"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field, I'll meet you there." - Rumi

I believe that we can find deep self-love and power when we leave the world of right and wrong and enter into curiosity, acceptance, and self-study. I provide a warm, non-judgmental space for individuals and couples to begin that self-inquiry and healing process.

I will stand by your side, as I have done with many individuals and couples, and encourage you to find and feel into your own truths, with self-study and experiments. Whether you’re struggling with anxiety, sexual dysfunction, or a ruptured relationship, I’ve walked the journey myself and with many others and will confidently hold space for you to get what you really want.

Who I Work With

I quite enjoy working with both couples and individuals who want more out of life. As someone who has both been monogamous and non-monogamous, I find great joy in working with couples in many different relationship structures - helping them navigate conflict, learning to communicate, break up amicably or create a new healthy relationship with each other, and enjoy their sex life (again or for the first time). I have enjoyed helping couples thrive in big life changes like opening up their relationship, exploring their queerness, and navigating kink dynamics.

I find great joy in working with individuals of any gender identity or sexual orientation and have helped individuals move from depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation into a vibrant life by re-finding their creativity, power, and self love.

I’ve also helped many men, women, and folks outside of the gender binary reclaim their erotic selves, or as one client said “I was beginning to think something was biologically wrong with me and now, after my work with Aaron, I am living proof that change is possible.”

All of my sessions are via Zoom.

My Twisty-Turny Professional History

Before I became a Sex and Relationship Coach, I trained as a therapist and received a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Bradley University.

I then completed my therapist traineeship at the Liberation Institute, a queer friendly, pay-what-you-can, mindfulness-oriented mental health clinic in San Francisco. There I completed my 700 hour therapist practicum.

Before my therapy trainings, I began CEO coaching as I had been a CEO myself - running a multi-million dollar startup for nearly 10 years in my 20s, before passing the CEO role on to pursue something closer to my heart and values: therapy. The company was acquired and many of my team members went on to create their own multi-million dollar businesses, families, beautiful relationships and marriages - one of which I went on to officiate.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, I paused my college studies because I was awarded an entrepreneurial fellowship with 20 other entrepreneurs from around the world, where I completed a 6 month entrepreneurial fellowship at places like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.

Before that fellowship, I was once a small child. At one point I also tried wrestling and realized that was not for me.

My life and my coaching approach are both heavily influenced by the 10 day Vipassana (10 days sitting in silent meditation) that I completed in 2020. The 10 days of sitting silent meditation helped me learn how to ride the waves of emotions and experiences with more equanimity, cling towards narratives less, and realize the impermanence of everything in life, including my emotions.

In 2021, I spent about 100 days in semi-solitude while backpacking over 1,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail. This time in the woods outside of normal society helped me to examine my life and unsubscribe from societal norms in ways that unequivocally permeate my coaching practice. I hope to help my clients free themselves from the societal norms that don’t align with their truth.

My work throughout my life has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, CNBC, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Forbes.

My Approach

It depends… on the context of the situation, person, and environment. Here are a few patterns that come up often:

I believe in the power of mindful awareness. If we don’t know how we feel or what’s really going on inside, we don’t act or don’t act thoughtfully. So much of the healing process is slowing down and becoming aware of our unconscious thoughts, beliefs and automatic patterns.

When we slow down into self-study, we paradoxically get propelled to heal faster the same way a slingshot works. When I think of awareness, I think of this as a somatic process. I’ve been trained in Hakomi and Gestalt, two of the leading somatic and mindfulness therapies, and work quite differently than many mental health therapists who focus more on analysis; whereas I focus more on what your body is saying, instead of your mind.

