Individual Therapy for Religious Trauma & Sexual Shame in Fairfax, VA
Healing Shame and Reconnecting with Your Body through Somatic IFS & Integrative Sex Therapy
Healing begins with reclaiming your journey. Individual therapy is a space to untangle the ways faith, family, and culture have shaped your relationship to your body and sexuality. Many of my clients carry messages from purity culture, religious traditions, or culturally conservative households that left them feeling ashamed, disconnected, or unsafe in their own skin.
Together, we’ll use Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) to explore how these experiences live in the body, and integrative sex therapy to gently rebuild trust, pleasure, and connection with yourself. This work isn’t about forcing a new identity — it’s about helping you find what feels true, safe, and authentic for you.
All new clients begin with a complimentary 20 minute consultation call before scheduling your in person 90minute intake. This ensures the work we begin together is thoughtful, intentional, and a good match before you invest in an intake session.
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Somatic IFS helps us not just talk about our parts, but actually experience how they live in the body. We carry protective, vulnerable, critical, and playful parts — and by tuning into them with curiosity, we can release shame and find more compassion for ourselves.
In session, we use the five practices of Somatic IFS to connect with your embodied Self:
Awareness — noticing sensations, impulses, and emotions as they arise
Breath — using breath to regulate and bring presence
Resonance — attuning to the subtle ways parts communicate through the body
Movement — giving parts space to express themselves nonverbally
Touch — when appropriate, noticing how safe self-touch can soothe and ground
These practices create a deeper pathway to healing by helping you reconnect with your body’s wisdom and experience your Self as calm, curious, and compassionate.
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Integrative sex therapy addresses the full picture of intimacy — physical, emotional, relational, and cultural. We explore how desire, arousal, and pleasure have been shaped by past messages or painful experiences, and how to create a new, authentic relationship with your body and sexuality. This approach is affirming for all identities and sexual expressions.
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For many clients, faith and culture are woven deeply into their identity. Together, we’ll explore how these influences have shaped your beliefs about intimacy and self-worth. The goal isn’t to discard your traditions, but to integrate them in a way that feels safe, healing, and authentic for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Many of my clients come in after feeling frustrated or unseen in past therapy. My approach is different because it isn’t only about talking — it’s about listening to how your body, emotions, and inner parts carry your story. Through Somatic IFS and integrative sex therapy, we work in ways that are experiential, embodied, and tailored to you. Therapy can feel new and effective, even if previous experiences fell short.
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Yes. Disconnection from the body is often a protective response to pain, shame, or trauma. Together, we’ll create a safe space to slowly rebuild that connection at your pace. Using breath, awareness, and gentle somatic practices, we’ll invite your body back into the conversation — not to overwhelm you, but to help you feel grounded, whole, and more at home in yourself.
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We will work with your past, but not by rehashing every detail of your story. Instead, we pay attention to how past experiences are still carried in your body and in your nervous system today. By noticing these patterns in an embodied way — through breath, awareness, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) unburdening — you can begin to release what was never yours to hold onto. This isn’t about reliving the past; it’s about giving your system the chance to complete and let go of what it has been carrying, so you feel more free in the present.
A complimentary 20-minute consultation is offered before scheduling your 90-minute intake.