans cover Registered Psychologist services. You pay at the session and receive a receipt to submit to your insurer.