Sexual Health Therapy
Sexual health is health — and it deserves the same competent, unembarrassed care as any other part of your wellbeing. I’m Daniel A. Burgess, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist whose clinical specialty is sexuality: desire, arousal, pain, shame, confidence, and connection — with particular depth in how religious upbringing shapes all of it.
What “sex-positive” means here — and what it doesn’t
Sex-positive therapy means sexuality is treated as a normal, healthy part of being human — not a danger to be managed or a problem to be confessed. It does not mean an agenda about what your sex life should look like. Your values set the destination: a devout Latter-day Saint building a vibrant marriage inside their covenants, a post-LDS adult writing new rules from scratch, and a mixed-faith couple negotiating between the two all get the same respect and the same clinical rigor. Sex-positive, faith-respectful — both, fully.
What I treat
- Desire concerns — low desire, desire discrepancy in couples, and understanding spontaneous vs. responsive desire (most people were never taught the difference, and it changes everything).
- Arousal and orgasm difficulties — including the anxiety-spectatoring loop that religious sexual conditioning frequently creates.
- Sexual pain — vaginismus, dyspareunia, and pain-fear cycles, coordinated with medical care where appropriate.
- Sexual shame and avoidance — the long tail of purity culture; see religious trauma & purity culture recovery.
- Sexual communication and confidence — learning to say what you want, hear what your partner wants, and survive the awkwardness in between.
- Sexuality after change — new marriage, postpartum, illness, aging, faith transition, or divorce.
How it works
Individual or couples format, 50-minute telehealth sessions. Assessment first — sexual concerns are usually a braid of learning history, relationship dynamics, body, and beliefs, and untangling the braid correctly is most of the battle. Then structured work: education (much of sexual healing is accurate information arriving twenty years late), skills and graduated practices between sessions, and processing for the shame or trauma layers where they exist. To be clear about scope: talk therapy only — sexual health therapy never involves physical examination or contact, and I’ll refer to physicians or pelvic-floor specialists for the medical pieces.
Why this specialty is hard to find
Most therapists receive almost no training in sexuality, and most who do have little fluency in religious contexts — so faith-background clients bounce between counselors who blush and counselors who condescend. My decade-plus of teaching, writing, and clinical work sits exactly on this intersection: the Improving Intimacy podcast and community, the “Don’t Touch” series, and a practice built on these referrals.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need my partner to participate?
No. Much of sexual health work is individual — and individual change reliably shifts the couple’s dynamic. Couples format is available when both partners are ready.
I’m an active member. Will this conflict with my faith?
No. Your values govern the work. Many of my clients are devout members building a thriving intimate life entirely within their covenants — that is a sex-positive outcome.
Is this awkward?
For about ten minutes. Talking about sex with someone who does it clinically every day, without flinching, turns out to be a relief — most clients say the first session was the first time they’d ever said these things out loud.
Could my issue be medical?
Possibly in part — hormones, medications, pain conditions, and pelvic-floor issues all matter, and I’ll help you sort what needs a physician alongside the therapy.
Where is this available, and what does it cost?
Therapy via telehealth for clients in California and Utah; sexual-health coaching and education worldwide. Fees are reviewed on the free 15-minute consultation.