Are you and your partner feeling emotionally disconnected, stuck in a cycle of sexual avoidance, or wondering why your marriage feels more like a roommate dynamic than a romantic relationship? Have you and your spouse had experiences of childhood trauma, sexual trauma, emotional neglect, or a strict upbringing and religious shame and guilt around sex? If trauma from the past is impacting your ability to connect sexually in your relationship, you’re not alone. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, Katie Ziskind specializes in helping couples recover emotional and sexual intimacy through a trauma-informed lens. Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Begin working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
As a certified sex therapy informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, Katie Ziskind brings a compassionate and science-based approach.
She specializes in helping couples in crisis heal sexless marriages, especially when unresolved trauma is at the core.
Many couples experience sexless periods in their relationship. But, when those periods stretch into months or years, deeper emotional wounds are often at play. Trauma experiences, hurt, hopelessness, powerlessness, betrayal, mistrust, and loneliness can all impact sexual desire.
Katie Ziskind, certified sex therapy informed professional, specializes in counseling for sexless marriages and emotional disconnection.
When your sexual desire is higher, it can feel incredibly painful, lonely, and confusing when you have sexual desires and your partner doesn’t seem interested in engaging.
You might feel rejected, unwanted, alone, hurt, confused, or undesired — like something is wrong with you. As well, you may start questioning your attractiveness or worth, wondering why the person you love doesn’t want to connect with you in this deeply intimate way.
It can also stir up frustration or resentment.
You might feel emotionally disconnected, craving not just sex, but closeness, affection, and validation. Over time, you may begin to feel like roommates instead of lovers, which can create distance, tension, or even lead you to shut down sexually or emotionally to protect yourself from ongoing sexual rejection.
When your partner is disinterested in sex while you still feel those desires, you might start to feel a sense of emotional neglect.
It can be frustrating to have the urge to share intimacy, but to feel like your needs are going unmet. There’s often a deeper longing for connection—physical touch, emotional closeness, and validation—that our sexless marriage therapists in Connecticut can help you talk about. Maybe, you no longer bring up sex because it makes your spouse anxiety, nervous, and angry.
There is a lot here couples therapist, Katie Ziskind, can help unpack. Perhaps, your spouse is experiencing insecurity, anxiety, guilt, shame, and pushing you away sexually. And, you spouse may be fearing their own sexual desires due to a strict, conservative, and religious background.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, our experienced sex and intimacy positive therapists are specialists.
Our marriage counselors can guide you through the challenges of a sexless marriage by addressing both emotional and physical aspects of your relationship.
Through sex-positive marriage therapy, we focus on building emotional intimacy, improving communication, and resolving any trauma or misunderstandings that may be hindering sexual connection.
Our sex therapy-informed professionals and Gottman Level Two trained therapists specialize in helping couples navigate the complexities of intimacy, from emotional disconnection to trauma-related issues.
We understand that a lack of sexual intimacy may stem from various factors, including unresolved past trauma, fears, stress, or negative patterns of communication. And, we provide a safe, nonjudgmental space where you can explore these issues openly and without shame.
By engaging in marriage therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling, you will learn effective tools to break the cycle of conflict and re-establish a healthier, more fulfilling connection with your partner.
Our therapists guide you through understanding the root causes of the emotional and physical distance in your marriage, helping you reconnect in meaningful ways that foster trust, empathy, and sexual intimacy.
With a trauma-informed approach, we help you process and heal from past wounds, whether from childhood trauma, infidelity, or other significant life events. We teach you to express needs and desires in a way that promotes healthy sexual relationships and deeper emotional bonds.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, you don’t have to navigate the challenges of a sexless marriage alone.
We’re here to support you in rediscovering emotional closeness, intimacy, and a fulfilling sexual connection with your partner. Our marriage therapists in Connecticut provide the compassionate guidance and tools you need to heal and move forward together.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Looking for a sexless marriage therapist for trauma survivors in Connecticut?
Trauma survivors often shut down emotionally and physically as a form of protection. This freeze response may have served you in childhood, but in your adult relationships, it can create painful patterns of disconnection. You might avoid sex not because you don’t love your partner, but because your body associates closeness with fear, shame, or overwhelm.
Katie Ziskind helps you gently unpack these responses with empathy and understanding, never shame.
Sexless marriages aren’t just about sex. They’re about emotional safety, vulnerability, and trust. Katie Ziskind helps you and your partner address the emotional blocks that keep you from truly connecting. Together, you’ll learn to rebuild emotional intimacy first, creating a foundation where sexual pleasure can become safe, consensual, and deeply satisfying.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we understand that trauma survivors need more than tips and tricks for better sex. You need a space to feel safe in your body, to express your boundaries without guilt, and to explore what real intimacy means to you. Whether you’re struggling with sexual avoidance, performance anxiety, religious trauma, or body shame, Katie offers trauma-sensitive tools that allow couples to reconnect at a pace that honors both partners.
If you’re searching for a sexless marriage therapist for trauma survivors, you deserve someone who understands the unique challenges of trauma recovery in the context of a long-term relationship.
Our approach combines attachment theory, emotionally focused therapy, Gottman Method interventions, and body-based mindfulness techniques to help you safely explore intimacy again. Katie Ziskind helps couples understand the difference between male and female arousal patterns, ensuring that both partners feel seen, respected, and desired.
You deserve care that integrates emotional healing with practical tools for rebuilding connection. At Wisdom Within Counseling, we are here to help you move from avoidance to authentic intimacy.
Located in Connecticut, and Florida, we offer in-person and virtual sessions to support couples wherever they are on their healing journey. Schedule a session today and begin the process of reclaiming your relationship—emotionally, physically, and sexually—with the compassionate guidance of Katie Ziskind.
Connecticut Trauma-Informed Couples Therapy for Sexless Marriage
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we specialize in helping couples understand and heal from the deep emotional wounds that lead to sexless marriages. Many couples who seek support feel confused, frustrated, and disconnected from each other, especially when sexual intimacy has faded.
Often, this emotional and sexual distance isn’t caused by a lack of love—it stems from unhealed trauma that still lives in the body. Especially, this is true for female partners who have experienced sexual trauma, childhood abuse, or complex PTSD.
