It isn’t:

• Having sex with your therapist or your therapist watch you while getting intimate

• Sharing graphic details unless you think they’re useful.

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It is:

• A non-judgmental, affirming space to talk about sex.

• Looking at how intimacy fits into your patterns, coping skills, and relationships.

• Exploring how body image and self-esteem affect desire, arousal, and satisfaction.

• Recognizing that sexuality lives within our identities and contexts (culture, gender, orientation, power, health)—it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

• Talking about the interaction between intimacy and trauma—how reclaiming your body can include discussing your erotic life and, when you choose, using intimacy as part of healing.

• Building skills: consent, communication, pleasure mapping, and values-aligned boundaries.

• Examining how early experiences, family messages, culture, and religion shaped your beliefs about sex and relationships.

• Discussing how erotic material—porn, erotica, sexting, and media—influences your expectations, knowledge, and comfort with sexuality (without shame or moralizing).

• Exploring how mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, bipolar), neurodiversity (ADHD, autism, sensory needs), and substance use/addiction impact desire, arousal, boundaries, communication, and intimacy—and creating practical plans (e.g., medication/SSRI effects, sober-sex or harm-reduction plans, executive-function supports) to improve connection.