Therapy for Female Sexual Dysfunction in St Petersburg, Florida
Karli Kucko, LPC, CST
AASECT Certified Sex Therapist
When intimacy feels confusing, painful, or out of reach, it can be challenging to know where to turn. Female sexual dysfunction is an umbrella term that simply describes persistent changes in arousal, desire, comfort, or satisfaction. These experiences are shared, yet often go unspoken because of shame, fear, or misinformation.
Therapy reframes this from a “problem to fix” into an experience to understand. Sometimes the body’s cues have been muted by stress, trauma, or relationship strain. Sometimes cultural messages about sex and pleasure have created pressure or guilt. Together, we work to understand what your body and emotions are communicating so healing can start from understanding, not self-blame.
Karli uses accessible language and gentle education to help clients identify patterns, normalize what they’re feeling, and create space for new experiences of connection and safety.
Understanding Female Sexual Dysfunction
Therapy for Women and People With Vulvas Experiencing Pain, Low Desire, or Disconnection
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering:
“Why does it hurt when I have sex even with someone I care about?”
“Why is sex comfortable with one partner but not another?”
“What’s wrong with me if I don’t feel any desire at all?”
You’re not alone, and nothing about your experience means you’re broken. Many women and people with vulvas silently navigate painful, confusing, or emotionally disconnected sexual experiences. These challenges often come with layers of shame, guilt, or fear that can feel hard to name.
Whether you’re coping with sexual pain, numbness, changes in desire, or a growing sense of distance from your body, therapy provides a safe and compassionate space to understand what’s happening and begin healing.
Karli helps clients gently explore the emotional, relational, and neurological factors that influence arousal and pleasure. Through this process, you’ll learn to listen to your body with curiosity instead of criticism, rebuild trust in yourself, and rediscover what intimacy can feel like when safety and connection come first.
How Therapy Helps
Sexual pain or disconnection often has more than one root. It can arise from emotional experiences, relationship dynamics, cultural messaging, or physical changes that affect how safety and pleasure are felt in the body. In therapy, we explore these layers with care, curiosity, and compassion, never judgment.
Together, we’ll work to:
Understand the emotional and physical patterns that contribute to pain or a loss of arousal.
Release shame and develop confidence in communicating your needs and boundaries.
Heal from sexual or relational trauma when it’s part of your experience.
Rebuild trust in your body, your instincts, and your capacity for pleasure.
Therapy offers space to move at your own pace without pressure or expectation. You deserve intimacy that feels safe, connected, and genuinely good on your terms.
What Makes Karli’s Approach Different
Karli’s work is rooted in empathy and evidence. As an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist St. Petersburg, Florida, she has specialized training in helping clients explore sexual concerns with professionalism and warmth. Her sessions are guided by an eclectic, evidence-based framework that combines psychological insight with body awareness and emotional safety.
Trauma-Informed and Safety-First: Every session begins with building comfort and trust. Karli knows that healing only happens when clients feel emotionally secure and respected.
Collaborative and Empowering: Therapy is not prescriptive. You and Karli set the pace and goals together. She invites curiosity rather than performance, creating a space where your boundaries are honored.
Integrative Tools: Drawing from EMDR and the Gottman Method, Karli helps clients process experiences that may affect desire or comfort while improving emotional communication with partners.
Inclusive and Affirming: Her work is queer-affirming, kink-positive, and welcoming to people from all backgrounds and body types. Every experience of sexuality is valid and worthy of understanding.
Karli’s approach blends professional expertise with human connection, helping clients feel seen, not studied.
Who This Therapy Supports
Karli’s therapy for female sexual dysfunction welcomes women and people with vulvas navigating a wide range of experiences, including:
Painful sex or discomfort during arousal.
Low or fluctuating desire.
Difficulty reaching orgasm.
Emotional disconnection during intimacy.
Shame or guilt surrounding sexuality.
Challenges related to trauma, purity culture, or religious conditioning.
Relationship conflict linked to desire differences.
She also works with partners and couples who want to support one another through these experiences. Often, both partners feel unsure how to talk about what’s happening. In therapy, these conversations become opportunities for empathy, connection, and teamwork rather than frustration or avoidance.
Karli believes that pleasure and intimacy are part of overall well-being. Everyone deserves access to safe, affirming sexual healthcare regardless of gender identity, orientation, or experience.
The Process: What to Expect
Starting therapy can bring both hope and nervousness. Karli’s process is designed to put clients at ease and move at a pace that feels right for them.
1. Free Consultation
The first step is a 15-minute video consultation. This is a relaxed, confidential conversation where you can share what’s bringing you in and ask questions about Karli’s approach. There’s no pressure to decide immediately; it’s simply a chance to see if the fit feels right.
2. Building Safety and Understanding
In early sessions, the focus is on developing comfort and trust. Karli helps you describe what’s been happening in ways that feel manageable and validating. This stage often includes gentle psychoeducation about desire, arousal, and emotional regulation.
3. Exploring Root Causes
Together, you’ll explore physical, relational, and cultural factors that may contribute to pain or disconnection. This might include unpacking stress patterns, communication habits, or beliefs about pleasure that were learned early in life.
4. Integrating New Skills and Awareness
As safety builds, sessions shift toward practicing new communication strategies, body awareness exercises, and emotional processing techniques. Clients often find that as they reconnect with their bodies and voices, intimacy begins to feel natural again.
