Sex Therapy for Latter-day Saint Couples and Individuals
If you are looking for an LDS sex therapist, you are in the right place. Covenant Sex Therapy was founded by a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for more than a decade we have worked with Latter-day Saint individuals and couples on sexual concerns, alongside clients of every background and belief.
You will not have to explain your beliefs from the beginning, defend them, or set them aside to get help here.
What faith-aware sex therapy actually means
The phrase gets used loosely, so here is what it means in this practice.
It means we already understand the framework you live in. We know what a temple recommend interview is, what the law of chastity asks, what it means to have waited, and what it is like to be told for twenty years that something is wrong and then to be expected to want it freely on a wedding night. You do not have to build that context for us.
It means your values set the goals, not us. We do not have a target for how often you should have sex, what you should be willing to do, or what your marriage should look like. Those are yours. Our work is helping you get there.
It means we are clinically serious. Faith-aware does not mean soft. Our therapists are trained and supervised in sex therapy and work from current research, not from folk wisdom with scripture attached.
Doctrine and culture are not the same thing
This is the distinction most of the people we see have never had drawn for them, and it changes everything once it is clear.
Much of what causes sexual pain in faithful marriages did not come from the Church. It came from culture: from the way chastity was taught in a particular ward, from an object lesson about a chewed piece of gum, from an adult who answered a question with discomfort instead of information, from the silence that followed. Those messages are powerful, they shape bodies, and many people carry them for decades believing they are doctrine.
We are not in the business of talking you out of your faith. We are in the business of helping you separate what you actually believe from what you absorbed, so you can keep the first and put down the second. For most couples, that one piece of work does more than anything else we do.
What Latter-day Saint couples bring us
Newlyweds who found that the switch did not flip after the wedding. Couples who have been married for years and have never been able to have intercourse. Differences in desire where one spouse feels constantly rejected and the other feels constantly pressured. Pornography use and the shame and betrayal around it. Obsessive doubt about worthiness that drives repeated confession and reassurance seeking. Sexual pain that no one has taken seriously. Guilt that outlasted repentance. Couples who are doing everything right and still feel like strangers in their own bedroom.
None of this is rare, and none of it means your marriage is failing.
Who leads this work
Dr. Anthony Hughes founded Covenant Sex Therapy. He holds a PhD from Brigham Young University with an emphasis in sex therapy, is an AASECT certified sex therapist, and is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. He wrote You, Me, and We, a guide to marital intimacy published by Cedar Fort.
He has taught human sexuality and sex therapy to graduate students at Brigham Young University, taught the principles of sex therapy to medical residents at Intermountain Healthcare, and was an invited presenter at Clinical Conversations at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he taught how to work with couples facing pornography concerns from a healthy sexuality perspective.
Our other therapists are licensed clinicians trained and supervised in sex therapy, and the practice serves as a training site for the next generation of sex therapists.
We are therapists, not ecclesiastical leaders
Worth stating plainly, because people ask. We do not decide worthiness, we do not handle Church discipline, and we do not speak for the Church. Those belong to your bishop or stake president, not to us.
What we do is clinical. Where it helps and you want it, we will work alongside a leader you trust. Nothing you tell us goes to them without your written permission.
Everyone is welcome
You do not have to be a Latter-day Saint to work with us, and many of our clients are not. We built this practice to be a place where faith does not have to be explained, and that turns out to matter to people from many traditions and to people with none. Clients of every background receive the same skilled, respectful care.
Common questions
Will you tell me to do something against my beliefs?
No. Your values set the direction of the work. If we think something is worth considering, we will say so and explain why, and you decide. You will not be pushed.
Will my bishop find out?
No. What you share is confidential within the legal limits every licensed therapist follows. We do not contact anyone, including a Church leader, without your written permission.
Is sex therapy appropriate for faithful members?
Yes. Sex therapy is talk therapy about sexual concerns. Sessions are conversations in an office or by video. There is no physical examination, no nudity, and nothing happens in session. If you have heard otherwise, you have heard about something that is not sex therapy.
Do I have to come with my spouse?
No. Many concerns are treated individually, and one partner starting often changes the whole dynamic.
Do all your therapists share my faith?
Not all of them, and that is on purpose. What every therapist here shares is the training to work with faith as part of who you are rather than as a problem to be managed. When you reach out, tell us if that matters to you and we will take it into account when we match you.
Starting
Fill out our contact form and tell us a little about what brings you in. We usually reply within one business day. We see clients at our Provo and Pleasant Grove offices and by telehealth anywhere in Utah.
Written by Dr. Anthony Hughes, PhD, LMFT, AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist and author of You, Me, and We. Last reviewed October 2026.
