The Pleasure Centre

Sex-positive therapist with a Sydney based practise founded within intersectional feminist and queer theories

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The Pleasure Centre is a specialty mental health therapy service, that offers support around the issues of sex and relationships. The most common matters presented in sex therapy include sexual dysfunction (problems with orgasm, desire/libido, sexual pain, erection, ejaculation); trauma (reclaiming pleasure after trauma), and improving relationships and communication (whether single or partnered). It is run by Aleks (she/her), who is a certified clinical counsellor and sex therapist. Aleks specialises in issues of sexual function, sexuality, body image, and relationships. Sex therapy is often misconstrued as discussing explicit sexual behaviours, however it tends to focus more on the attitudes, beliefs, and narratives that no longer reflect a patients’ authentic existence. Aleks’s therapeutic practice is informed by evidence based therapies, and incorporates a combination of psychotherapy, psycho-education on mental and sexual health, and practical exercises, skills and strategies for her patients to apply.

Australia’s sex education gap

The Pleasure Centre was established in 2018, prior to the recent expansion of the sexual wellness industry. It was inspired by the gap that exists in our adult sex education and support around navigating sex and relationships. The Pleasure Centre and it’s services aim to normalise the nuances of sex and sexuality as well as to embrace diversity and to discuss and encourage representation of different identities and experiences. Australia is a conservative, colonised nation with a sex-negative attitude toward sex and relationships. This means many of us received sex education that centred around male pleasure, reiterated patriarchal beliefs about women’s sexuality as ‘complex’, and fear mongered young people about STI’s, and unwanted pregnancies. Recently we have seen and heard discourse that argues for more pleasure based learning, understanding consent, navigating communication and conflict in relationships, greater representation of sexual and gender minority experiences, and de-stigmatising many other components of sex and sexuality.

The creatrice of the pleasure centre

Aleks was born and raised on Guringai land, Eora Nation. She is a first generation Serbian-Australian woman, bisexual, and loves bagels and her dog Roger. Aleks studied her undergraduate degree in Psychology at The University of Sydney, a Masters in Counselling at The University of Notre Dame, and a Post-Grad Diploma in Sexology at Curtin University. Aleks has also undertaken specialty training in eating disorders, as her thesis on the medicalisation of women’s sexual dysfunction revealed women who present with issues of sexual function are likely to have experiences of depression, anxiety, and disordered eating habits. Sex therapy sessions are currently online via Telehealth due to COVID lockdown.