About Renee

Tread Lightly (Adverb): To tread lightly is to bring your attention and focus to what's in front of you, around you, and beneath your feet. To tread lightly is to bring care, intention and patience into each step you take. To tread lightly is to slow down (way down) and lean into the experience in front of you. 

To tread lightly describes my style when working with clients. I incorporate mindfulness into each step I take, proceeding consciously and softly. To tread lightly allows me to deepen my awareness of your nature, to help you meet your needs and to learn the ways in which you're most supported. 

My mission is to support your relationship with your sexuality. You have a right to your sexuality — it’s part of your nature. 

I believe sexuality is holistic and encompassing, not limited to commercialized ideals and physical sexual acts. I believe our sexuality is naturally-designed and fundamental to our well-being. 

I believe sexual healthcare and thorough, shame-free sex education are human rights and basic needs. I believe in reproductive justice and body autonomy. I support all pregnancy outcomes. 

I believe everyone has a right to accessing compassionate care and support.  

I believe in sexual integrity. I believe pleasure, exploration and experimentation are all basic human rights and needs. I believe in self-knowing, self-pleasure and self-respect; giving each client the space to explore what feels right for them and understand their limits.

While I specialize in sex therapy, I am not limited to only providing specific sex therapy services. Whether you're seeking sex therapy services or sex-positive care, I provide mental health treatment to individuals, families and relationship systems with my pillars of service. 

My draw toward sex therapy and sex-positive care comes from my experiences and identity. I grew up in an erotophobic (sex-negative) culture. I was raised in a community that accepted sex in the media as "real sex," threw a veil of shame over sexuality and separated it from all other parts of life. 

While navigating my journey through professional development, I noticed that what I was learning about the field of sex therapy seemed to uphold the separation and pathology of sex. I found myself wanting to learn more about what actual sexuality looks and feels like outside of the experience of those who benefit from the Eurocentric, capitalist standards of sex. 

The more I learned and the more I worked with clients within sex therapy, the more I understood that sexuality was not a small section of life separated by an "off-limits" velvet rope. Sexuality is woven throughout all other parts of our lives.

My experience includes working within community mental health, school clinic and private practice settings. Throughout my career, I have worked with populations across the lifespan, from children, to pre-teens and teenagers, young adults, adults in midlife and older adults. 

I have worked with children, adolescents and families ​in the scope of 2SLGBTQIA+ and multicultural issues and empowerment, anxiety, depression, trauma, self-harm and suicidal ideation, gender dysphoria and navigating identity exploration and transitioning.

I have facilitated weekly support groups for 2SLGBTQIA+ teens through the Triple Point program. The Triple Point program is a statewide program for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, ages 11 to 18, their families and surrounding communities. 

I have worked with individuals and relationship-systems ​in the scope of body image issues and empowerment, depression, anxiety, grief and loss, trauma, life transitions, nonmonogamy, relational conflict, discernment and divorce, premarital counseling, and parenting. 

My training connects with continuing education, alternative modalities of healing and justice-centered models of collective care in addition to the CACREP-accredited education I received during my graduate program.  

My training includes human sexuality and sex therapy, perinatal mental health and birthwork, trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness, and victim/survivor advocacy. My teachers and mentors span several organizations, centers and collectives: