SPECIALIZED, AFFIRMING SEX THERAPY FOR EVERY SEASON OF CHANGE
BASED IN CLIFTON, NJ AND SERVING NJ, NY, PA, FL, & TX
Genevieve Marie Gellert, MSW, LCSW, CST
FOUNDER OF THE CENTER FOR IDENTITY & SEX THERAPY
Hello,
You’re here because something in your life — or within yourself — has shifted.
You can find your way back yourself, even after everything changes. You are not broken. You are becoming. Every part of you is welcome here.
You’re at a crossroads, disconnected from your body, sex, or identity. You’ve mastered distraction—scrolling or numbing out—frustrated, in pain, or isolated. You’ve tried the books and tricks, yet feel trapped by relationships or patterns you can't shake. Maybe there’s a loneliness you can't quite name. Intimacy feels overwhelming, desire muted, arousal inconsistent amid dysfunction, shame, or guilt. You prioritize others or say yes when you mean maybe. Whether navigating kink, polyamory, LGBTQ, modern dating, cultural, or faith expectations, you're torn. You can heal the deeper roots keeping you stuck, far beyond surface symptoms.
Founder of the Center for Identity & Sex Therapy, I’m an AASECT-certified sex therapist with a Master’s from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in health, cross-cultural & life transitions impacting identity, sexuality, body image & intimacy. We offer premier relational, psychodynamic care—to hold what hurts, ease anxiety, and gain clarity.
You’re not alone. You inherently deserve safety, vibrant relationships, body confidence, intimacy, joy, pleasure, desire, and satisfaction. Sexuality is inseparable from identity. History shaped the rules. You choose the healing. And that healing begins with the freedom to be completely who you are. Ready to feel aligned? Message me here for a consultation.
Warmly,
Genevieve Marie Gellert, MSW, LCSW, CST (she/her)
Founder, The Center for Identity and Sex Therapy
HISTORY SHAPED THE RULES.
YOU CHOOSE THE HEALING.
Meet the Team
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Genevieve Marie Gellert, MSW, LCSW, CST
FOUNDER
Genevieve Marie Gellert, LCSW, CST, Founder of the multi-state Center for Identity & Sex Therapy, is a licensed clinical social worker & AASECT Certified Sex Therapist specializing in relationally oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy. Her work explores the intersection of sexuality, identity, intimacy, & major health and life transitions—helping clients go beyond symptoms to understand what lies underneath and create meaningful change. Because sexuality is entirely inseparable from identity, her mission is to help you reclaim the parts of yourself silenced, shamed, or left behind. Utilizing her signature ALIGN Framework and EMPOWER Your Sexual Health® curriculum, Genevieve provides rare, expert-level care designed to reconnect you with your deepest desire, identity, and authentic self. -
Julianne Stainkamp
SEXUALITY & MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION INTERN | SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Julianne Stainkamp is an undergraduate student at Stony Brook University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a Psychology concentration and a dedicated focus in human sexuality and sex education. Throughout her academic career, she has conducted advanced coursework and research exploring the sociological explanations of societal taboos surrounding sex. Driven by her goal to complete a master's degree in Social Work and practice as a licensed sex therapist, Julianne joined The Center for Identity and Sex Therapy as a clinical intern. Beyond her primary research, she brings valuable experience in local community commerce and university student leadership, which she leverages to foster inclusive, destigmatized environments.
You are more than symptoms to manage.
Your relationship to pleasure, intimacy, and identity isn’t a technical dysfunction to solve.
Much of modern sex therapy approaches personal pain like an isolated medical equation—isolating the symptom, running through a structured manual, and handing you generic behavioral checklists to "fix" your intimacy.
But boundary struggles, lost desire, and blocks to pleasure are not mechanical failures. They are historical, cultural, and deeply relational. We move beyond individual self-help and into relational, systemic depth.
At the Center for Identity & Sex Therapy, we help resolve the immediate sexual health issue—but we do not stop there.
We reject the cold, detached model of the silent clinical observer. Instead, our practice integrates evidence-based sexual health expertise with warm, active, relationally-oriented psychodynamic care. Working through a collaborative two-person psychology, we use our real-time partnership to quiet the nervous system, conquer shame, and dig beneath the surface of your symptoms. Together, we unpack the systemic and generational currents shaping your desire, freeing you to claim a pleasure and an identity that is authentically your own.
Built for Vulnerability and Depth
Whether you are navigating the profound, identity-shifting matrix of a major life transition, or safely deconstructing complex, layered questions surrounding sexuality, grief, trauma, and identity—you do not have to carry the weight alone.
You are invited to move past rigid symptom management and build a foundation for radical personal victory.
Your identity and sexuality are at the heart of who you are — meant to be explored, celebrated, and accepted.
HEre’s what I believe about therapy:
This isn’t about going back to how things were.
It’s okay that change feels hard, and you don’t have to be okay with it yet. Together, we can find a way forward — in your body, relationships, and life.
The best investment you can make is in the confidence to be yourself.
Building trust in who you are, your identity, and the choices that honor your values is at the heart of this work.
You are inherently deserving of safety, joy, pleasure, desire, and satisfaction.
Exploring your sexuality and intimacy creates a path to fulfillment and genuine connection.
guiding principles
INTEGRITY
The Center for Identity & Sex Therapy is guided by ethical, evidence-based care and a commitment to honesty, accountability, and the well-being of every client.
COMPASSION
Healing begins where shame and judgment end; this work is grounded in empathy, dignity, and deep respect for your lived experience.
AUTONOMY
Your body, identity, and relationships belong to you, and therapy is a space to explore what feels most authentic — free from pressure or expectation.
INCLUSIVITY
Every identity, body, orientation, and relationship structure is welcome here, and your experience will be met with respect, curiosity, and care.
The Center for Identity & Sex Therapy provides inclusive, queer-affirming sex therapy and identity-focused counseling for adults. Our work is grounded in diversity, pride, and social justice, creating a safe, affirming space for clients across sexual orientations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds.
Grounded in purpose and guided by curiosity, this work is shaped by a deep respect for history, a commitment to social justice, and thoughtful care for complex human experiences.
Curious about our logo or the history of the Pride Flag? Learn more about the values that guide our LGBTQ-affirming therapy practice. Read more.
Get the support that’s right for you.
experience
Where Frontline Clinical Rigor Meets Premium Care
Clinical Foundations & Experience
Grounded in intersectional feminism, I believe that sexuality and identity are entirely inseparable—shaped by how we see ourselves, how we are seen, and how we connect. My practice is built on a deep respect for your absolute autonomy, your complexity, and the unique path you take to understand yourself.
After earning a Bachelor of Science in Health Policy and Management from Providence College and following my graduate training at the University of Pennsylvania, my clinical worldview was forged through diverse, frontline experience across medical, community, crisis, and end-of-life settings in Philadelphia, including:
Penn Medicine & Thomas Jefferson University Hospital: Specialized training within the Penn Memory Center and Department of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Crisis & Emergency Settings: Counseling sexual assault survivors through acute trauma.
Public Health & COVID-19 Response: Consulting on behavioral health and designing integrated care programs for low-income, pregnant, and homeless LGBTQ+ individuals in North Philadelphia.
Community Harm Reduction: Supporting straight and queer sex workers navigating stigma, safety, and systemic survival in a methadone clinic.
Hospice & Memory Care: Serving as an end-of-life social worker providing family counseling, and supporting older adults (including trans older adults) with dementia navigating intimacy, consent, and sexual expression.
Transitioning from Urban Medical Social Work to Private Practice & Healthcare Entrepreneurship
Inspired by Viktor Frankl, my entrepreneurial transition was driven by a desire to guide clients to say a resounding “yes to life, in spite of everything,” treating each day as an opportunity to live fully for a second time. Together, we explore how your deepest, most challenging life experiences can be reclaimed, integrated, and transformed into a life that feels genuinely aligned and entirely your own.
As one of fewer than 900 Licensed Clinical Social Workers worldwide who are AASECT-certified in sex therapy, I bring elite, specialized expertise to navigate complex relational dynamics, sexual trauma, dysfunction, and intimacy concerns safely and ethically.
To bring this vision to life, I developed the ALIGN Framework—my signature model of sex therapy. This boutique, integrative approach blends humanistic, meaning-centered, cognitive-behavioral, and somatic modalities, engineered to help you actively inhabit your body, heal from identity-based harm, and fully reclaim your intimacy, confidence, and desire.
Following a successful group practice launch at the Philadelphia Institute for Individual, Relational, and Sex Therapy and part-time solo private practice, I opened a full-time private practice in 2021—maintaining a 95% client retention rate and a 70% consultation conversion rate.
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Sex therapy is the focus of our work—not just a technique, but a specialized area of expertise. We integrate multiple therapeutic approaches into a personalized, thoughtfully layered process that helps you reclaim agency, reconnect with your desire, and navigate intimacy and identity in a way that feels real and sustainable.
The ALIGN Framework is a signature model of sex therapy designed to bring your identity, sexuality, and relationships into perfect alignment.
We do not ask you to choose between deep root-cause healing and immediate behavioral relief. We do both simultaneously. Here is the step-by-step roadmap we use to transform your intimacy:
A — Agency & Systems (Socio-Political Re-authoring)
Reclaiming authorship of your identity and sexuality.
We look through a strengths-based lens to see how you survived, actively dismantling the collective, systemic scripts that stole your sexual agency in the first place. Together, we expose the inner family systems, defense mechanisms, and unconscious archetypes you built to protect yourself, shifting you from passive survival to active choice.L — Logotherapy & Latent Desires (Existential Meaning)
Uncovering the unconscious blueprints and hidden meaning of your desire.
Your unique, primal desires have been buried beneath decades of cultural conditioning and family-of-origin dynamics. We gently excavate these hidden parts, using logotherapy to explore what intimate fulfillment, meaning, and personal purpose look like for you—not what society told you they should be.I — Integration (Relational & Transference Healing)
Healing your relationships in real time, not just in theory.
Most traditional counselors act as passive observers, offering advice from a distance. Through this pillar, we use our real-time relationship in the room as a safe canvas. By examining how you naturally attach, withdraw, or defend against intimacy right here with me, we safely integrate your most vulnerable, hidden parts so you can experience breakthrough trust before trying it at home.G — Growth & Grounding (Psychological & Relational Flexibility)
Resolving immediate sexual health dysfunction through practical tools.
We break free from rigid, inherited relationship anxiety by giving you immediate, actionable mindfulness and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) strategies. You will learn how to anchor yourself in your body during moments of panic or performance pressure, moving past anxiety and into true relational flexibility.N — Nervous System (Somatic Safety & History)
Somatic practices that bring immediate calming and long-term cellular healing.
Your nervous system carries the physical imprint of past attachment injuries, ancestral trauma, and cultural shame. We soothe that survival response in real time during our sessions, teaching your body how to step out of "fight-or-flight" so that primal desire and absolute safety can finally coexist in your bedroom.This work isn’t just about fixing problems. This work extends beyond individual self-help. It’s about helping you feel more aligned—in your body, your relationships, and the life you’re creating.
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We don’t believe in cold, detached observation or rigid behavioral checklists. Our practice integrates evidence-based modalities into a warm, active, two-person partnership that resolves immediate sexual health issues while unlocking your deepest relationship to pleasure.
Why the ALIGN Framework? (The Intimacy Breakthrough You’ve Been Missing)
If you have tried traditional talk therapy or standard marriage counseling before, you might have walked away feeling like something was missing.
Most traditional clinics focus purely on symptom management. They look at your current bedroom anxieties, communication blocks, or intimacy struggles and give you surface-level advice or basic behavioral exercises.
While well-intentioned, that style of therapy often treats intimacy like a mechanical problem to be fixed. It leaves you with temporary band-aids on deeply rooted wounds.
The ALIGN Framework is radically different. We don’t ask you to choose between deep root-cause healing and immediate relief. We do both, simultaneously. Here is why this approach creates lasting transformations where standard counseling falls short:
1. We don’t choose between your past and your present
A lot of therapy usually splits down the middle. You either spend months analyzing your childhood without getting any tools for tonight, or you get quick surface-level strategies that completely fail the moment a real emotional trigger hits.
The ALIGN Difference: We bridge this gap seamlessly. We combine deep psychodynamic exploration (excavating family-of-origin blueprints and hidden emotional blocks) with immediate somatic grounding (calming your nervous system in real time). You get deep answers and immediate tools.
2. We heal your relationships in the room, not just in theory
Most counselors sit back as passive observers, offering feedback from a distance.
The ALIGN Difference: Through the Integration pillar, we use our real-time relationship in the room as a safe laboratory. We look at how you naturally attach, withdraw, or defend against intimacy right here. By practicing safety in our sessions, your body learns what true trust feels like before you ever try it at home.
3. We release the pressure from your shoulders
Standard counseling often views an intimacy challenge as an individual failure or simple performance anxiety. It puts the blame on you.
The ALIGN Difference: We look at the bigger picture. Your intimacy blocks don't exist in a vacuum. We actively dismantle the cultural, generational, and systemic scripts that wired your body for survival instead of pleasure. We stop trying to "fix" you and start liberating you.
The Bottom Line
You won't leave my room with a temporary checklist or homework that feels like a chore. You will leave with a regulated nervous system, a deeply understood identity, and the relational blueprints required to let primal desire and absolute safety finally coexist in your life.
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Bachelor of Science in Health Policy and Management; Providence College; 2014
Master of Social Work; School of Social Policy and Practice of the University of Pennsylvania; 2016
License: State of New Jersey, LCSW; 44SC06075500 / 2022
License: State of New York, LCSW; 094872 / 2023
License: State of Pennsylvania, LCSW; CW020129 / 2018
NPI: 1568935195
CPH Malpractice Insurance
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Clinical rotations at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, as well as the Penn Memory Center and Department of Geriatric Psychiatry of Penn Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania during my MSW program
Penn Aging / Geriatric Social Work certificate, 2016
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction certificate 2018
Ongoing coursework through the The Viktor E. Frankl Institute of America, starting in 2018
The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) certificate in Sex Therapy, 2023
READY TO TAKE THE JOURNEY BACK TO YOURSELF?