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Joan Kahn discusses her sex therapy practice in her office at the Summit Medical Office Building on Monday.
FRISCO — For those who can’t get satisfaction, a local sex therapist wants to help ignite the night.
Joan Kahn, a licensed clinical social worker with more than 20 years’ experience, offers a range of services from couples counseling to singles workshops and sex toy instruction.
“I help people to understand where their attitude and beliefs about sex come from,” she said. “If you grew up in the ‘50s in a conservative Catholic upbringing, where sex was dirty and mom and dad never kissed ... how do you make sex clean and beautiful and wonderful and spiritual without some help?”
She started her practice in the Frisco Medical Office Building six weeks ago — after moving from Vail — to be close to her significant other.
Kahn began her journey into sex therapy as a volunteer, after working as an industrial Real Estate broker.
“I volunteered because I wanted to do something for the community, and I got so involved in it — I just became a sponge,” she said.
In the ‘80s she worked with sex-abuse victims as a guardian ad-litem for the Dade County State Attorney Janet Reno’s office in Florida.
Kahn also worked with AIDS and cancer patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Fla., and has taught human sexuality on the college level.
She has a master’s degree in social work from Barry University in Florida.
While living in Denver, Kahn discovered “there was a need for me to serve people beyond survival, and help people to celebrate their sexuality.”
She gained further experience through working with transgendered people, helping them enjoy and understand sex as a positive part of life.
“Helping these people to believe in themselves and encouraging them to be all they can be is a difficult journey (for them),” she said. “They need the compassion in order to blossom and feel and celebrate who they are.”
Kahn also helps people who’ve experience debilitating illness or injury.
“If you develop cancer and you lose a body part or the functionality of one of your organs, how do you begin to feel sexual again?” she said, adding that back problems and joint problems also affect peoples’ sex lives.
Any number of childhood experiences, fears, dysfunctions and dis-satisfactions can contribute to sexual problems.
“When we become aware that we have an issue with our sexuality, I think the normal process is to deny it or pretend it doesn’t exist so it will go away,” she said. “But it doesn’t go away — it gets worse.”
Often, a person will avoid sharing the feeling of dissatisfaction with his or her partner because “the risk of rejection is so high that people choose not to.”
Kahn’s services aim to offer an environment where people feel comfortable and safe.
“Whoever is here and whatever is expressed here stays here,” she said.
The experience involves no physical contact between Kahn and client, for that is illegal. The counseling is generally short-term, she said.
Kahn also offers a variety of lubricants, sex toys and books not readily available elsewhere in the county.
“Sexual dysfunctions can be minimized with sex aids,” she said.
For more information regarding Kahn’s services, including free weekly workshops, visit http://celebratingsexuality.com.
Joan Kahn, a licensed clinical social worker with more than 20 years’ experience, offers a range of services from couples counseling to singles workshops and sex toy instruction.
“I help people to understand where their attitude and beliefs about sex come from,” she said. “If you grew up in the ‘50s in a conservative Catholic upbringing, where sex was dirty and mom and dad never kissed ... how do you make sex clean and beautiful and wonderful and spiritual without some help?”
She started her practice in the Frisco Medical Office Building six weeks ago — after moving from Vail — to be close to her significant other.
Kahn began her journey into sex therapy as a volunteer, after working as an industrial Real Estate broker.
“I volunteered because I wanted to do something for the community, and I got so involved in it — I just became a sponge,” she said.
In the ‘80s she worked with sex-abuse victims as a guardian ad-litem for the Dade County State Attorney Janet Reno’s office in Florida.
Kahn also worked with AIDS and cancer patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Fla., and has taught human sexuality on the college level.
She has a master’s degree in social work from Barry University in Florida.
While living in Denver, Kahn discovered “there was a need for me to serve people beyond survival, and help people to celebrate their sexuality.”
She gained further experience through working with transgendered people, helping them enjoy and understand sex as a positive part of life.
“Helping these people to believe in themselves and encouraging them to be all they can be is a difficult journey (for them),” she said. “They need the compassion in order to blossom and feel and celebrate who they are.”
Kahn also helps people who’ve experience debilitating illness or injury.
“If you develop cancer and you lose a body part or the functionality of one of your organs, how do you begin to feel sexual again?” she said, adding that back problems and joint problems also affect peoples’ sex lives.
Any number of childhood experiences, fears, dysfunctions and dis-satisfactions can contribute to sexual problems.
“When we become aware that we have an issue with our sexuality, I think the normal process is to deny it or pretend it doesn’t exist so it will go away,” she said. “But it doesn’t go away — it gets worse.”
Often, a person will avoid sharing the feeling of dissatisfaction with his or her partner because “the risk of rejection is so high that people choose not to.”
Kahn’s services aim to offer an environment where people feel comfortable and safe.
“Whoever is here and whatever is expressed here stays here,” she said.
The experience involves no physical contact between Kahn and client, for that is illegal. The counseling is generally short-term, she said.
Kahn also offers a variety of lubricants, sex toys and books not readily available elsewhere in the county.
“Sexual dysfunctions can be minimized with sex aids,” she said.
For more information regarding Kahn’s services, including free weekly workshops, visit http://celebratingsexuality.com.
Sexual satisfaction
30 percent of women have never had an orgasm44 percent of all US women are not sexually satisfied
31 percent of all men are not sexually satisfied
Source: Joan Kahn, sex therapist