5. Ongoing Support and Reflection
Therapy continues as long as it remains helpful. Some clients find meaningful progress after several months; others appreciate continued support as they integrate change. Karli ensures that each step honors your goals and consent.
This process is never rushed. It unfolds in partnership guided by curiosity, respect, and your readiness for change.
Common Questions
1. Is this physical or psychological?
It can be both. Many factors influence arousal, comfort, and desire, including physical health, emotional well-being, and relationship patterns. In therapy, we’ll explore the emotional and relational pieces together. When it’s helpful, I can collaborate with trusted medical providers, such as pelvic floor therapists, gynecologists, and other specialists, to ensure you receive holistic care that supports both your body and your mind.
2. What if I feel disconnected from my body?
That’s a meaningful and workable place to begin. You don’t need to have everything figured out. Therapy can help you reconnect with your body’s signals, emotions, and boundaries at a pace that feels safe. Healing starts with curiosity, not certainty.
3. Can therapy help if I’ve experienced trauma?
Yes. I offer a trauma-informed approach that prioritizes your safety and pacing. Your voice guides the process, and nothing is ever rushed or pushed. Therapy can support you in rebuilding trust with yourself, your body, and intimacy as a whole.
4. How long does it take to notice changes in arousal or comfort?
Everyone’s healing process looks different. Some clients notice slight shifts in awareness and relaxation within the first few sessions, while deeper emotional or relational work may take longer. The goal isn’t speed, it’s sustainable change built on safety, trust, and self-compassion.
5. Can partners be involved in sessions?
Yes. Many clients find it helpful to include their partners at some point in therapy. Joint sessions support better communication, understanding, and teamwork around intimacy challenges. You can start individually and decide together if and when including your partner feels right.
Arousal is more than a physical response; it’s a reflection of safety, emotional connection, and the body’s ability to feel present. When arousal becomes difficult to access, it can leave many women and people with vulvas feeling frustrated, confused, or even ashamed. Female arousal therapy helps you understand what’s happening beneath the surface and rebuild a sense of trust in your body.
Karli approaches arousal concerns with compassion and curiosity. Therapy often explores the connection between the mind, emotions, and body, helping clients identify what supports or blocks their arousal cycle. This process may involve unpacking cultural conditioning, unlearning pressure-based beliefs about sex, or recognizing how anxiety and past experiences shape physical responses.
Rather than focusing on performance or outcomes, sessions invite exploration. Together, you and Karli can identify what environments, emotions, and types of touch foster genuine desire and pleasure. Clients often describe feeling relief when they realize that low arousal is not a failure; it’s information. Therapy helps turn that information into understanding, confidence, and healing.
Female arousal therapy can be especially supportive for:
Individuals who want to reconnect with their bodies after trauma, stress, or medical changes.
Those who feel “shut down” or numb during intimacy.
People whose desire has shifted due to relationship dynamics or life transitions.
Clients exploring new ways to experience pleasure, safety, and connection.
The goal isn’t to “fix” arousal, but to help you rediscover your body’s natural rhythm, one that responds to safety, emotional closeness, and genuine pleasure.
Exploring Arousal Within Female Sexual Dysfunction.
The Science and Emotion Behind Female Arousal
Arousal is influenced by both the body and the mind; it’s a balance of physical readiness, emotional safety, and mental presence. When stress, trauma, or relational tension activate the body’s protective systems, arousal naturally decreases. This isn’t dysfunction; it’s the nervous system prioritizing safety. Understanding this allows therapy to focus on regulation, compassion, and self-trust rather than forcing desire to return.
Through evidence-based techniques, Karli helps clients recognize the connection between stress response and intimacy. When the body feels safe, it can begin to shift from guarded to receptive, allowing pleasure to emerge naturally. By slowing down, honoring boundaries, and building emotional connection, clients often find that arousal returns as a byproduct of healing, rather than as a goal to be achieved.
Relearning Pleasure and Presence
Part of arousal therapy involves helping clients rediscover what pleasure means to them beyond expectations, scripts, or performance. For some, this means learning to experience touch without anxiety. For others, it’s about reconnecting with sensations, fantasies, or emotional closeness that once felt distant.
Karli encourages curiosity instead of pressure. Therapy may include guided mindfulness exercises, communication tools for partners, or gentle reflections on what safety and desire look like now. These steps help clients shift from thinking about pleasure to feeling it, rebuilding a relationship with the body that’s rooted in self-compassion and confidence.
Reconnecting With Desire and Pleasure
For many people, healing from sexual pain or low desire is less about “fixing” something and more about remembering what safety, connection, and pleasure feel like. Therapy offers a space to rediscover your body’s capacity for joy and trust without pressure or expectation.
Through this work, clients often notice small but powerful shifts: feeling more comfortable saying what they want, seeing moments of genuine arousal, or experiencing intimacy as nurturing rather than stressful. These moments are signs of healing.
Karli believes every person has an innate ability to experience pleasure and connection. Therapy helps remove the layers of fear, shame, or self-criticism that can dull that capacity. With care, patience, and evidence-based support, it’s possible to rebuild a relationship with yourself that feels confident and alive.
If you’re ready to begin exploring what healing can look like for you, Karli offers a free 15-minute video consultation to discuss your goals and answer any questions. This first conversation can be the start of understanding your body, your emotions, and your desire in a new, empowering way.