As a certified sex therapy informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, Katie Ziskind understands the unique challenges trauma survivors face when trying to reconnect emotionally and sexually in their marriages. Our approach is compassionate, sensory-aware, and grounded in research.
We provide Connecticut trauma-informed couples therapy for sexless marriage that takes into account your unique histories, attachment styles, and nervous system needs.
For many women, sex has never been truly pleasurable, which leads to low libido, low desire, and sexual avoidance.
If your early sexual experiences felt confusing, unsafe, rushed, or male-centered, it may have taught your nervous system to associate sex with pressure or fear. Especially in religious or purity culture environments, many women internalize shame about their bodies, sexual desires, and boundaries. If your partner has rushed foreplay or focused only on penetration, your body may feel defensive, braced, or numb.
True female arousal typically requires 45-90 minutes of emotional and sexual foreplay, but many couples aren’t taught this difference and fall into unsatisfying routines.
Sexual trauma often lives in the body long after the mind has rationalized it away.
In marriage, this trauma can lead to emotional shutdown, anxiety around touch, or a “freeze” response when intimacy is initiated. As a result, many couples avoid sex entirely, creating painful cycles of disconnection.
Through trauma-informed couples therapy, we help partners slowly reintroduce safe, non-sexual touch, rebuild emotional trust, and co-create a new way of connecting that honors both people’s comfort levels.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we help you move at the pace your nervous system can handle.
We validate your experiences while gently guiding you back into emotional closeness, mutual understanding, and body-safe intimacy. Whether you struggle with sensory overwhelm, ADHD, OCD, or complex trauma, our Connecticut trauma-informed couples therapy for sexless marriage offers you real tools and emotional support.
You can reconnect with your spouse in a way that feels safe, honest, and pleasurable.
And, you don’t need to sexually perform or pretend anymore. With the right support, your marriage can become a space of healing, joy, and deep connection again.
Trauma-informed couples therapy for sexless marriage helps you rebuild emotional security first and then sexual intimacy. Overcoming shame and fear of sex are also key parts of sex positive marriage therapy in Connecticut.
Wisdom Within Counseling specializes in help for your sexless marriage after trauma.
If you’re in a sexless marriage and feel emotionally disconnected, you’re not alone. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we understand how trauma—whether from childhood or within the marriage itself—can profoundly impact intimacy.
Our trauma-informed couples therapy is designed to help you and your partner navigate these challenges and rediscover connection.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Intimacy
Trauma can leave lasting imprints on your nervous system, affecting how you relate to your partner.
Whether it’s childhood abuse, neglect, or experiences like infidelity and betrayal within the marriage, these events can trigger survival responses:
- Fight: You may find yourself easily angered or defensive during intimate moments.
- Flight: Avoidance becomes a coping mechanism, leading to emotional distance.
- Freeze: You might feel numb or disconnected, making physical intimacy challenging.
- Hypervigilance: Constantly on edge, you may misinterpret your partner’s actions, leading to suspicion and anxiety.
These responses are natural reactions to trauma but can hinder the development of a healthy, intimate relationship.
The Cycle of Sexual Avoidance
In many cases, anxiety, fear, and trauma leads to a cycle of sexual avoidance:
- Triggering Events: Past traumas resurface during moments of closeness.
- Emotional Withdrawal: To protect yourself, you distance emotionally and physically.
- Miscommunication: Your partner may feel rejected, leading to misunderstandings.
- Reinforced Distance: The lack of intimacy reinforces feelings of isolation and dissatisfaction.
Breaking this cycle requires understanding, patience, and professional guidance.
Our Approach at Wisdom Within Counseling
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we offer Connecticut trauma-informed couples therapy for sexless marriage.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Marriage counseling in Southeastern Connecticut includes:
- Certified Sex Therapy Informed Counseling: Addressing the physical and emotional aspects of intimacy.
- Gottman Level Two Trained Marriage Therapy: Utilizing evidence-based methods to improve communication and connection.
- Personalized Strategies: Developing coping mechanisms tailored to your unique experiences and needs.
We focus on creating a safe space where both partners can express themselves without judgment, fostering trust and understanding.
Taking the First Step at Wisdom Within Counseling
Rebuilding intimacy after trauma is a journey. But, you don’t have to walk it alone. With the right support and tools, it’s possible to reconnect with your partner and rediscover the joy of an emotionally and sexually fulfilling relationship.
If you’re seeking help for sexless marriage after trauma, reach out to Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut.
Together, we can work towards healing and a renewed sense of closeness. Katie Ziskind, certified sex therapy informed professional, is a couples therapist for intimacy issues and trauma recovery.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we know that emotional intimacy is the foundation of a strong, connected, and passionate marriage—especially when you’re healing from trauma.
Many couples come to us feeling distant, frustrated, or stuck in the same painful arguments.
Underneath all the fighting, silence, or avoidance is often a lack of emotional intimacy.
When emotional intimacy is missing, sex can feel robotic, unwanted, or even unsafe. That’s why our emotional intimacy and trauma marriage counseling in Connecticut focuses on rebuilding this deep connection from the inside out.
If you are stuck in a sexless marriage due to childhood trauma and negative conflict cycles, Wisdom Within Counseling specializes here.
What is emotional intimacy?
It’s the feeling of being seen, heard, and understood by your partner. Think of it like this—emotional intimacy is when someone says, “I see how you’re feeling, and I’m here with you.” It’s like having a best friend who knows your heart, not just your habits. To explain it in the simplest way possible: Imagine a child showing a drawing to their parent and hearing, “Wow, I love this! Tell me more about it.” That moment of feeling proud and accepted is emotional intimacy. You feel safe, important, and cared for.
In marriages, emotional intimacy looks like sharing your fears without being judged. It looks like saying, “I feel hurt,” and your partner responding with care instead of defensiveness. It’s about emotional safety—knowing your vulnerability will be met with kindness.
When couples don’t have this safety, they often fall into cycles of criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling, and blame.
These are the very patterns that tear couples apart emotionally and sexually.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
How Criticism, Defensiveness, Stonewalling, and Blame Destroy Intimacy? Sex Positive Marriage Therapy in Connecticut
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we help couples just like you heal from emotional distance and rediscover intimate connection.
If you’ve been feeling frustrated, lonely, or sexually rejected, it’s important to understand how certain communication habits can silently destroy your sex life. This is where sex positive marriage therapy in Connecticut can transform your relationship.
Criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling, and blame don’t just cause fights—they shut down desire.
When you or your partner feels criticized, your nervous system goes into fight-or-flight. Your body tenses up. You pull away. You stop sharing your vulnerable thoughts. And sex becomes a source of anxiety rather than connection.
Criticism often sounds like, “You never want to have sex with me,” or, “You don’t care about our relationship.”
This kind of language attacks the person instead of addressing the need.
It leads to defensiveness: “That’s not true! I’ve tried everything!” From there, you both feel misunderstood and unseen.
You stop talking. And, you shut down. You stonewall.
Stonewalling—withdrawing or going silent—might feel like the only way to protect yourself.
But it makes your partner feel abandoned. Emotional abandonment can be more painful than physical absence. It makes sex feel unsafe, even impossible.
Blame adds to the problem by creating resentment. You may feel obligated to have sex just to keep the peace, but not because you genuinely want to.
That sense of obligation can lead to shutdown, numbness, or deep frustration.
In many cases, one or both partners begin to avoid physical closeness entirely. The bedroom becomes a place of pressure rather than pleasure.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Sex positive marriage therapy in Connecticut teaches you to communicate without triggering each other’s defenses.
You and your partner learn how to express needs gently, listen without shutting down, and speak from your emotional truth instead of fear or judgment.
Instead of saying, “You never initiate,” you might say, “I feel lonely and I miss being close to you.”
This shift opens the door to empathy. It makes emotional safety possible again—a critical foundation for rebuilding your sex life.
In sessions at Wisdom Within Counseling, you’ll learn to slow down and validate each other. You’ll practice real-time tools for de-escalating fights and re-connecting emotionally.
As emotional intimacy grows, your sexual connection becomes deeper, more playful, and more satisfying.
You deserve a sex life that feels good—not one weighed down by anxiety, guilt, or resentment.
Sex positive marriage therapy in Connecticut helps you and your partner create a new emotional and sexual blueprint. One based on trust, communication, and mutual pleasure.
We’ll help you feel close, safe, and intimately connected again—in every way that matters.
If you’re ready to stop the cycle of anger, hurt, criticism, blame, and emotional withdrawal, reach out to Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut today.
Without emotional intimacy, sex becomes disconnected or disappears completely.
Many women, especially those who have experienced trauma, report that sex feels overwhelming, unwanted, or like a chore.
This isn’t because something is “wrong” with them—it’s because their emotional needs haven’t been met.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we help couples understand that for many women, true sexual desire starts with emotional closeness.
This means feeling emotionally validated, emotionally safe, and emotionally connected long before foreplay even begins.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Katie Ziskind, a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, helps couples in session learn emotional validation skills that immediately shift the energy in the room.
Instead of arguing, partners learn how to say things like, “I hear that you feel overwhelmed,” or “That must be really hard for you.”
These simple statements rebuild emotional intimacy and melt away years of tension. Right in the session, you’ll practice tools to listen with empathy, share feelings without blame, and respond with gentleness.
Emotional intimacy and trauma come together in marriage counseling with Katie Ziskind
When you and your partner begin to feel emotionally safe again, the walls start to come down. That’s when physical closeness can begin to return—not out of obligation, but out of a genuine desire to connect. Your nervous systems stop bracing for rejection or criticism, and start leaning in with curiosity and love. This is the true beginning of healing from trauma and rebuilding both emotional and sexual intimacy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, our emotional intimacy and trauma marriage counseling helps you slow down, learn a new way of being together, and remember that your relationship can feel loving again.
If you’re ready to break the cycle of conflict and create a stronger emotional foundation, we’re here to walk that journey with you.
When a wife has experienced trauma, anxiety, or years of feeling emotionally or physically disconnected, it can be hard for her to fully relax into her sexual pleasure.
As a husband, one of the most powerful things you can offer her is emotional safety through your words.
Positive affirmations help her nervous system settle, quiet her inner critic, and shift from performance-based pressure to connection-based intimacy.
Instead of rushing or expecting instant arousal, affirmations like “I love exploring your body with you, at your pace,” or “You don’t have to do anything—you’re already enough just as you are,” can help her feel cherished and seen, not just sexually, but emotionally too.
In trauma-informed couples therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling, we often guide husbands to say affirmations that ground their wives in the present moment.
And, couples therapy helps husbands reinforce that intimacy isn’t about doing—it’s about being together.
Phrases like “Your pleasure matters to me,” or “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere,” remind her that she is safe to receive without guilt, fear, or expectation.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
These affirmations can soften her body, open her heart, and invite more presence into your intimacy.
Over time, this emotional safety becomes the fertile soil where real sexual connection can blossom—without pressure, fear, or shame.
When a wife carries past trauma—whether from childhood, purity culture, previous partners, or within the marriage itself—her body often stays on high alert during intimacy.
This can make it nearly impossible for her to truly relax, let alone experience pleasure.
Gentle, loving affirmations from her husband can begin to rewire that fear response. When he says, “You’re safe with me,” or “You can tell me what you need,” it creates a bridge between emotional connection and physical touch. These words let her know she isn’t alone in her healing and that her partner values her comfort more than a goal-driven sexual experience.
One of the most important affirmations a husband can use is “There’s no rush.” This simple sentence creates space for his wife to tune into her body slowly, without pressure to perform.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Female arousal often takes 45–90 minutes, especially if past trauma or emotional disconnection has made sex feel unsafe or unwanted.
Words like, “I’m in no hurry—I love just being close to you,” or “We don’t even have to have sex, I just want to hold you,” help her feel that she’s not being used or expected to give more than she has to offer. Instead, she begins to trust that sex can be about connection, not obligation.
Another powerful affirmation is “You don’t have to be perfect.” So many women internalize the message that their worth is tied to being a good wife, a good mother, or someone who pleases their partner sexually.
When a husband says, “I love you exactly as you are,” or “You don’t need to fix anything to be worthy of love,” he offers her the kind of emotional freedom that helps her relax into herself.
