Faith and intimacy
For people who want their faith in the room for this conversation rather than left outside it, and who are not looking to be told that either their faith or their body is the thing that went wrong.
A lot of people arrive here having done everything they were told. Then a wedding happened and the expectation was that all of it would switch over, on schedule, into something good.
They waited, and they kept a boundary that cost them something.
They were warned, in youth group or from a pulpit or by a parent, that this was the most dangerous thing about them.
When it does not switch over, the silence afterward becomes its own problem.
This is not a subject most people can raise in a small group.
It is not usually one a pastor is equipped to take further, so it sits, sometimes for years.
The longer it sits, the more it starts to feel like a verdict on the marriage or on the person. It is not a verdict. You do not have to have the right words for it before you call.
Less explicit than most people brace for.
Where a belief came from turns out to matter as much as what it is.
Tell us what you are dealing withThe consultation. Twenty free minutes. You say as much or as little as you want, and we work out whether this is the right place and who fits. It ends in a recommendation, not an assignment.
Early on. Usually history first, including the religious history, because a belief you were handed at fifteen behaves differently from one you arrived at yourself.
After that. This work happens with one person, with a couple, or with one and then the other. Religious history comes up as it comes up. There is not a separate faith module.
Ellen Johnson
MA, LPC | Clinical Director
Faith is treated as part of the picture here rather than as something to be argued with or worked around. That means nobody is going to suggest the answer is to believe less, and nobody is going to hand out a verse instead of doing the work.
What a person wants to keep and what they want to put down is theirs to decide.
If your church sent you
The practice works with congregants from churches across Austin, and pastors refer here regularly. What you say in this room does not go back to whoever referred you, including confirmation that you came.
If faith is not the part you want to work on: sex therapy and intimacy counselingThe methods, and where they fit. This is licensed clinical therapy that takes faith seriously. It is not pastoral counseling. Nobody here holds a separate faith-integrated certification. What you get is a clinician who will not treat your faith as the problem, and will not treat it as the whole answer.
If you are engaged rather than married: Christian premarital counselingOr start broader: Christian counseling in AustinNot sure which? Ask us on a callFaith and intimacy are both things people come here specifically for, which is less common than it sounds. A lot of practices do one or the other and treat the overlap as somebody else's problem.
No. We are not going to tell you the answer is to believe less. If something in your religious history is part of what is hard, we can look at that without taking a side on the belief itself. What you keep and what you put down is yours.
No, and the general intimacy page may suit better if faith is not part of what you want to work on. Nobody is asked to hold a belief to be seen here, or to give one up.
Yes. Plenty of this work starts with one person. Whether a partner joins later is a decision for later.
Some of the team are. It is not what makes the work good, and it is not something anybody brings into a session. Faith comes into the room when you take it there, and not before. This practice is clinical first, and that is deliberate.
Appointments Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, in person in Central Austin (across from Pease Park) or virtually across Texas. Weekends are sometimes available, so please ask if that works better for you.
No. The practice does not bill insurance directly, and out-of-network benefits get checked by hand, by us, before you commit to anything.
Raise it on the consultation. Several of the team are still working toward full licensure under supervision and see clients for less, and asking about it is normal here.
Twenty free minutes, and no part of it requires you to have worked out what you believe first. We listen, we tell you honestly whether this is the right place, and you decide from there.
Book a free consultationPick a time that suits you, sometimes as early as today.
We talk through what would help, and what it would take.
You leave with a recommendation to work with someone on our team, or a referral to another resource in the area. Either way, you won't be back at square one.
%20(1).png)
