Trauma and Closeness
When Trauma Shows Up in Intimacy
You can want closeness and still feel your body pull away. Both experiences deserve room in the conversation.
What Can Feel Confusing
Wanting Connection Is Not the Same as Feeling Ready
A partner reaches for you and your body goes still. You may want touch one day and feel far away from it the next, or wonder why trust feels fragile even when the person beside you has not done anything wrong. Past experiences can affect desire, closeness, boundaries, and the meaning you give to small moments together.
You may have tried to explain it as stress or a relationship problem. Those things can matter, but the impact of trauma also deserves careful attention. There is no need to force a single explanation before starting. Therapy can help you describe what happens in the present and consider what might be connected to the past.
A Conversation at Your Pace
Your Boundaries Are Part of the Work
In session, Andrea can ask what closeness means to you, what happens before you withdraw, and what helps you notice a boundary before it is crossed. If you come with a partner, the focus can include how each of you interprets those moments and how to talk about them without making either person the problem.
Sex therapy is talk therapy. It never involves sexual contact or physical sexual activity. You set the pace for discussing touch, desire, and past experiences. Andrea has specialized training in sex therapy and is EMDR trained. Methods are considered only when they fit the concern and your readiness; none is imposed to meet a timeline.
Which Session Fits
Individual or Together
Sex Therapy is $250 for a 50-minute session and offers individual space to examine desire, discomfort, and the meaning of intimacy without a partner present. If you are working together on communication or sexual concerns, Couples and Sex Therapy is $300 for 50 minutes. The format depends on what you want to address and who is participating.
You can ask in the $100 consultation which type of appointment may fit. The $100 is credited in full toward your first paid session or intensive. The conversation can include what you want your partner to understand and what you would rather first put into words privately. Therapy does not require you to disclose more than you are ready to discuss.
Closeness in Context
There Is More Than One Way to Be Close
A relationship may contain care, attraction, hesitation, resentment, and uncertainty at the same time. You do not have to resolve those feelings into a single statement before seeking help. Treatment can focus on communication, patterns of withdrawal, and how you make choices about contact with more awareness of your own limits.
Andrea offers secure telehealth for adults and couples located in Texas, Colorado, or Idaho at the time of session. She can work with you on the questions that feel difficult to raise at home.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Is sex therapy a physical treatment?
No. This is talk therapy; sessions do not include sexual contact or physical sexual activity.
Do I need to bring my partner?
No. Individual Sex Therapy is available. Couples and Sex Therapy is an option when both people want to participate.
Will I have to discuss the trauma in detail?
You decide what to share and when. The work can begin with what happens around closeness now rather than a detailed retelling.
Keep Exploring
Related Paths
You can talk about closeness without forcing it.
Start with a $100 consultation. The $100 is credited in full toward your first paid session or intensive.