( ENSPIRE She Did That ) Dr. Snyder Emphasizes the Great Importance of Holistic Sex and Lifestyle Therapy on the Lives of Her Clients
ENSPIRE Contributor: Natalie Dean
Sexual wellness is an important topic and one that many people shy away from speaking about! That is why women like Dr. Kres Snyder are here to empower and heal the minds of clients. With her own counseling practice, Minds Empowered Counseling, she can reach the minds of those in need.
Dr. Snyder specializes in Marital/Couple and Alternative Lifestyle therapy, with special emphasis on holistic sex therapy. She has specialized experience with LGBT and relationship counseling, and to all these clients, she brings a warm honesty, knowing that her clients’ issues are serious and worthwhile.
Dr. Snyder recently spoke with ENSPIRE about her practice:
Tell us about your practice. What are the most common issues that come up?
I have two loves. Minds Empowered Counseling and The Essentials. Each practice complements the other and is the completion of my values. I wanted to make sure I met the general needs of the communities and the ability to attack generational traumas. MEC does that. It is full of Black women who embody wellness, authenticity, and confidence. It focuses on individual and family therapy and support groups.
I wanted clients to have staff that looked like them and related in ways that felt good. Topics often include depression, anxiety, relationships, and phase of life issues. The Essentials is my sex therapy practice but from a holistic lens. I am a sex therapist focusing on male and female-identified issues from pain, low desire, premature ejaculation, and marital issues. We also utilize Pelvic Floor Physical therapists, nutritionists, OBGYNs, and massage therapists to create optimal sexual wellness. I firmly believe that our sexual health is pivotal in creating and maintaining our mental health.
What strategies do you use to help your clients meet their goals? What do you hope to teach them?
One of the most important strategies was ensuring I had therapists who looked like them and shared a similar path. The other piece of that is always meeting the client where they are. Allowing them to be the expert in the room and creating the belief of vulnerability and safety to explore. Techniques can include anything from providing psychoeducation to more direct methods of behavioral interventions. We use play and talk therapy to help clients reach themselves in a way that brings alignment to their mental and spiritual selves. The hope is that each obstacle in their life is not triggering, less traumatic, and more able to manage. That they feel a sense of bravery and strength in coping with life’s demands and achieving success. That ultimately they smile in the mirror when the obstacles are the hardest.
How do you address issues that are more nuanced to black women? What issues might these be?
As a Black woman, I understand many of the issues that we face. I don’t presume to know or experience them all, but just being a Black girl in the space allows women first to know they are safe. I would say that majority of the issues related to being loved, valued, appreciated, understood, and most definitely understanding their sexual self.
Black and POC women certainly experience over-sexualization from the male gaze. What are some ways you help clients who feel pressured by or uncomfortable with this?
While this is true, I want to first highlight that women compete and watch other women more than men. Women are more likely to critique or use another woman’s body to understand their own. Conversations in therapy are often about comparisons and judgment of themselves because of what they perceive men want based on IG models and porn. So yes men do sexualize, but women are often tied neck and neck. Often the work is helping a woman embrace her own body, sexuality, and comfort. Fairly, even sessions have even focused on learning to embrace and deserve to feel sexualized first in herself, so she can feel she is worthy of desire from others and doesn’t need to compare or shame herself.
How do you help your clients walk away from you?
The concept of walking away is interesting. I personally am always here. Many times there are “good” stop points. It doesn’t mean we are done forever and that if life issues come up, you can’t come back cause we terminated. It simply means we stopped. I always hope the stop is mutual and upon observation of goals, mood, and willingness to try it alone we agree to discontinue.
What concrete changes do you hope to make in your clients’ lives?
That they can speak to a version of themselves that embraces a sexual, emotional, and sacred self, that is worthy of love, pleasure, and peace. It looks like clear examples of using boundaries, expressing needs and desires, and owning their space. Concrete can be realized. Have you ever just known something or rather felt it? There is an intimacy created in the therapy space. I know that word sounds hot but vulnerability and connection are created. That is intimate. Trust has intimacy. So I know when I see change. I can feel what they feel.
Relationships, sex, and self-worth are all incredibly important topics that require great care and attention! Dr. Snyder has dedicated her life and her practice to helping people through issues that arise within these subjects. Her compassion and empathy are incredibly helpful to her clients.
To visit her website, click here!
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