Sex Therapy in Downtown Toronto
At New Moon Psychotherapy, we support individuals, couples, and all relationship structures in reconnecting with pleasure, safety, desire, and choice. In-person sex therapy in Toronto, and online across Ontario.
When intimacy feels hard, it can feel personal…
Maybe you want closeness, but your body doesn’t cooperate. Maybe you can’t get in the mood, can’t stay aroused, or feel anxious when you try. Sex might hurt (vaginismus, painful intercourse, or arousal that never quite arrives). Erections that won’t cooperate. Orgasms that feel impossible or out of reach. Desire that disappeared and hasn’t come back.
Sometimes trauma, past experiences, or the way your nervous system learned to protect you can make it hard to feel safe or open to pleasure. You might worry about disappointing your partner, feel guilty saying no, or feel stuck in a cycle of pressure, performance, and shame.
At New Moon Psychotherapy in Downtown Toronto, we offer sex therapy that supports both the emotional and physical layers of sexual concerns. We help you feel more in control of your sexual choices and more free to explore what you’re truly aligned with. Believe us: intimacy can feel safe, mutual, and real.
Sex Therapy | Downtown Toronto
Why Sex Therapy?
Sex should not feel like pressure. It should feel like a choice.
Sexuality, like the moon, moves through phases. Desire, arousal, intimacy, and connection naturally change over time, especially when stress, trauma, medical concerns, life transitions, or relationship dynamics enter the picture.
Sex therapy exists because sexual challenges don’t resolve through willpower, avoidance, or pushing through discomfort. When pain, sex anxiety, shame, or disconnection go unaddressed, they often grow louder, not quieter. And when trauma is part of the picture—whether from sexual assault, abuse, medical experiences, or past relationships—the path forward often requires specialized support.
Sex therapy helps you step out of pressure and into understanding. With support, you can make sense of your body, your responses, and your desires, rebuild trust with yourself or your partner, and create a sexual life shaped by choice rather than fear or obligation.
Therapy for Sex | Downtown Toronto
Areas Sex Therapy Can Help With
Sexual concerns rarely come from one thing. They are often shaped over time by your body, your emotions, your experiences, and your relationships. Trauma, attachment history, culture, and religious messaging can all play a role in how safe, connected, and present you feel with intimacy.
- Erectile Dysfunction (ED)
- Sexual performance anxiety
- Premature or delayed ejaculation
- Out-of-control sexual behaviour (porn, masturbation, compulsive patterns)
- Pain with intercourse
- Dyspareunia
- Vaginismus
- Provoked vestibulodynia or vulvodynia
- Pelvic floor hypertonicity
- Painful arousal or orgasms
- Desire discrepancy or mismatched libido
- Sexual intimacy after sexual trauma
- Sexual intimacy after birth, cancer, transition, infidelity, or STI diagnosis
- Sexual shame
- Sexual identity exploration
- Exploration of kink or fetishes
- Ethical non-monogamy and open relationships
- Sex in arranged or matched marriages
- Sex therapy specific to LGBTQIA+ populations
Your body isn’t broken. The patterns around it can change, and we’re here to take that first step with you.
Nothing is off limits.
Whether you're navigating painful sex, out-of-control sexual behaviour, sexual identity questions, kink exploration, or intimacy challenges after trauma, we don't flinch. We've built our practice around these conversations because they matter.
Sex Therapy | Downtown Toronto
How We Treat Sexual Issues
We honour the full context of your sexuality, not just the challenges you are facing.
At New Moon Psychotherapy, we provide trauma-focused, sex-positive therapy. We understand that sexual difficulties don’t exist in isolation. They’re shaped by nervous system responses, lived experience, stress, relationships, and the stories you’ve been told about sex.
In sex therapy, we may use approaches such as:
Sexual Psychoeducation
Clear, shame-reducing education about anatomy, physiology, desire, arousal, orgasm, and common causes of pain or difficulty, so your body makes sense again.
Trauma-Informed Sex Therapy
Pleasure-Focused Work
Gently shifts sex from pressure and performance toward curiosity, choice, playfulness, and embodied pleasure.
Communication & Attachment Work
Builds the language and skills to talk about sex, boundaries, needs, fantasies, and differences with honesty and care.
Mindful & Somatic Approaches
Uses sensate focus, nervous-system regulation, and body-based practices to support safety, presence, and comfort.
Evidence-Based Therapies
Integrates EMDR, CBT, ACT, Emotion Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and related approaches to address underlying patterns.
Out of Control Sexual Behaviour Model (OCSB)
A harm-reduction approach for when sexual behaviour feels compulsive, distressing, or out of alignment with your values.
Integrated Practice & Homework
Thoughtful exercises, reflection, and at-home practices to help insight turn into real, lasting change between sessions.
Sex Therapy Intensives
Extended sessions (3-6 hours) for focused, concentrated work when you need to move through challenges more quickly.
Sex can feel great again.
Our sex therapists are here to help you rebuild intimacy that feels safe, connected, and true to you.
Meet Our Team
Match With a Sex Therapist in Downtown Toronto
Our sex therapists in Toronto blend evidence-based care with warmth and expertise, so you can release shame and begin a new phase where sex feels more pleasurable and fulfilling.
Our Approach
How Our Sex Therapy Works
We begin with a thorough assessment of your mental health history and sexual history, including early experiences, how you learned about sex, and the messages you absorbed at home, culturally, or in your community. We create a confidential space where you can speak openly, without shame.
When there is a physical component, such as erectile dysfunction, pain, or changes in arousal, we encourage medical assessment to rule out physiological causes. When helpful, we collaborate with trusted providers, including doctors, urologists, and pelvic floor physiotherapists, for well-rounded care.
Sex therapy often focuses on more than sex, because sexual concerns are shaped by your body, history, stress, relationship dynamics, self-esteem, and trauma responses. As we work through these layers, we create space for safer, more connected, and more pleasurable sexual experiences.
Sex Therapy | Downtown Toronto
Questions About Sex Therapy
What actually happens in sex therapy?
Sex therapy is talk-based therapy, there is no sexual activity in session, ever.
At New Moon Psychotherapy, sex therapy focuses on the emotional, physical, relational, and psychological factors that influence your sexual wellbeing.
Your sex therapist online or in Toronto may offer psychoeducation, nervous-system strategies, communication tools, reading suggestions, and structured exercises to try at home, at your own pace. Depending on your needs, we may also integrate trauma-informed therapies into sexual trauma therapy to address underlying factors such as anxiety, shame, trauma, or performance pressure.
We always move at your pace. Sexual trauma treatment is collaborative, respectful, and trauma-focused, and your comfort comes first.
Can sex therapy help if sex feels painful, scary, or overwhelming?
Absolutely. Pain, fear, or overwhelm during sex are not failures; they are meaningful signals from your body. Sex therapy helps you understand what those signals mean and why they are showing up.
A Toronto sexologist can support you in feeling safer and more comfortable in your body, making sense of physical responses, and working through the emotional, psychological, and relational patterns, including past experiences or sexual trauma, that may be contributing.
Together, you’ll explore new patterns gently and at your own pace, with no pressure to move faster than feels right. When helpful, your therapist may collaborate with medical professionals, such as physicians or pelvic floor physiotherapists, to ensure coordinated, holistic care.
Is my concern physical or psychological? How do I know if I need therapy or medical support?
Sex therapy does not replace medical care. Many sexual concerns involve both mind and body.
A sex therapist can help you explore the emotional, psychological, and relational components of concerns like erectile dysfunction, pain with intercourse, mismatched desire, or sexual anxiety. If a sexual difficulty is caused by, or linked to, an underlying medical condition, such as hormonal changes, pelvic floor concerns, neurological issues, or heart conditions, we won’t treat the medical component itself.
However, we can work alongside your medical team and support you with the emotional and psychological impact that often accompanies these experiences.
Do I have to come with a partner?
Not at all. Many people attend sex therapy on their own to explore desire, pleasure, shame, body connection, sexual identity, or performance anxiety.
Individual sex therapy can be deeply helpful whether you’re partnered or not, and it can offer space to understand yourself before involving anyone else. If you are in a relationship, including your partner at some point can be beneficial, but it’s never required.
Because sexual concerns often unfold within relationship dynamics, working together in sex therapy for couples can create shared understanding and meaningful change. It also reduces the sense that one person is the problem or has to do all the work.
What if my partner and I want different things or have mismatched desire?
Mismatched desire is one of the most common reasons individuals and couples seek sex therapy, and it is very workable.
Sex therapy can help you:
- Understand each other’s needs, turn-ons, and desires
- Reduce resentment, pressure, or feelings of rejection
- Build emotional and physical intimacy outside the bedroom
- Create a sexual relationship that honours both partners’ experiences
For many couples, satisfying sex does not require matching levels of desire. It grows from communication, safety, and connection, rather than frequency alone.
Can sex therapy help me enjoy sex or want sex again?
Yes. Difficulty enjoying or wanting sex can come from many places, including stress, trauma, relationship dynamics, body image concerns, exhaustion, hormonal shifts, medical issues, or major life transitions.
It’s also normal for desire to change as life becomes fuller and more demanding. What once felt effortless may require more intention, and that does not mean anything is wrong with you.
Sex therapy helps you identify the root causes of low desire, rebuild safety, and reconnect with your body. It can support you in reducing performance pressure, rekindling pleasure, and creating intimacy that feels emotionally and physically nourishing.
Are you a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT)?
No. We do not use the CSAT or sex addiction model.
Current research and guidance from major sexual health and psychiatric organizations show that sex and porn use are not addictions in the same way substances are. These are fundamental human needs, and when sexual behaviour feels out of control, it is often connected to stress, trauma, coping strategies, or emotional regulation.
Some people experience Out-of-Control Sexual Behaviour or Compulsive Sexual Behaviour, where sexual behaviour feels distressing or misaligned with their values.
At New Moon Psychotherapy, we take a harm-reduction, trauma-informed, and sex-positive approach focused on reducing shame and understanding what is underneath the behaviour, and helping you build a relationship with sexuality that feels healthy, empowered, and fulfilling.
I don’t know how to talk about sex. Can sex therapy help?
Absolutely. Many people come to sex therapy feeling unsure, awkward, or anxious about talking about sex. Most of us were never taught how to have open, comfortable conversations about sexuality.
Sex therapy offers a safe, non-judgemental space to explore your thoughts, questions, and experiences at a pace that feels right. You don’t need the right words or a clear plan.
Together, we build confidence in naming needs, expressing boundaries, talking about desire, and having healthier, more connected conversations with partners. Talking about sex is a skill, and like any skill, it can be learned.
How long does sex therapy take?
The length of sex therapy varies depending on your goals, comfort level, and the concerns you want to address. Many clients begin to notice meaningful changes within 6–12 sessions, especially when working on specific issues like performance anxiety, communication, low desire, or understanding sexual needs.
If you’re seeking skills-based support or guidance around a particular concern, sex therapy may be shorter-term. When the focus is on deeper healing (such as rebuilding intimacy, exploring sexual identity, or addressing sexual pain or trauma) therapy often continues longer to allow for meaningful, lasting progress.
What matters most is moving at a pace that feels safe and sustainable.
Sex Therapy | Downtown Toronto
How Sex Therapy Helps You Find True Pleasure Again
As you progress in online or Toronto sex therapy, you may begin to notice:
- More confidence, with less spectatoring and self-judgement
- Sex feeling fun again, instead of stressful, pressured, or performance-based
- Pleasure, playfulness, and desire returning, with more curiosity and connection
- Feeling safer and more connected in your body
- Clearer communication of wants, needs, boundaries, and desires with confidence
- Feeling closer to your partner, with intimacy that feels enjoyable again
- Finally knowing what you want, need, and enjoy!
- More hope and excitement about your future
Desire is not a given. It is something we cultivate.
New Moon Psychotherapy
How To Get Started
Let this be your new beginning.
Therapy in Toronto’s Fashion District with secure online therapy sessions across Ontario.