These kinds of statements begin to dissolve shame and allow a woman to be fully present—not just physically, but emotionally.
In emotionally focused couples counseling with Katie Ziskind at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we teach couples how to slow down and build intimacy that feels emotionally safe and deeply nourishing.
For the husband, learning how to attune to his wife’s emotional needs—through tone, timing, and body language—can completely change the quality of their physical connection.
Affirmations like “I want to know what feels good for you,” or “We’re a team in this,” help both partners move out of fear and into emotional alignment, which is the true foundation of a satisfying sex life.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Ultimately, affirmations are not just words—they are emotional anchors. They tell your wife that she’s not too much, not broken, and not alone.
They create the emotional conditions where her body can finally exhale, and where pleasure becomes something she moves toward, not away from.
When you use affirmations regularly, especially during or before physical touch, you send a clear message: “I’m here for you. I see you. I love all of you.” And that kind of love is what allows true sexual healing to begin.
Work with Katie Ziskind, certified sex therapy informed professional for couples with PTSD and childhood trauma
When a couple struggles in a sexless marriage after trauma, it can feel like a painful, confusing cycle with no clear way out. Whether the trauma stems from childhood abuse, sexual assault, infidelity, betrayal, emotional neglect, or high-conflict communication, the effects ripple through your emotional and physical connection. Trauma often shuts the body down, disconnects partners from their own pleasure, and triggers fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses in moments that should feel safe and intimate.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, couples learn exactly how to rebuild intimacy in a sexless marriage after trauma—starting with emotional safety.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Emotional intimacy is the foundation for a healthy sex life.
Without it, one or both partners may feel unwanted, unsafe, ashamed, or emotionally starved. In couples counseling with Katie Ziskind, a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, you’ll gain the tools to rebuild trust, open communication, and closeness.
You’ll learn how to talk about feelings without triggering defensiveness, how to validate your partner without fixing or minimizing them, and how to shift from high-conflict patterns into healing connection. These skills are practiced live, in session, with support and coaching tailored to your relationship’s needs.
How to rebuild intimacy in a sexless marriage after trauma?
For many couples, especially where the female partner has experienced trauma, sex may feel more like a duty than a shared source of pleasure. Katie Ziskind teaches couples how to slow down, create emotional foreplay, and understand that the female body often needs 45–90 minutes of emotional and physical warming up—not just a few minutes of touch.
When emotional intimacy is restored, and when both partners feel seen and respected, physical closeness begins to feel safe again. You’ll learn to replace shutdown or withdrawal with presence and empathy, and rebuild connection one moment at a time.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, you won’t just talk about the problem—you’ll actively learn and apply solutions in real time. Katie Ziskind will guide you through couples-based exercises that help you notice each other, co-regulate, and express vulnerable emotions without shame.
If you’re ready to stop feeling like roommates and start rebuilding your intimate bond, Katie Ziskind at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut can help you recover from trauma and rediscover closeness.
As your nervous systems begin to feel safer with each other, you’ll be able to reconnect sexually in ways that feel mutually satisfying, compassionate, and rooted in emotional connection—not performance or pressure.
You deserve a relationship that feels emotionally nourishing, sexually fulfilling, and deeply safe.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Learn more about how to rebuild intimacy in a sexless marriage after trauma by scheduling a session with Katie Ziskind, a trauma-informed couples therapist, who truly understands the healing journey.
How do cultural expectations placed on women impact erotic pleasure and sexual expression?
At Wisdom Within Counseling, you get Katie Ziskind’s specialties as a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist.
Many women feel emotionally and sexually disconnected, not because something is wrong with them, but because they are carrying an overwhelming mental load every single day. From managing household tasks, coordinating kids’ schedules, remembering birthdays, and picking up the emotional slack in relationships, women are often expected to give, give, give—until they have nothing left for themselves. This never-ending loop of emotional labor creates exhaustion, burnout, and resentment, which leaves little room for erotic pleasure or sexual desire.
Culturally, women receive conflicting messages. Be sexy, but not too sexy.
Moreso, be giving, but don’t have needs. And, be nurturing, but don’t want too much.
These societal expectations teach women to prioritize everyone else’s comfort over their own—and when they finally have a moment to themselves, their nervous systems are often too depleted or stressed to engage with sexual energy.
Erotic expression requires safety, self-connection, and space to feel.
All of which are hard to access when a woman’s daily experience is overrun by responsibility.
As a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, Katie Ziskind specializes in helping women and couples explore these deep-rooted patterns.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, she creates a space where women can reconnect with their bodies and their desires—often for the first time in years.
Many clients come in saying, “I don’t even know what I want,” or “I feel numb,” and that’s a valid starting point. This disconnection isn’t a personal failure; it’s a symptom of emotional overload and cultural conditioning.
In couples counseling, Katie Ziskind helps women recognize how past messages—from childhood, religion, relationships, and society—have shaped their beliefs around sex.
For example, a women learn to believe that “good girls don’t talk about sex.” This mindset is limiting in terms of receiving sexual pleasure.
As a result, a woman may find it difficult to know what she likes sexually, or express her sexual desires. A woman may find it difficult to know to set boundaries. And, a woman may find it difficult to have a voice sexually. She may struggle to identify what brings her pleasure.
Another woman may associate sex with obligation or fear if she has a trauma history.
In session, Katie Ziskind supports clients in gently unpacking these experiences and moving toward sexual empowerment. At Wisdom Within Counseling, our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Emotional safety is the foundation of sexual expression.
If a woman feels constantly criticized, ignored, or overburdened by her partner, her body naturally shuts down sexually.
It’s not rejection—it’s protection. In couples counseling sessions, Katie Ziskind teaches partners how to create emotional intimacy. This occurs through empathy, presence, and validation. To note, this helps rebuild the couple bond and opens the door to trust, which is essential for relaxed sexual engagement.
Sexual pleasure for women also depends on time and intention.
Katie Ziskind educates couples on how the female body and brain often require 45–90 minutes of emotional and physical foreplay before arousal can fully engage.
Quick, disconnected sex may leave a woman feeling unsatisfied or even retraumatized.
Katie Ziskind shows couples how to slow down, use touch intentionally, and build connection long before stepping into the bedroom.
A woman cannot connect to her erotic self if she feels like she is parenting her partner.
Many women feel like they have a third child in their marriage —someone they have to remind, correct, or emotionally support.
In marriage therapy, Katie Ziskind addresses this imbalance. She playfully teaches partners how to share responsibility. This way, the woman can finally exhale and focus on herself again.
Rebalancing the emotional and domestic workload is an essential part of restoring sexual connection.
Katie Ziskind also works with women who have experienced trauma—whether from sexual abuse, infidelity, or emotional neglect—and helps them reclaim their right to pleasure.
Trauma disconnects the mind from the body, and healing involves learning to feel again, slowly and safely.
Through grounding techniques, mindfulness practices, and affirming conversation, Katie Ziskind guides clients toward self-compassion and renewed confidence in their sexual identity.
As a female, you deserve a relationship where you don’t have to carry it all.
Where you feel emotionally supported, seen, and safe enough to explore your desires.
Where sex doesn’t feel like a chore but like an expression of joy, trust, and connection.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, Katie Ziskind offers a compassionate, empowering space for women and couples to heal, grow, and transform their intimate lives.
If you’re ready to release the mental load, reconnect with your body, and feel emotionally and sexually fulfilled again, reach out today. You don’t have to give from an empty cup and your pleasure matters. Your story matters. And your healing is possible.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Overcoming Shame and Fear of Sex in Your Marriage at Wisdom Within Counseling
Many couples silently struggle with sexual disconnection, not because they don’t love each other, but because shame and fear have taken root in their intimate lives.
Whether the disconnection stems from religious guilt, childhood trauma, sexual abuse, body image issues, or painful past experiences, these feelings often go unspoken. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we help couples gently and compassionately explore the root causes of sexual fear so they can rebuild safety, trust, and intimacy in their marriage.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Sex is supposed to feel good. But for many, it feels scary, triggering, overwhelming—or even painful.
If you grew up in a household where sex was taboo, sinful, or never talked about, it’s natural to carry subconscious beliefs that sex is wrong, dirty, or shameful. These beliefs affect your body, emotions, and nervous system. Even if you intellectually know sex is safe in your marriage, your body might still respond with anxiety, shutdown, or dread. At Wisdom Within Counseling, we help you understand that these responses are not your fault—they’re rooted in experiences that need healing, not judgment.
As a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, Katie Ziskind specializes in guiding couples through this kind of deep, trauma-informed work. You’ll learn that you’re not broken—your body is just protecting you the only way it knows how.
In session, Katie helps couples slow down, explore emotional and physical safety, and rebuild trust through emotional intimacy, non-sexual touch, and affirming communication.
One of the most important tools you’ll develop is emotional validation.
When one partner feels shame around sex, the worst thing that can happen is pressure or criticism. At Wisdom Within Counseling, you’ll learn how to speak to each other’s inner child with empathy: “I’m here. I’m listening. You’re not bad for feeling this way.” This kind of emotional attunement helps heal old wounds and creates a secure emotional foundation where erotic connection can thrive.
We also teach couples that foreplay isn’t just physical—it’s emotional.
For many women, especially those with trauma, arousal doesn’t start in the body—it starts with feeling seen, heard, and emotionally connected. Katie teaches partners how to build emotional and sexual foreplay throughout the day, so that intimacy doesn’t feel rushed or forced.
Most female bodies need 45–90 minutes of gradual connection to feel ready for sex—and therapy gives you the tools to make that time meaningful and fulfilling.
If you’ve experienced trauma—whether childhood abuse, sexual violence, or betrayal within the relationship itself—it’s common to feel afraid of being vulnerable. We help you name these fears and work through them with compassion.
Katie Ziskind is a specialized marriage therapist for emotionally disconnected couples with trauma histories.
You’ll learn how to express your boundaries without guilt, how to ask for what you need without shame, and how to let go of outdated beliefs that no longer serve your relationship.
Some couples find themselves stuck in a cycle of avoidance, resentment, and emotional distance. You may argue about sex, or stop talking about it altogether. Katie Ziskind helps couples break these patterns in real-time in session, showing you how to repair conflict and reconnect in a way that feels safe and affirming. This process can transform not only your sex life—but your entire emotional connection.
Overcoming shame and fear around sex is a courageous journey, but it’s one you don’t have to walk alone with the help of couples therapy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, we offer a supportive space where both partners can feel seen, valued, and empowered to grow. You’ll move from fear to connection, from shame to trust, and from avoidance to intimacy.
If you’re ready to heal your sexual connection and create a loving, emotionally safe, and sexually fulfilling marriage, reach out today. Your story matters and your healing is possible. And you deserve to feel safe in your own body—and in your partner’s arms.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Counseling for Sexless Marriage and Emotional Disconnection at Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut
If you’re feeling like roommates instead of romantic partners, you’re not alone. Many couples find themselves stuck in a sexless marriage, often after months or even years of emotional disconnection.
You may love your partner deeply. But, passionate, playful, erotic intimacy has faded. Sadly, conflict has replaced closeness, and emotional safety has become distant.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut, we help couples rebuild the emotional and sexual intimacy that sustains a healthy, fulfilling marriage.
A sexless marriage doesn’t just mean a lack of physical touch—it often signals a deeper emotional rupture. Maybe life got busy with careers, kids, or caregiving.
Maybe unresolved trauma, betrayal, or poor communication made sex feel unsafe, awkward, or even unwanted. You might have stopped initiating out of fear of rejection. Or maybe you’re not sure how to reconnect after months of silence.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
These patterns are common, and they are completely repairable with the right tools and support.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, Katie Ziskind—certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained couples therapist—specializes in helping couples reconnect emotionally so they can reawaken their physical intimacy.
Sex and emotional closeness are deeply linked: when you feel emotionally safe, connected, and understood, your desire for touch and intimacy returns naturally.
In sessions, you’ll learn how to talk about your feelings without criticism or shutting down. You’ll also practice emotional validation—how to hear your partner’s fears or frustrations and respond with compassion instead of defensiveness.
You’ll practice skills live in session with Katie’s support, not just talk about.
Emotional safety is the soil where sexual intimacy can grow again.
Sexless marriages often have one or both partners who feel rejected, unwanted, or emotionally invisible. Katie helps couples explore those deeper emotional wounds, offering tools for reconnecting in a way that feels respectful and loving to both partners. You’ll learn how to rebuild trust, rekindle desire, and reconnect without pressure or blame.
Katie also understands that many couples avoid sex because it has become dissatisfying or overwhelming—especially for women.
Without emotional intimacy and adequate foreplay (which often requires 45–90 minutes for the female body to feel fully aroused), sex can feel like a chore rather than a source of joy.
Through therapy, couples learn how to bring back the emotional, sensual, and playful aspects of touch, so sex becomes something you both look forward to again.
If you’re navigating the pain of emotional neglect, betrayal, sexual avoidance, or trauma, this work will help you heal from the inside out.
You’ll move from resentment to understanding, from silence to open conversation, from avoidance to closeness. Whether you’re in the early stages of disconnect or have been sexless for years, it’s never too late to heal.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut, we believe that every couple deserves a safe place to heal, grow, and thrive. You don’t have to figure this out alone.
With the right guidance, you can rebuild a relationship where you both feel seen, supported, and intimately connected again.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Has Pornography Been Harming Your Sex Life?
The Negative Impact of Porn on Real-Life Partner Sex in Intimacy-Focused Couples Therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut
In today’s digital world, pornography is more accessible than ever before. While some individuals use it casually, others find that it becomes a primary source of sexual stimulation—often at the expense of real-life intimacy. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut, our couples therapists specialize in intimacy-focused marriage therapy.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut, your marriage therapist helps you both understand the negative impact of frequent or compulsive porn use on emotional connection, trust, and partnered sex.
Pornography can create a fantasy world where sex is always available.
As well, pornography misleads people to think sexual performance is flawless, and emotional connection is unnecessary. But, in a real relationship, sex is emotional, vulnerable, and built on trust.
When one or both partners use porn frequently, it can condition the brain to become aroused by pixels instead of presence. This can lead to emotional withdrawal, sexual avoidance, performance anxiety, and even erectile dysfunction in partnered settings.
Katie Ziskind, a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, helps couples uncover the emotional needs beneath the surface of porn use.
Often, porn becomes a coping mechanism for stress, loneliness, rejection, or unresolved trauma.
Rather than shaming you or your partner, couples therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling focuses on building awareness, accountability, and healthier forms of emotional and sexual connection.
Couples who enter marriage therapy often say, “We don’t have sex anymore,” or, “I feel like I’m competing with a screen.”
This emotional and sexual disconnect can lead to feelings of resentment, betrayal, and low self-worth, especially when the partner who isn’t using porn feels rejected or “not enough.”
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy. At Wisdom Within Counseling, your marriage therapist helps both of you name these hurts. And, you can begin to create a safe space for intimacy that feels mutual, nourishing, and emotionally attuned.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
In our Niantic, Connecticut office, couples practice skills to rebuild emotional intimacy, rediscover attraction, and learn how to initiate, explore, and enjoy sex again—together.
As well, you can meet on telehealth and teletherapy over video no matter your location. You’ll also learn about the importance of extended foreplay. The female body needs 45–90 minutes of foreplay. When sex is just about penis in vagina, or penetration, it is disatisfying for female-bodied partners. And, from counseling with our our sexless marriage therapists, you learn how to rebuild sexual intimacy. You both learn how to create sexual experiences that feel satisfying, pleasurable, consensual, and safe for both partners.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, our sexless marriage therapists don’t treat porn addiction as just a “bad habit.”
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy. Therefore, your marriage therapists sees porn use as a sign that something deeper in the relationship is asking to be healed.
Our trauma-informed approach helps couples move from isolation to connection and from avoidance to vulnerability.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
If you or your partner are struggling with the effects of porn use in your relationship, marriage therapy in Old Lyme, Connecticut can help you rebuild trust, reawaken sexual desire, and reconnect emotionally.
You both can co-create a sex life where both of you feel desired, understood, and emotionally safe.
Over time, frequent pornography use can train the brain to need novelty and instant gratification, which real-life intimacy doesn’t always provide.
In a committed relationship, sex often involves negotiation, patience, emotional vulnerability, and the ebb and flow of two distinct nervous systems.
When a partner becomes reliant on porn, they may struggle to stay present with their spouse’s body, needs, or emotional state.
This creates a barrier to genuine emotional intimacy. And over time, the partner who feels rejected may begin to shut down sexually, leading to a sexless or low-sex marriage.
For many women, especially those with a history of sexual trauma or performance-based love in childhood, porn sets up unrealistic and unsafe expectations.
These portrayals often center male pleasure, speed, and dominance, while neglecting the 45 to 90 minutes of emotional and physical foreplay the female body typically needs to relax and open up to pleasurable, connected sex. In couples therapy, Katie Ziskind helps couples redefine what healthy sex looks like.
Our sexless marriage therapists provide sex positive education. Porn doesn’t provide education at all. In couples therapy, your couples therapist focuses on centering mutual pleasure, not the male ejaculation being the porn-expected end goal. As well, we discuss consent, emotional presence, and nervous system attunement — especially when healing from sexual trauma.
Porn can also interfere with trust and create a dynamic of secrecy and shame.
If one partner hides their use, the other may feel emotionally betrayed or begin to question their own attractiveness or desirability.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how pornography addiction issues harm your sex life. At Wisdom Within Counseling, our couples therapists help you rebuild sexual intimacy. Couples learn how to talk about pornography with honesty and emotional maturity, not through blame or criticism, but with vulnerability and curiosity.
These conversations are crucial for rebuilding emotional trust and reigniting real-life desire.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut, couples learn that healing from the negative impact of porn is not about restriction or punishment — it’s about choosing connection over isolation.
Katie Ziskind’s trauma-informed approach recognizes that pornography use often masks underlying pain, anxiety, loneliness, or abandonment wounds.
Therapy helps each partner explore the root causes of these patterns and develop emotionally supportive strategies for reconnecting.
Ultimately, sex is not just a physical act — it’s a conversation between bodies, hearts, and histories.
When one partner turns to porn, it interrupts that dialogue. But with the right support, couples can repair that rupture, create a stronger emotional bond, and learn to experience sex as something sacred, playful, and relational.
Katie Ziskind, certified sex therapy informed professional, specializes in marriage counseling for couples with sexual avoidance issues.
To begin, click below for counseling with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we help you create a new sexual story — one built on emotional safety, mutual exploration, pleasure and presence.
Katie Ziskind, certified sex therapy informed professional, helps couples understand why trauma makes them avoid intimacy in their marriage. The team at Wisdom Within Counseling have extensive training in trauma-informed sex positive therapy Southeastern Connecticut.
Start working with our sexless marriage therapists who specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Breaking Free from Shame: How Religious Upbringing Can Impact Sexuality and Intimacy in Marriage
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut, we offer a safe and judgment-free space to unpack how your upbringing may be impacting your sex life, intimacy, and emotional connection. Religious trauma from a very conservative upbringing is a form of sexual trauma for many people. Misinformation from a religious upbringing misleads people.
Were raised in a strict, conservative, or deeply religious environment?
You may learn that sex is sinful, shameful, or strictly reserved for marriage — without any education on pleasure, emotional safety, or consent.
These beliefs often create lifelong struggles with fear, guilt, and anxiety around sex, even in the context of a committed marriage.
Many people raised in such environments learn to suppress or deny their natural, primal sexual urges, seeing them as bad or dangerous.
For men, this repression can lead to secretive pornography use or compulsive masturbation as an outlet for urges they were never taught to express in healthy, consensual ways.
Women, on the other hand, are often socialized to believe that their body belongs to their husband — not to themselves.
In therapy, we see how this mindset leaves many women emotionally disconnected during sex, engaging out of obligation, fear of infidelity, or religious duty, rather than mutual desire and authentic connection.
These pressures, fears, and sexual dynamics can deeply damage your marriage.
Women feel pressure to say yes to sex even when they feel anxious or emotionally shut down.
The type of sex their partner initiates may not feel safe, emotionally present, or physically pleasurable — but they still go along with it to avoid conflict, rejection, or accusations of being “withholding.”
This can create cycles of sexual shutdown, resentment, and disconnection that turn into a sexless or avoidant marriage. Especially, this is true if their husband turns to porn instead of developing deeper emotional intimacy.
In many traditional settings, men learn that women—and especially their wife—exist to serve, submit, or satisfy.
These gender roles teach men to expect sexual availability while denying the emotional and physical needs of their partners.
A husband criticizes his wife’s appearance, controls what she wears, or minimizes her discomfort, all under the guise of ‘biblical leadership’ or ‘headship.’
This toxic dynamic not only destroys emotional intimacy.
But, it reinforces the message that women do not deserve sexual pleasure, equality, or a voice in their own sex life.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, Katie Ziskind, a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained couples therapist, helps couples unpack religious sexual shame and rewrite their sexual story.
You’ll learn how to create a new kind of sexual relationship — one rooted in mutual consent, safety, emotional presence, and vulnerability. You’ll explore your beliefs around sex, your body’s relationship to pleasure, and begin to differentiate between what your faith taught you and what feels true and empowering for you today.
Many couples find healing when they learn to prioritize emotional intimacy as the foundation for physical connection.
If you’ve experienced guilt or fear when expressing your needs or setting boundaries, you’ll learn how to reconnect to your body without shame. You’ll practice emotional validation skills in session — such as hearing each other’s pain without judgment — and finally begin to understand how unmet childhood love needs show up in the bedroom.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we understand how deeply ingrained these beliefs can be — and we’re here to help you heal with compassion, not blame. You deserve a sex life that honors your whole self — mind, body, and spirit.
Whether you struggle with low desire, sexual avoidance, resentment around obligation sex, or porn-related betrayal, you’re not alone.
Society often assigns rigid gender roles that place a heavy emotional and sexual burden on women while limiting men’s emotional expression.
Women are taught to be agreeable, nurturing, and self-sacrificing—often at the cost of their own pleasure, desires, and needs.
Men are expected to be dominant, sexually assertive, and emotionally stoic. These roles don’t foster connection. They create emotional and sexual imbalance.
In sexless marriages, this often shows up as women struggling to feel safe, emotionally connected, or turned on.
And, while men feel confused, rejected, or entitled to penetrative sex.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we help couples re-examine these roles so they can build an intimate partnership based on respect, consent, and equality. Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Many women raised in religious or conservative families internalize the message that they must be perfect: the perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect host.
Culturally, there’s intense pressure to keep up appearances, post the happy photos, and hide any dissatisfaction in their marriage—especially around sex. But this perfectionism leads to burnout, resentment, and deep emotional isolation.
In marriage therapy, women often say they don’t even feel allowed to be tired, let alone uninterested in sex.
We help women release the shame of saying no, reconnect with their authentic needs, and explore what pleasure means to them—not what society tells them it should mean.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
A major barrier to healthy sexual intimacy in marriage is the absence of sex-positive education.
Many adult never receive proper sex positive education about their bodies, pleasure, or emotional safety in sexual relationships.
Instead, they absorbed fear-based messages from purity culture, abstinence-only sex ed, and religious doctrine:
“Sex is dirty until marriage—and then you must be amazing at it.”
These mixed messages don’t set anyone up for success.
They create anxiety, confusion, and shame. At Wisdom Within Counseling, our couples therapists gently unpack these harmful narratives.
This way, you and you partner can build a new, empowered understanding of sex and intimacy that aligns with mutual desire—not fear.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how trauma impacts sexual desire and help you rebuild sexual intimacy.
Suppression of sexual urges is a part of abstinence culture. Only are sexual urges acceptable for men in marriage. As well, gives no guidance for how to safely express or explore desire once married.
Most women grow up never learning about the full anatomy of the clitoris, despite the fact that it’s the primary organ of sexual pleasure in the female body.
Many conservative or abstinence environments, discussions on female masturbation and female anatomy never take place. Religious leaders intentionally withhold information and skip over female sexual pleasure.
Only is reproduction a part of the conversation—not eroticism and sexual pleasure.
As a result, women often enter adulthood without understanding their own bodies, believing that sexual desire is something to fear, avoid, or feel ashamed about.
Women never learn that it’s normal and healthy to experience sexual urges, to self-pleasure, or to feel curious about their erotic selves. Parents never offer guidance around sex, respect, consent, or fantasies.
This lack of education leads to sexual disconnection, performance anxiety, and difficulty relaxing during intimacy.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut, certified sex therapy-informed professional Katie Ziskind helps women and couples reclaim their pleasure.
In couples therapy, you can learn about the anatomy of sexual arousal. As well, you can develop a sex-positive relationship with your body—free from guilt, shame, or sexual pressure.
When girls grow up in strict, religious environments that discourage curiosity about their own bodies, they internalize the belief that sexuality is dirty, sinful, or dangerous.
Many women never learn that sexual pleasure is normal and healthy. Often, women learn not to touch themselves. As well, there are absence messages, to stay pure until marriage. And, adolescent girls learn that their worth is tied to how “modest” they are.
This kind of upbringing often erases female pleasure from the conversation altogether.
In reality, the clitoris contains over 8,000 nerve endings and exists solely for pleasure. But, if no one teaches this, many women reach adulthood feeling disconnected from their arousal or ashamed of their natural desires.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we honor the process of unlearning harmful messages and embracing sexual empowerment in a safe, trauma-informed way.
For some women, early messages like “good girls don’t do that” become internalized. And, these views create lasting sexual anxiety or performance pressure.
Instead of viewing sexual pleasure as a birthright, they feel guilt or fear around sex, especially within marriage.
This emotional block can lead to low desire, sexual avoidance, or going through the motions to meet a partner’s needs.
Sex becomes a duty instead of a mutually pleasurable, connecting experience.
In couples therapy with Katie Ziskind, we create space for each partner to explore their history and build a compassionate, pressure-free path toward sexual reconnection—one rooted in communication, consent, and emotional intimacy.
Many women never receive accurate, empowering sex education.
Abstinence-only teachings often ignore the basics of anatomy, orgasm, or consent and instead promote fear-based narratives.
These teachings can leave lasting scars—creating confusion, body shame, and a lack of self-trust.
Even within marriage, these beliefs can linger. Women may feel broken, inadequate, or afraid of “wanting too much.” Marriage therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling provides a healing space to redefine sexuality as sacred, joyful, and safe.
And, couples can explore what real, satisfying intimacy looks like.
Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in helping couples overcome religious trauma.
Katie Ziskind, a certified sex therapy-informed professional and Gottman Level Two trained marriage therapist, specializes in helping individuals and couples unravel the layers of shame, silence, and misinformation around sexuality.
In therapy, we celebrate your right to pleasure, your need for emotional safety, and your desire to understand your body on a deeper level.
You’ll learn how to talk about what you need, explore your turn-ons without guilt, and reconnect to your sensual self—so sex becomes something you look forward to, not something you feel obligated to give. Our sexless marriage therapists specialize in how religious trauma impacts sexual desire.
This religious culture frames sexual urges as dangerous or sinful.
Especially for women, and teaches that “good girls” don’t talk about sex, enjoy sex, or want sex.
Meanwhile, it often excuses or ignores male sexual entitlement.
This dynamic leads to power imbalances, sexual avoidance, and even trauma within marriage.
Our therapists guide couples to unlearn these false beliefs. As well, our sexless marriage therapists specialize in helping you prioritize emotional intimacy. And, you can both discover that sexual pleasure can be spiritual, healing, and connective when approached with honesty and safety.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut, Katie Ziskind offers trauma-informed, sex-positive couples therapy that honors your values while helping you heal from internalized shame.
Whether you’re deconstructing harmful religious conditioning, exploring new ways to express your erotic self, or simply trying to connect more deeply with your spouse after years of silence, you’ll be supported in a nurturing, validating space.
You don’t have to keep pretending everything is fine. And, you deserve a marriage where your emotional safety and sexual fulfillment matter equally.
Our marriage therapist specialize in sex and intimacy, helping couples with trauma and PTSD throughout Connecticut. Meet on telehealth, teletherapy, video or in person.
Andover, Ansonia, Ashford, Avon, Barkhamsted, Beacon Falls, Berlin, Bethany, Bethel, Bethlehem, Bloomfield, Bolton, Bozrah, Branford, Bridgeport, Bridgewater, Bristol, Brookfield, Brooklyn, Burlington, Canaan, Canterbury, Canton, Chaplin, Cheshire, Chester,
Clinton, Colchester, Colebrook, Columbia, Cornwall, Coventry, Cromwell, Danbury, Darien, Deep River, Derby, Durham, East Granby, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Hartford, East Haven, East Lyme, East Windsor, Eastford, Easton, Ellington, Enfield, Essex, Fairfield, Farmington, Franklin, Glastonbury, Goshen, Granby, Greenwich, Griswold.
Groton, Guilford, Haddam, Hamden, Hampton, Hartford, Hartland, Harwinton, Hebron, Kent, Killingly, Killingworth, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Litchfield, Lyme, Madison, Manchester, Mansfield, Marlborough, Meriden, Middlebury, Middlefield, Middletown, Milford, Monroe, Montville, Morris, Naugatuck, New Britain, New Canaan, New Fairfield.
Meet on video or in person.
New Hartford, New Haven, New London, New Milford, Newington, Newtown, Norfolk, North Branford, North Canaan, North Haven, North Stonington, Norwalk, Norwich, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Orange, Oxford, Plainfield, Plainville, Plymouth, Pomfret, Portland, Preston, Prospect, Putnam, Redding, Ridgefield, Rocky Hill, Roxbury, Salem, Salisbury, Scotland, Seymour, Sharon, Shelton, Sherman, Simsbury, Somers.
South Windsor, Southbury, Southington, Sprague, Stafford, Stamford, Sterling, Stonington, Stratford, Suffield, Thomaston, Thompson, Tolland, Torrington, Trumbull, Union, Vernon, Voluntown, Wallingford, Warren, Washington, Waterbury, Waterford, Watertown, West Hartford, West Haven, Westbrook, Weston, Westport, Wethersfield, Willington, Wilton, Winchester, Windham, Windsor, Windsor Locks, Wolcott, Woodbridge, Woodbury, Woodstock
