Vanessa Center

Welcome. I'm glad you're here. If you're looking for a therapist who won't blink at your relationship structure, your kink, or the parts of yourself you've learned to keep quiet, you're in the right place. I believe that living outside cultural norms around sex and relationships isn't something to fix. It's something to understand, and often, to celebrate. I work with adults navigating consensual non-monogamy (polyamory, open relationships, swinging), kink and BDSM, and sexual empowerment: building a confident sexual identity, healing shame, and learning to name your desires and boundaries without apology. I also work with clients on depression, anxiety, and life transitions, because a sex-positive, affirming lens matters even when sex isn't the headline of our work. I'm also just a real person doing this work. I laugh in session. I use humor, joy, and thought-partnering, not just clinical distance, to help you solve problems, question old beliefs, and see your situation from angles you hadn't considered. Healing doesn't have to be joyless to be real, and joy itself is part of how change happens. My approach is rooted in narrative therapy. Every person carries a unique story worth exploring, and our work together is shaped around your actual life, not a one-size-fits-all framework. As an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, I bring specialized training to conversations many therapists shy away from: desire discrepancy, non-traditional relationships, kink-aware care, and the shame that comes with living outside mononormative expectations. You won't need to educate me on your relationship style or explain why it's valid. We start from there and go deeper. I'm currently opening a limited number of private-pay openings. Working outside insurance means our care isn't shaped by a diagnosis code or a managed-care timeline. Just by what you actually need. I offer telehealth sessions to adults in California, Oregon, Nevada, and Colorado. If this sounds like the space you've been looking for, I'd love to hear from you.