Integrated Counseling

restoring wholeness and choice

Blog

Welcome to my blog, where I write about things that interest me. Subscribe if you’d like to receive new posts in your mailbox.

Sex Therapy

When I tell people that I’m a sex therapist or that I specialize in sexual health, I am often met with shock or confusion. “What is that?” “A sex therapist – yikes!!” “Oh, I thought you were joking!”  My hope is to demystify what sex therapy really is, what it is not, and who might…

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Navigating the Holidays

The winter holiday season is upon us. Families and friends will soon gather around full dinner tables and make themselves comfortable in warm living rooms. Smells of pot roasts, root vegetables, mulled wine, cinnamon, and evergreens will fill the air. The cold, dark days will be slightly thawed by the light of connecting with loved…

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Cuffing Season

The nights are getting colder and longer as we welcome November and slip past daylight savings time. Several weeks remain until the winter solstice but cuffing season has begun – the time of year when people might temporarily couple up to endure the cold, dark winter together. All animals make seasonal changes to ensure survival…

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Wellness when part of you doesn’t want it

Wellness is not something we feel all the time. It is not a permanent end state that we reach with enough therapy and exercise and self-care. Wellness comes and goes, and even coexists with sickness and suffering. Instead of a clear linear path, wellness is a direction we choose in the tiniest of moments that…

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The Medicalization of Trauma: PTSD

“Trauma” is Greek for wound. Us humans are resilient; and we are also soft, sensitive, and deeply socially connected creatures. We sustain physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual trauma over the course of our lives, simply from living on Earth. When we experience trauma, no matter the type, it can be integrated into our systems or…

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Sexual consent part 3: Offerings for greater connection

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The first two articles in this series discuss our current framework for sexual consent, where it comes from and how it fails to move us toward better sex and sexual justice. This final piece asks, How else could we look at sexual consent? It explores attunement, embracing uncertainty, and…

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