Glenn Stott, Couples Counselor and Sex Therapist Intern

Hello, my name is Glenn (he/him). I’ll be an intern therapist at the Center for Growth from August 2026 through August 2027. I am pursuing my Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

My Philosophy

Sex and sexuality can be difficult, vulnerable areas of discussion. We are rarely encouraged to explore our diverse sexuality in healthy, nonjudgemental ways. The messages surrounding sex can ask us to be good at it before we’ve tried it, fulfill our partner or partners sexual desires without them having to tell us what they want, and have our sexual needs met while not feeling needy or doing anything pushy like asking for more (or sometimes less) in the bedroom or outside of it. If you’re too kinky, you’re a deviant. If you’re not kinky enough, you’re a prude. We are judged morally for liking the wrong type of sex, or liking sex too much, medically for not getting an erection, getting an erection, being too dry, too wet, having too many or two few orgasms, all while trying to preserve our self-esteem in a media environment that tells us good sex is confident sex, but also lose 10 pounds, gain a six pack, have just the right amount of body hair, and look just the right age. 

It’s confusing.

My goal in therapy is to provide a safe, nonjudgemental space where you feel empowered to express and explore your sexuality, your desires, your experience of intimacy with yourself and with others. Safety doesn’t come automatically and vulnerability requires understanding the right pace and starting point for our discussions. This is why I believe in meeting you where you are and working together to explore in ways that feel productive but don’t pressure you to reveal, discover, or experiment before you feel ready to. At every stage I am guided by acceptance, authenticity, and choice. We will work to untangle your sexual signal from the societal noise, separating learned shame from desire and allowing you breathing room to uncover the intimacy, sex, and relationships that feel right in your body. With individuals, that can look like deep exploration of what your culture, family, trauma, and social environment taught you about relationships and sex, and how those lessons are affecting you right now. We can then play with what lessons you want to keep, which ones are no longer serving you, and what you want to learn going forward. With couples, throuples, or relationship webs of any size we can pursue with curiosity what dynamics feel comfortable, exciting, intimate, safe, and safely dangerous for all members and work to find the contexts and care needed for the relationships to feel emotionally, sexually and intimately fulfilling. 

My Approach

I work with individuals and those in relationships who are navigating:

• Personal history, trauma and their interactions with sexual wellbeing 
• Polyamory and non-monogamy
• Kink and BDSM
• Challenges in partnerships surrounding communication, sex, and intimacy
• Sexual identity and orientation
• LGBTQIA+
• Gender identity and expression
• Sexual dysfunction

My approach starts from a systemic perspective, meaning we work to understand how your context and the interplay between everyone in the relationship functions. This allows us to move away from a place of self or other blame towards a place of collaborative curiosity.  Instead of saying “I’m dysfunctional” or “my partner’s the problem” we can examine what each person desires to get from the relationship system and then evaluate what relationship patterns are serving those desires and what patterns might be getting in the way. In service of this, I incorporate the dual control model of sexual response as a way to help us organize our concepts of our sexual selves. 

At its core the dual control model separates sexuality into those things that excite us and move us towards sex (our accelerator) and those things that cue our brains and body to slow things down and move away from sex (our brake). At all times our accelerator and brake are searching the environment for cues to seek or stop sex, and the interplay between the accelerator and brake influence our desire. Understanding what things in our environment or which behaviors from our partners feather the accelerator, and which things press on the brakes can help us make sense of our sexual lives and give us agency. 

Once we understand the patterns and know how our brakes and accelerators respond we can work to develop the skills necessary to communicate our sexual needs to our partners, challenge the unhelpful thoughts that are standing in our way, and heal the relationship between ourselves and our bodies. Ultimately the goal is to restore enthusiastic choice to your sexual life so that you can say “yes” to the opportunities that enrich, “no” when you don’t feel like it, and engage in intimacy, sex, and relationships in ways that feel true to you. 

Closing thoughts

You are a whole person. How you want to approach sex, relationships, intimacy, and sexuality are an important part of that picture but the most foundational part of you is not one part of the picture, but the full painting itself. Sex therapy is not just about the sex. It is about how you can integrate this part of yourself so that it supports the full you and allows for authentic, valued, embodied choice. In our sessions together I will always strive to welcome your wholeness, your totality, and together we can find ways to work with your specific concerns without every losing site of the full person.

If this approach appeals to you and you would like to schedule a session, please reach out and I look forward to meeting you.