Stefani E. Goerlich, Ph.D., LMSW, LISW, LCSW, CST, ABS

Award-winning author of The Leather Couch: Clinical Practice with Kinky Clients, and its forthcoming sequel Kink-Affirming Practice: Culturally Competent Therapy from the Leather Chair, AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist Stefani Goerlich is an expert in working with Gender, Relationship, and Sexuality Diversities as well as religious minority clients, and has over 15 years’ experience in supporting survivors of domestic and sexual trauma.

Describing herself as “building bridges between the margins and the mainstream,” Stefani has worked with high-risk young people, commercial sex workers, and survivors of human trafficking- among others. In addition to her work as The Society for Sex Therapy and Research’s Diversity Chair, she is the founder of Bound Together Counseling, a boutique private practice based in Detroit, Michigan, where she offers Sex, Relationship and Mental Health therapy to members of the GSRD community, their partners, and their families.

Stefani holds a Master’s in Social Work from Wayne State University, where she specialized in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, earned her Post-Graduate Certificate in Sex Therapy from the University of Michigan, and recently completed her PhD in Clinical Sexology. A member of the University of Michigan Sexual Health Certificate Program Teaching Faculty, she is a licensed Clinical Social Worker in Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona and is currently writing her next book, With Sprinkles on Top: Help and Hope for Vanilla Partners of Kinky People, coming in 2023.