“Lose your Mind and Come To Your Senses” - Fritz Perls

Somewhat related to this somatic process, there’s immense power in learning how to self soothe. Rehearsing self soothing in therapy, especially when triggered, is quite powerful. Rehearsal in general is a technique I use a lot, alongside using Internal Family Systems (IFS). Occasionally I will use Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

I believe in being clear with ourselves what we’re subscribing to and what we actually want to subscribe to. We often subscribe to so many societal beliefs (especially in sex and relationships - damn patriarchy) without questioning if we want to or if it’s beneficial to us. To live a life full of fluidity, authenticity and creativity, we must unsubscribe to what traps us and makes us feel shame. Shame is the opposite of creativity.

“Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.” - Tara Brach

I believe in the power of creativity. Helping a client move to creativity can cure a depressive experience.

I believe in looking at the whole situation. Therapy often asks us to look at ourselves, but also sometimes we feel depressed because we’re in the wrong environment (job, relationship, etc). Many therapists only focus on improving ourselves, but also we only exist within an environment - thus I believe both the person and the environment must be examined. Traditional therapy under emphasizes the simple and immense power of changing the environment or having a novel experience which allows us to examine ourselves, our environment, or how we have created our environment.

I believe pleasure is the fuel for life. When we have pleasure (sunshine, hobbies, sex, etc), everything else becomes more fun, even work. When we don’t have enough pleasure, we work more, we rely on our vices, we become critical. I believe in asking why you got into your relationship in the first place: is joy part of your answer? Instead of always processing, let’s see what happens when you bring back joy.

I believe in novel experiences. Afraid of being rejected? Get rejected. Afraid of being alone? Be alone. Afraid of rocking the boat with your partner and stepping into conflict? Let’s get into conflict. You find out you not only survive, but are empowered by that experience. Talking with a therapist is an immensely powerful resource, but having our own real experience is more powerful.

I believe that healthy living is allowing ourselves to become aware of our experience, making real contact in that experience, and moving to the next experience. When we aren’t aware, or when we aren’t making real contact (think of someone so in their head during sex that they struggle to enjoy it), or when we stay stuck on the previous experience, we can feel “neurotic.” Making real contact with one another (or the objects around you) while staying in contact with yourself is truly powerful. I will help you unfold into your truth, moment by moment.

I believe that self-esteem is not found by constantly working on yourself until you are perfect, but rather accepting your imperfections and mistakes. From here, you can get what you really want underneath your constant striving to improve:

actually loving yourself.

Education & Training

I am trained in multiple different approaches to assisting transformation.

Education:

  • Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Bradley University in 2021

  • Bachelors of Science in Business: Business Economic Consulting and Public Policy from Indiana University in 2012

Professional Training:

  • Somatic Sex Educator Training by The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education - 2023 to Present

    The 2 year training educates leaders in the world of Somatic Sex Education: learning, practicing, integrating and teaching trauma-informed touch and embodied pleasure.

  • EFT-C Level 1 (Emotion Focused Therapy - Couples Therapy) from the Emotion Focused Therapy Institute - 2025

    Emotion Focused Therapy is one of the leading empirically supported couples therapy modalities. The training focuses on the skills needed to help couples learn to resolve relationship difficulties, navigate betrayal and forgiveness, and disrupt difficult emotional cycles.

  • Professional Mentorship with Keeley Rankin, MA - 2022 to 2025

    I was selected as one of two mentees out of dozens of applicants. The mentorship, ongoing case consultation, weekly supervision and training was 3 years. Keeley is a leading intimacy and relationship coach in San Francisco who’s work is grounded in mindfulness, somatics, pleasure, and authenticity. You can find her teachings on many podcasts - I particularly love her episodes on Shameless Sex.

  • Professional Consultation with Libby Sinback - 2024

    Monthly Consultation with Libby Sinback, a leading polyamory relationship coach. This consultation, mentorship, and ongoing case consultation orients around being a more skilled non-monogamous relationship counselor. Libby has counseled hundreds of non-monogamous couples (and those opening up their relationships) towards healthy and satisfying relationships.

