Qualifications and Areas of Practice

Catherine is a Mental Health Clinician, sex therapy and sex coach with over 20 years of counseling experience in higher education. She brings cognitive behavioral interventions, mindfulness and systemic approaches to help couples and individuals learn to approach their desires for intimacy without shame, but rather with accurate research-based information and evidence-based techniques. Catherine helps clients explore the challenges which are preventing them from expressing their needs in ways prospective and current partners can hear in a non-defensive space.

Catherine’s practice is strength-based, and she creates a collaborative, safe, client-centered practice for clients who may have never been in therapy before or for clients who are currently looking for a more specialized treatment around their presenting sexuality-focused problem(s). She is highly attuned to the racial, religious and culturally informed backgrounds each of her clients come from and utilizes a multi-lens approach in her sex therapy and sex coaching assessments.

Catherine sees individual and couples for sex therapy and sex coaching with a wide array of presenting sexuality problems including:

• Discrepant Desire in Couples (partners/spouses who have different desire levels/interests)
• Erectile Disorder (ED)
• Premature or Uncontrolled Ejaculation (PE, UE)
• Anorgasmia
• Sexual Trauma Recovery (from childhood abuse, sexual assault, rape)
• Repair after Infidelity, Cheating, and Affair Discovery
• Sexual Pain (vaginal, pelvic pain penetrative disorders, GPPPD, Vulvodynia)
• Out of Control Sexual Behavior, Hypersexual or Compulsive Sexual Behavior (Sex Described Pornography, Sexually Explicit Media, or Sex Addiction)
• Sexuality Challenges due to Infertility/IUI/IVF/Hormone Treatment
• Low or Absent Desire
• Performance Anxiety (for folks who are dating and those in existing relationships)
• Peri-menopausal, menopausal and post-menopausal challenges
• Negative Body-image, Body Dysmorphia (BDD)
• Navigating Ethical/Consensual Non-Monogamy, Polyamorous Singles and Couples
• Kink/BDSM (Lifestyle) interest
• Single lifestyle issues
• Coming Out
• Recovery and Emerging from Separation and/or Divorce
• Pre-marital Counseling
• Communities

Communities:

• Clients raised in highly religious backgrounds: (Muslim, Orthodox Judaism, Evangelical Christian, Catholic, Morman, Hinduism)
• LGBTQIA identified individuals and couples
• Kink/BDSM/Lifestyle
• Sex workers
• Polyamory
• Ethical Non-Monogamous (ENM) and Consensual Non-Monogamous (CNM) couples, throuples and polycules

In addition to these sexually related challenges, Catherine also sees clients who wish to work on these general therapy and coaching concerns:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Couples counseling
• Issues in Emerging Adulthood (“adulting”, job challenges, relationships)
• Dating Anxiety and Social Anxiety
• Break Up Recovery
• Pre-marital/Commitment Counseling
• Family of Origin Relational Trauma
• Life Cycle/Milestone Transitions and Stressors
• Grief, Loss, and Bereavement
• Body Image Issues
• Disordered Eating
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Job loss
• Life Transitions
• Women’s Issues
• Men’s Challenges in the workplace and in relationships
• Cross-cultural/Religious relationships

Academic Background

Catherine holds a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University where she specialized in working with athletes around embodiment, performance anxiety, teaching them skills to stay present and grounded using mindfulness and CBT techniques. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Theoretical Orientation

Catherine has a warm and relational therapeutic style and meets clients/couples where they are in each session. She utilizes behavioral and psychodynamic approaches to individual and couples counseling and offers education, advice and exercises in both therapy and coaching modalities. She offers guidance to clients who need it when creating boundaries with partners and in work situations.

Professional and Community Associations

Catherine is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) and the New York Mental Health Counselors Association (NYMHCA).