Sex & Intimacy Therapy
Sex-positive, culturally responsive therapy for sexual concerns, intimacy barriers, sexual trauma, religious sexual shame, and LGBTQ+ identity —provided by an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (CST).
Sexuality and the body are important parts of human life, yet they are often surrounded by shame, silence, cultural taboos, medical concerns, trauma, or conflicting values. I am an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (CST) and have completed specialized training in Sex Therapy & Sexuality Education at the University of Michigan. My role is not to tell you what your sexuality should look like. We work toward greater understanding, consent, choice, pleasure, communication, and alignment with your own values.
My Background
My commitment to trauma-informed and psychosexual care extends far beyond clinical theory. Long before my formal clinical training, I co-founded a non-profit team focused on child sexual abuse prevention in 2017. From providing prevention education to currently holding space for survivors of gender-based violence, this is my lifelong calling. I am also an active sexuality educator on different platforms for Asian and Christians. As a Chinese-speaking AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, I appear to be the only currently listed CST offering Mandarin and Cantonese sex therapy across my licensed states of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan, based on the current AASECT Referral Directory (2026).
I am particularly passionate about and focused on the following areas:
Desire discrepancies and low or changing desire
Arousal, orgasm, sexual pain, performance anxiety, and other sexual functioning concerns
Sexual trauma and reclaiming bodily autonomy
Infidelity, trust, and rebuilding erotic connection
Religious sexual shame and integrating sexuality with faith or personal values
LGBTQ+ identity, coming out, relationships, and minority stress
Body image, sexual self-concept, and communication about sex
What Sex Therapy Is - and Is Not
Sex therapy is psychotherapy. Sessions involve conversation, assessment, psychoeducation, and therapeutic exercises or homework when appropriate. There is no nudity, sexual contact, physical examination, or sexual touching between therapist and client. When symptoms may have a medical component, I may recommend evaluation by an appropriate medical professional and coordinate care with your permission.
For clients from religious or conservative cultural backgrounds, therapy does not require abandoning your faith or values. We can examine where your values genuinely belong to you, where shame or fear may have been imposed, and how to build a sexual life that is consensual, healthy, and congruent with what matters to you.
My Approach to Sex & Intimacy Therapy
Trauma-Informed Approach
For survivors of sexual assault, relationship abuse, or early emotional neglect, physical intimacy can often trigger hidden alarms, sending the nervous system into a "fight, flight, or freeze" defense state. In our work, "safety" is always the guiding principle. Drawing from my extensive frontline clinical experience supporting survivors of gender-based violence, I deeply understand how trauma alters the mind and the body.
Please note that our sessions are strictly talk therapy. I will never force you to prematurely rip open old wounds to rush the healing process. Instead, at a pace that feels entirely safe to you, we will gently explore how past experiences impact your current desires and intimacy. My primary goal is to help you incrementally reclaim absolute autonomy over your bodily boundaries without the risk of retraumatization.
Somatic Experiencing (Body-Mind Connection)
Struggles with sex and the body rarely exist solely in the logical, analytical brain; they are deeply stored in our nervous system and muscle memory. Traditional talk therapy alone might leave you stuck in a loop of overthinking and performance anxiety.
Incorporating my advanced training in Somatic Experiencing (SE), I will guide you to safely land from an "anxious, racing mind" back into your "authentic body." We will learn to recognize signs of nervous system dysregulation and, through gentle guidance, release the tension, numbness, and fear stuck in your body. Once you learn to regulate your nervous system and stop viewing your body as an enemy to guard against, you can truly experience profound relaxation and authentic pleasure in your intimate relationships.
Integrating Spirituality & Faith Values
In many traditional religious faiths and rigid cultural contexts, sex is often heavily intertwined with profound guilt and shame. For many clients with a faith background, there is a suffocating tension between the desire for liberating intimacy and the adherence to religious teachings.
Integrating my academic background in philosophy and religious studies, I offer an absolutely non-pathologizing and non-judgmental space. Here, your faith will not be dismissed as a "conservative obstacle," but rather embraced as a powerful cornerstone of your life. Together, we will dismantle internalized "sexual shame" and explore how to cultivate a healthy, pleasurable, and fear-free intimate relationship within a framework that deeply respects your core values.
Sexuality Education
For many clients, the root of sexual dysfunction, low desire, or self-doubt lies in a severe lack of comprehensive sex education during their upbringing, or in harmful myths propagated by mass media (e.g., the obsession with the "perfect body" or the glorification of a single model of sexual performance).
As a sex therapist and sexuality educator, I deeply integrate scientific, rigorous psychosexual education into our sessions. We will shatter stereotypes of a "normal sex life" and discuss realistic physiological response mechanisms, the diversity of desire discrepancies (such as spontaneous vs. responsive desire), and objective anatomical facts. By filling in these crucial cognitive missing pieces and teaching concrete communication skills, I will empower you with knowledge—completely dispelling the panic and shame born of the unknown.
“You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no flaw in you.”
Song of Solomon 4:7