Meet Ashley Grinonneau-Denton, Ph.D., AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and Sex Therapist/Sex Counselor Supervisor, PCC-S, IMFT-S, AAMFT Approved Supervisor (Pronouns: She/her/Dr)
Dr. Ashley is a genuine, direct, and dedicated therapist interested in helping to guide you in finding personal fulfillment and happiness in the relationships in your life while using an integrative, family systems approach. If you are looking for a "smile and nod" therapist, then she is not the therapist for you. Dr. Ashley believes, wholeheartedly, that neutrality will only go so far in the therapy arena, especially when universal challenges in relationships and sexuality are concerned. Wasting time is not Dr. Ashley's "jam," and thus, she is highly focused on a thorough assessment process in order to facilitate getting to the core issues that are contributing to the challenges that are at the forefront. Concrete strategies, inclusive of a holistic view, are implemented using what she refers to as a "directly compassionate" approach that moves to create a therapeutic setting in which any and all things can be discussed in a vulnerable and safe way.
Whether the challenges a person is facing pertain to their relationship with themselves, partners, and/or friends and family members, Dr. Ashley's uniquely provocative approach is designed to help folx traverse life's most complex challenges. It is her personal and professional philosophy that life's challenges are best navigated by facing the storms of life head on. "Nobody has time for. herd of elephants in the room," she has been known to say. If you are looking for a candid, multiculturally-sensitive, LGBTQIA+, poly, and/or kink-friendly, down-to-earth therapist, you have come to the right place.
Although Dr. Ashley operates in a private practice setting at this time, she gives credit to her origin story working with sexual issues when she began her work doing community advocacy work in the sexual assault and domestic violence realm working with gender, racial, spiritual, and cultural minorities as well as many other marginalized groups, including but not limited to, sex workers and former sex workers, as well. She began said work in the community in 2003. Following these experiences, her work continued as a licensed professional for many years within the in-home therapy context where she believes that such opportunities afforded her to become the therapist and educator that she is today.
Dr Ashley earned her doctoral degree in Counselor Education & Supervision: Marriage & Family Therapy Track and is dually licensed as a Supervising Professional Clinical Counselor (PCC-S) and an Independent Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor (IMFT-S) who has earned the AAMFT Approved Supervision Designation. She is also nationally recognized as a Certified Sex Therapist (CST) through the American Association of Sexuality Educators Counselors & Therapists (AASECT) and an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist Supervisor (CSTS) of aspiring sex therapists and counselors. In addition to functioning in the clinical realm, she has a deep passion for training and educating new therapists (particularly those who are interested in treating sexual issues and/or beginning their journey in private practice). Driven by this passion, Dr. Ashley also serves as Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Sexuality Training Institute that moves to provide sex positive education to those from a variety of disciplines.
Dr. Ashley has extensive training in individual, relationship-based, and sex therapy approaches and treats a wide variety of clinical concerns using a systemic approach. She is a kink, poly, and LGBTQIA+ friendly sex therapist who specializes in treating sexual health concerns with a particular focus on couples' issues in both monogamous and multi-partnered relationships. Areas of specialty include: sexual dysfunction in non-binary and binary (men and women) folx, assisting those who are questioning their gender and/or sexual orientation, assisting those seeking gender affirming/confirming treatment from hormones to surgery, sexuality and disability, sexuality and aging, sexual abuse and trauma, sexual fetishism, postpartum/perinatal emotional and sexual difficulties, sexually compulsive behaviors across the lifespan, pelvic pain, infertility, infidelity, and assisting parents/caregivers develop a more sex positive approach to raising sexually healthy children and adolescents. Dr. Ashley is open to working with individuals from all walks of life, races, spiritual/religious affiliations, and cultural identities. In the therapy room, as a supervisor, and as an educator, she has adopted a "directly compassionate" approach in which she encourages her clients, supervisees, and students to "take no shit" in regards to their emotional health and well being, and become the best advocates they can be in all areas of their lives, namely, by integrating a sex positive approach in all contexts of their lives. Because the social marginalization of sexual health she takes extra care to incorporate a direct approach using a bio-psycho-social, sexual, educational approach using educational models that help clients and those she teaches and supervises understand the sexual body from a physiological perspective in an effort to incorporate a "whole person" approach.