  • Unfurling with Pleasure by Euphemia Russell - 2023

    A 4-month weekly group coaching focused on exploring pleasure, creativity, somatics, and intuitive movement as methods for self-healing. Led by Euphemia Russell, the bestselling author of Slow Pleasure. Euphemia inspires me because she helped me show up more with “not how things look, but how they feel.”

  • Heal and Nourish: Intentional Eating and Body-Image Coaching and Course by Emily Vaneck - 2023 to 2024

    Our relationship with body-image and food are two of the most important relationships we have. Like any other relationship, this can be a great source of joy or of suffering. This 6 month program examines a more nourishing relationship with food and body acceptance instead of opting for a life-long practice of dieting and body hatred. Led by Intuitive Eating Dietitian and Nutritionist, Emily Van Eck, MS, RDN. Emily inspires me because she helped me rethink dieting culture and embody self-love by finding sexiness with the body in its current state.

  • Financial Literacy: Small Business Big Life by Hadassah Damien - 2023

    Our relationship with money can add or remove suffering and is one often brought up by my clients. How much do we really need? How can we get what we want in a sustainable and equitable way? This 8 week program taught how to be value-driven and systematic with finances while exploring financial equity and small business finance fundamentals. Hadassah (a former low-income punk-house resident, LGBTQ artist and now economics researcher) inspires me because she figured out how to thrive in the capitalist system while living values first and raising up others.

  • Foundations of Open-Relating: Non-Monogamous Relationship Training by Libby Sinback - 2023

    This 8 week relationship course and processing group teaches the pillars of healthy non-monogamy: empowerment, security, pleasure, and meaning. Libby’s teachings and podcast Making Polyamory Work gave me the foundations to create secure, healthy, and joyous relationships (not just romantic) in my life.

  • Hakomi Professional Training - 2020-2021

    A year long training in Hakomi, a somatic and mindfulness approach to therapy. Hakomi Therapy is a Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy method based on principles of Mindfulness, Nonviolence, Unity, Organicity and Mind-Body Integration. For the last 30 years, Hakomi has been leading the field in experiential, body-centered, somatic psychotherapy.

    A few key assumptions that Hakomi Therapy is based on:

    1. As we develop from infancy to childhood to adulthood, we organize our experiences by applying meaning to them, to the world, and to ourselves;

    2. These organizational decisions come to operate as unconscious “core beliefs” about the world and our place in it which govern how we think, feel, develop, act, respond, and create;

    3. These core beliefs limit our ability to function spontaneously and to live effectively through systematic, characterological habits which we originally created to avoid feeling a lack of safety, affection, attention, or approval; and

    4. The purpose of therapy is to become fully human, alive, spontaneous, open-hearted and caring, with the ability to be equally effective acting in interdependence with the world or autonomously.

  • The Liberation Institute: Therapist training and Supervision - 2021

    I completed my 700 hour therapy training at the Liberation Institute in San Francisco where I worked with therapy clients on sex, relationships, and life changes. I was supervised by 2 licensed therapists: Asya Mourraille (a Somatic Therapist) and Adina Ascher (a Queer Cognitive Behavioral Therapist).

  • Certificate in Gestalt Therapy - Gestalt Institute of San Francisco - 2020

    I am certified in Gestalt Therapy, graduating in 2020 from a year long training at the Gestalt Institute of San Francisco. Gestalt therapy is a somatic psychology that helps people live more authentically and unsubscribe from societal norms that don’t fit them.

Workshops Led:

  • People Pleasing, Power, and Pleasure - 2025

    I co-created and led multiple 3 hour workshops with for individuals struggling with people-pleasing. Participants learned how pleasure is an antidote to people pleasing and how to navigate living authentically, voice their preferences, and know what they want.

