“It is both an honour and a privilege to have been recommended to work with so many of you and I understand that this message may be disappointing or frustrating to read.
In 2025, I faced some unexpected health issues because of the impacts of my cancer treatments almost ten years ago. While I remain cancer-free, this led to my need for more barefoot time to nurture my body that is not up to the physical demands of full-time work at this stage. For this reason, I will be undertaking additional training in trauma studies in 2026 and will continue part-time work through teaching at the University of Sydney, facilitating on sexual wellbeing and relationship intimacy within a Trauma Recovery Program, and providing supervision and consultation support to other psychosexual therapists.
The program I began creating in 2017 has now been trademarked and Courageous Connections: Managing Sexual Function During Trauma Recovery® will officially launch in 2026. I am beyond excited to see this project come to fruition to reach more people in their trauma recovery journey for either sexual or non-sexual trauma. Through this project my hope is to support a greater reach of survivors, their loved ones as well as other health care providers, as there is such a tremendous need in this space. Please know that you are not alone, and I am leading my limited energies to create more support options in the future. I deeply love my vocation and very much look forward to returning to private client appointments in the future. I will make the re-opening announcement through this website.” Kate Dempsey
This is a very common and normal experience. Many things impact our sexual function like ageing, illness, surgery, disability, medication, childbirth, relationship tension, parenting responsibilities, grief and loss, trauma, abuse, anxiety, depression and general life stress. Sex therapy can help to develop awareness of your own unique sexuality and explore ways to have more pleasurable and empowering experiences (even when your body has been changed by events in your life).
This is also a very common reason that people seek out sex therapy and there is a lot of support available to work through these issues. There is no "normal" way to experience sexual pleasure, regardless of your gender or orientation, and there are endless ways of interacting erotically.
Everyone has the right to a fulfilling and healthy sex life. Sex is a skill and a lot of us, did not receive helpful sex education and support around sex, pleasure and intimacy. Speaking with a therapist who has had specific training in sexual function can be extremely helpful in addressing these issues. Sex therapy can help to open up safe conversations that allow people to feel more comfortable exploring their values and beliefs about sex.
Sex Therapy (or Psychosexual Therapy) is like seeing a psychologist, psychotherapist or counsellor, except that the focus is on sexual issues.
A Sexologist (or Sex Therapist) can provide a comfortable, confidential and non-judgemental space for people to talk about and explore sexual issues.
If your therapist believes that your issue is not within their scope of practice, they will have a discussion with you about referring onto another practitioner with more experience in this area.
Some examples of issues that bring people to Sex Therapy include:
Sexology North Queensland acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Townsville, the Wulgurukaba and Bindal people.
We pay our respects to their cultures, their ancestors and the Elders, both past and present, and all future generations.
