Areas served include: Berkeley - Oakland - San Francisco - San Rafael - Albany - El Cerrito - Kensington - Richmond - Emeryville- Alameda - San Leandro -  Orinda - Lafayette - Moraga - Walnut Creek

Our experience of ourselves as sexual beings is perhaps the most intimate and vulnerable aspect of who we are as people. Our feelings about ourselves and our bodies, previous sexual experiences and our most significant emotional relationships have a tremendous impact on our ability to experience trust and safety. Taking the risk to open oneself up in a relationship requires the capacity to tolerate the anxiety of getting closer to your partner while at the same time experiencing yourself as separate and whole. Being emotionally intimate can be as frightening or even more frightening than being intimate sexually. We have a deep desire to be known by another but also commonly experience fears of rejection, criticism and abandonment and feelings of anxiety, fear, shame and sometimes loss. Aging, medical illness and disability can have an impact on our body image and sexual functioning. Where there is a history of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, intimacy and sexuality can be particularly fraught with feelings of fear and danger. I work with straight, gay and bisexual men and women in individual and couples therapy to develop satisfying and fulfilling relationships with themselves and their partners.