Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Brown.
Hi Alex, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started college thinking I wanted to open a bakery, but after some business classes, I realized that was a no go! While I didn’t always know I wanted to be a therapist, I knew really early on in my pursuit of a therapy degree that I wanted to pursue sex therapy. A friend in college was gifted sessions with a sex therapist before she got married and I knew that was something I wanted to do! I shifted gears and decided on therapy and got my masters in Social Work. I graduated in 2020, and I can tell you I was not prepared to be a therapist in the midst of a global pandemic. Right after graduation, I felt very lucky to find an agency that specialized in maternal mental health and wanted to support my journey of certification for sex therapy. After another two and half years of specialized trainings and supervision, I finally earned my certification in sex therapy or CST. I worked for my agency for a couple years and with the support of friends, my husband and colleagues, I decided to make the jump to start my own practice. Wish I had stayed in those business classes years ago, but who knew?! I now work with men, women and couples in different phases of life, wanting to improve their sex lives and overall relationship with intimacy, and I absolutely love it. I can’t believe I have a job that people trust me with their stories, especially something as vulnerable and personal as sex. How cool is it that I get to help people have better sex and experience more pleasure?
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not always smooth, but what road is? Graduating in 2020 and starting my career during the pandemic was so hard. My graduate program was cut short, my first year as a therapist was in masks and I was not prepared to support people in a time where the whole world was scared.
Working towards the sex therapist certification was also a challenge! There is so much that goes in to that certification – time, money, individual work. Getting that email when my application was approved was a dream! It was also so scary to start a private practice. I was nervous about running a business, I was worried about working alone, I was worried about being a good therapist while managing everything myself. However, it’s been two years and with my amazing support system, I can feel myself gain confidence every year in what I have to offer to clients.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Sex therapy is a specialty on its own, and many sex therapists have more in depth specialties. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of work with couples where one partner has OCD and the other partner does not. I love working with those couples to see how that has impacted sex and communication in their marriage and what they can do to foster connection and pleasure in a more value aligned way.
I also specialize in maternal mental health. I work with moms who are pregnant or postpartum, as well as their partners. Again, sex and communication are greatly impacted during that time and I love helping couples move through that together.
I am very interested in working more with pelvic pain and pelvic health. So many female bodied individuals experience painful sex and I want to help people understand it doesn’t have to be that way!
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Every year, more and more people are talking about mental health. I love hearing groups of people talking and someone say, “Oh guess what my therapist told me this week!” or “I had therapy last week and my therapist recommended this book or podcast.” I think more people are seeing the value in mental health and are willing to talk about it. I hope that means that therapy can be more normalized and I hope insurance companies can see the benefit of covering that kind of care.
As for sex therapy, that is growing in Utah. Years ago, there were maybe 10 sex therapists in the state of Utah. Now we are almost at 100 and still growing! I would love to see a shift in how Utah views sexual health and I think up and coming sex therapists can be a part of making that happen.
Pricing:
- Individual Therapy $135
- Couples Therapy $175
- Individual Assessment $170
- Couples Assessment $225
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sunflowertherapy.squarespace.com
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/alex-brown-sandy-ut/1211922
