Counselling + Consulting
Counselling + Consulting
You wouldn’t know it, because people really don’t talk about it. But many women experience a disconnect during sexual intimacy. Sometimes it feels out of body – like the mind is leaving the scene to go elsewhere. Other times, it might feel like you’re literally counting down until the moment is over. It can feel overstimulating – like there’s so much happening at one time and you’re not quite sure where to set your attention. It can feel numbing, like a kiss on the vulva would feel no different to kiss on your arm. It can even feel painful, like a sharp-edged knife is being placed somewhere it has no business being.
If this sounds similar to your experience, then this group is for you.
The research keeps telling us group therapy is just as – if not more – beneficial than one-to-one therapy. Come try it out. When Your Body Shuts Down During Intimacy: Reconnecting at Your Own Pace – starting Fall 2026. An 8-session women’s intimacy support group to help you through sexual anxiety.
Our Women’s Intimacy Support Groups are kept intentionally small to maintain a sense of comfort and privacy. Through keeping group sizes small, we ensure there is space for all voices to be heard. We do this so that by the time you leave, you can really feel like you’ve gotten something for yourself.
There are a few key types of therapy this women’s support group pulls on to support with navigating sexual anxiety and reconnecting with intimacy:
Cognitive Processing Therapy is a trauma-based therapy that comes from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). But wait, what is ‘trauma’ anyways? The word is used so often, it can’t be that common…right?
Well. It’s complicated. Some traumas that impact disconnect in sex and intimacy can be big and obvious – like sexual assault and rape (big Ts). However, some traumas can appear little – so little we might not even register them as trauma (often called little Ts). This can look like being pressured into sex by a person you were meant to trust (“come on, it’s no big deal”, “just one kiss” “just one touch” “please”). Sometimes, it looks like enduring sex just so you can fulfill your role and please the other person (“well, I came to their house so I guess I have to”, “I’m their girlfriend, this is my job”). How this looks can vary, but in the end it often feels off, transactional, and not in your favour.
Big Ts and little Ts look different. But in the end, they leave the same imprint on the nervous system.
According to Cognitive Processing Therapy, when we go through trauma – especially sexual trauma – our brain doesn’t quite know how to make sense of it. Returning to intimacy after trauma – may it be emotional or sexual – gets harder. Without our realizing it, our brain creates rules that help us survive the days to come. These rules also act as safeguards, to protect us from facing similar traumas in the future. But they also can make reconnecting with intimacy challenging. These rules typically impact how we view safety, power/control, intimacy, esteem, and trust. Cognitive Processing Therapy helps us to unpack this.
Narrative Therapy has several principles; in this Women’s Intimacy Support Group – we centre on one. Narrative Therapy explains that our whole lives exist on a continuum of narratives or stories. The way you tell the story of your life may be very different to how your friend, parent, or neighbour tells the story of your life.
In this intimacy support group, we’ll spend some time acknowledging the current lens in which you see yourself and the story that goes with that.
Through Narrative Therapy, we’ll pause to name the narrative through which you view sexuality and intimacy. These narratives often connect to the sexual anxiety you might be experiencing. We’ll also pause to identify an alternative narrative – a preferred narrative through would you’d rather view sexuality and intimacy. These preferred narratives help with reconnecting to intimacy, reclaiming intimacy, and redefining intimacy after trauma.
Cognitive Processing Therapy and Narrative Therapy both lean on letter-writing and storytelling. In this group, we’ll integrate the power of both.
Emotion Focussed Therapy emphasizes that we experience the litany of a few core emotions, and that there is one core emotion at the centre of each distressing event we experience. In other words, if you are experiencing sexual anxiety or dissociation during intimacy, it’s likely an emotion that feels really blah is at the core of it all.
This core emotion (also known as a primary emotion) tends to get stuck in the body. From an Emotion Focussed Therapy standpoint, this stuckness evolves into what’s known as unfinished business, and prevents us from being able to truly process with an experience or event.
In this women’s sex therapy group, we use Emotion Focussed Therapy to help reach, and untangle that stuck point. We identify the core emotions impacting your disconnect from intimacy and we help externalize them. We allow parts of us who remain hidden and unspoken a voice. We use Emotion Focussed Therapy to facilitate conversations with the self, and “imaginary” conversations with those who’ve impacted us in our journey. The science shows us that once we can name what’s happening – we can tame it.
Doing that in a group setting – allowing others to witness and be part of our process – allows for meaningful and impactful shifts in the body. It bring us back towards true connection and intimacy.
So far, we’ve discussed some of the core therapeutic modalities from which this Toronto-based Women’s Intimacy Support Group is based. But what about dealing with all the emotions that will inevitably come up?
Let’s take a pause and talk about coping skills, tools, and mechanisms.
Now, there is no way we would have a support group for intimacy without also ensuring you were supported in getting through it.
Earlier group sessions will be focussed on making your body its own resource – a term called, resourcing. We’ll discuss and practice coping tools centred on stabilizing the nervous system through mindfulness techniques, breath work, grounding, vagus nerve stimulation, and acupressure breathing. We’ll review each of these concepts together within the first two sessions of this women’s intimacy support group.
We’ll also use distress tolerance and self-soothing skills from DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. Yes – another therapeutic modality). Essentially, we’ll build you a customized plan for getting through and surviving the uncomfortable emotions.
We’ll make sure you aren’t leaving sessions feeling dysregulated or out of control. While it’s normal for brain and body to continue processing up to 72 hours after a session has ended, we’ll make sure you have the tools you need to navigate this. You also might find it helpful to work with your own therapist or connect with community counsellors outside of sessions for an added layer of support.
This intimacy group therapy option is for any and all women who’ve experienced a disconnection from intimacy, “pleasure-based” activities, and sex. Talking about these things aloud is likely a new experience for many of us. We’re hosting these sex therapy group sessions in-person in Toronto. We’ll have an intentionally small group so that we can create a private space where it feels safe to dive into these topics.
If there’s anything we can do to make the space feel more comfortable and welcoming for you, please let us know!
Our sessions will combine a mixture of talk and somatic (body-based) approaches to guide you through each subject.
Earlier sessions are centred on talk-therapy and use methodologies from Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Narrative Therapy. We also use this time to learn coping strategies, so that your body feels more equipped to handle some of the bigger feelings and sensations that come with somatic therapy down the line.
Later sessions pull from Emotion Focussed Therapy – an approach that really encourages you to notice, feel, and express the emotions that might be deeply rooted in the body.
Group therapy has been proven to be just as effective – if not more effective – than 1:1 therapy. At the same time, processing in a group session can be vulnerable.
We strongly believe it’s important to go at your own pace. We will guide you and provide resources along the way. Identifying and honouring your own boundaries will be a big part of this process.
Group therapy sessions for Fall 2026 are scheduled 1x every Wednesday, in-person, for a total of eight (8) weeks, from 6:00pm – 7:30pm. Each session will focus on specific topics and goals, and leave space for sharing and processing. The last two (2) group therapy sessions will be spaced out bi-weekly.
You are required to complete one private, virtual intake session before the group therapy begins.
Groups are scheduled in-person to help preserve closeness, privacy, and integrity.
Group therapy will be held at 275 Danforth Ave. in Toronto, ON at the Inner Arts Collective.
This group therapy program welcomes all women aged 18+ to participate. These intimacy therapy groups might be particularly helpful if you:
If you are the survivor of a recent sex-based trauma (i.e. within the past 6 months), have active thoughts of suicide, or are in crisis, this group is not appropriate for you.
An 8-week workshop for women experiencing disconnect, anxiety, or dissociation during intimacy. Support to explore shame, confusion, pain, and desire.