  • Foundations of Open-Relating (16 Week Non-Monogamy Training) by Libby Sinback - 2024

    I was on the teaching team for 3 cohorts of this 16 week non-monogamy relationship course and processing group which teaches the pillars of healthy non-monogamy: empowerment, security, pleasure, and meaning. As a peer-coach on the teaching team, I lead breakout rooms and facilitated discussions on how to do conflict, how to build healthy relationships, how to work with your triggers, how to rebuild a healthy sex life, and more.

  • Foundations of Pleasure - 2023

    I created and led a 2.5 hour pleasure workshop for couples in New Orleans focused on creating a pleasure practice, moving from doing what looks good (performing) to doing what feels good (embodiment). Individuals learned the 3 parts of creating a daily pleasure practice to make the mundane of driving, working, cooking, touching, etc more pleasurable. Couples learned one of the foundational pillars of great connected sex and then practiced touching each other without the pressure of being great. Finally, participants learned to communicate what they want and how they want it in a playful environment.

Workshops Completed:

  • Understanding Attraction facilitated by Tracy Montgomery of the The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education - 2024

  • Orienting Towards Pleasure facilitated by Dr. Liam 'captain' Snowdon of the The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education- 2024

  • Troubling Normal (A somatic inquiry into society’s norms that may be causing constraints in your body) facilitated by Dr. Liam 'captain' Snowdon of the The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education- 2024

  • Midwifery & Somatic Sex Education: Enhancing the Pregnancy & Birth Experience facilitated by Pati Garcia LM, CPM, CSB - 2024

  • Practicing Pleasure facilitated by Shauna Farabaugh of the The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education- 2023

  • Yes No Maybe So (Body Awareness and Embodied Consent) facilitated by Shauna Farabaugh of the The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education- 2023

  • The Power of Playful Connection facilitated by Tracy Montgomery of the The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education- 2023

  • Body Image Healing Letter Writing Technique facilitated by Kai Cheng Thom of the The Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education- 2023

  • Gestalt Process Advanced Tracking (Gestalt Institute of San Francisco - 2020)

  • Gestalt Experiments - Advanced Formations (Gestalt Institute of San Francisco - 2020)

  • Gestalt Empty Chair (Gestalt Institute of San Francisco - 2020)

  • Gestalt & Trauma (Gestalt Institute of San Francisco - 2020)

  • Relational Gestalt (Gestalt Institute of San Francisco - 2020)

  • ESSFT: Evolving Structural Strategic Family Therapy (Institute of Advancement of Psychotherapy - 2020)

  • Working with Families Using Evidence-Informed Principles (Pamela Parkinson, PhD - 2019)

  • Attachment Needs of Kids (Pamela Parkinson, PhD - 2019)

  • Assessing Family Relationships (Pamela Parkinson, PhD - 2019)

  • Therapy Training Workshop Series with Couples and Families Behind a 1 Way Mirror (Pamela Parkinson, PhD - 2019)

  • Men’s Group Facilitation Training (ManKind Project - 2019)

My Life Outside of work

I live a fun and full life in New Orleans and Baltimore which includes converting an old school bus into a home, woodworking, swing dancing, making art, traveling to at least one new country (almost) every year, backpacking, canoeing, hiking, interior design, exploring abandoned buildings, podcasts, photography, biking, cooking, taking care of my plants, and seeing live music. My current favorite hobby is getting excited about books friends recommend, buying them, and never reading them.

Some Books I Like

Here are a few that have deeply influenced me:

  • Already Free by Bruce Tift

  • Deepest Acceptance by Jeff Foster

  • Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown

  • Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

  • Radical Compassion by Tara Brach

  • The Erotic Mind by Jack Morin

  • The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

  • Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski

  • Sexual Healing by Barbara Keesling

  • Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships by John Welwood

  • The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy

  • Polysecure by Jessica Fern

  • Mating In Captivity by Esther Perel

  • The State of Affairs by Esther Perel

  • Feeling Good by David Burns

  • Emotional Chaos to Clarity by Phillip Moffitt

  • The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh

  • When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön