Image by Helena Read

About me: Sex therapist, counsellor, counselling supervisor, sexuality educator

Sexuality has always fascinated me. It is mysterious, hidden, yet always present in popular culture, institutional control, and how we are categorised. I started teaching sexuality to13-year-olds as part of health education, beginning in 1990, writing the curriculum myself, starting with communication and conflict resolution.Same-sex attraction, bisexuality, transgender experience, and pleasure were included. I wanted to give students the skills and understandings to enable positive sexual identity and experiences.

With an arts degree background, to get health teaching and counselling qualifications I did a graduate diploma in health science, which included the social work counselling skills subjects. This ultimately led to sex research via a health science masters and a PhD. Work shifted to women’s health promotion and academia. I take in a huge and varied assortment of professional development, conferences, scholarly articles, workshops, festivals, books, podcasts, and blogs which continue to expand my knowledge and understanding of the vast diversity that is sexuality, sexual expression, relationships and gender. My bemusement with the sex, gender, and relationship categories comes from not really identifying with fitting into any of them properly; now I happily identify with the delightfully unspecific term, queer.

Counselling, voluntary and paid, has been part of my life since 1988 when I qualified as a breastfeeding counsellor. Nursing Mothers’ counselling training was excellent; listening microskills, empathy, making suggestions while not giving advice are principles I still use.I've done secondary student welfare counselling, women’s health counselling, and tertiary student welfare support. Lifeline telephone crisis supporter training and volunteering enhanced my skills and sensivity. Bringing together counselling and sexuality—becoming a sex therapist—was a logical next step and this is the eighth year of working for myself as a sexologist.

My psychosexual therapy goals are to support people to work on the concern/s they present with, through first assisting them to feel safe, valued, connected and heard. As a sexuality educator I’m inclusive, supportive, evidence-based, and consider the appropriate pedagogy when planning a presentation. Making it fun is part of that.

Go here for copies of publications and conference presentations.

To make a therapy or supervision appointment or discuss a workshop, please contact me via email or mobile. 

E: linda@lindakirkman.org M: 0419402373

© Linda Kirkman 2024