About Us
SHIPS is a psychology clinic offering thoughtful, inclusive, and evidence-based care for individuals and relationships.
SHIPS provides specialist psychological care for sexual health, intimacy, relationships, trauma, gender, neurodivergence and mental wellbeing.
Our practitioners work with individuals, couples and people in diverse relationship structures. We offer LGBTIQA+, neurodivergent, sex-worker, kink and non-monogamy-affirming care, without treating difference as dysfunction.
All SHIPS practitioners participate in specialist sexual health psychology training and receive ongoing clinical supervision. We’ll help you find a practitioner whose experience, approach and availability are suited to what you’re looking for.
SHIPS stands for Sexual Health, Intimacy and Psychological Services — but it’s also a metaphor. We’re here to help you navigate change, find steadier ground and build greater connection with yourself and others.
Our Values
Affirmation
We affirm all bodies, identities, and ways of relating. You are welcome and celebrated as you are.
Inclusivity
Our practice is built to support LGBTQIA+ communities, neurodivergent individuals, and people from erotically marginalised groups.
Trauma-centred care
We understand how past experiences shape the present and work gently, with respect for your pace and your story.
Compassion
We approach every person with care, curiosity, and kindness.
Ongoing Learning
Clinical training and learning from lived experience go hand-in-hand. We are always growing — listening, unlearning, and evolving in service of better care.
Integrity & Evidence
We stay grounded in research and guided by ethics — doing what’s effective, respectful, and right.
What Makes SHIPS Different?
Sexual health psychology is an area of psychological practice that explores how emotional, relational, developmental, physical, cultural and social factors shape sexual wellbeing.
Sexual concerns rarely exist in isolation. Experiences of desire, arousal, pleasure, pain, shame, intimacy and sexual behaviour can be influenced by relationships, health, stress, trauma, identity, early learning, neurodivergence, social expectations and experiences of marginalisation.
Sexual health psychology brings these factors together to help people better understand their experiences and work toward changes that are meaningful to them. Care is grounded in psychological evidence and guided by consent, safety, autonomy and respect for diversity.
At SHIPS, practitioners undertake dedicated sexual health psychology training, ongoing skill development and regular clinical supervision through ISHPA.
Integrated, evidence-informed care
Our practitioners draw on psychological research and evidence-informed therapeutic approaches. Rather than viewing sexual concerns in isolation, we consider the emotional, relational, developmental, physical and social factors that may be contributing to a person’s experience.
Sexual health training and ongoing skill development
Our team includes AHPRA-registered psychologists and clinical psychologists, as well as ACA-registered counsellors and relationship therapists. All practitioners participate in specialist sexual health psychology training and receive ongoing clinical supervision through SHIPS and the Institute of Sexual Health Psychology Australia (ISHPA).
Practitioners have different levels of training and experience, which are identified transparently on their profiles and reflected in their fees.
Affirming care by design
Inclusion is embedded across our clinical practice, staff training, language, systems and physical environment. We provide LGBTIQA+, neurodivergent, sex-worker, kink and non-monogamy-affirming care.
We do not treat identities, sexual interests or relationship structures as inherently problematic. Instead, we work collaboratively to understand what is distressing, harmful or meaningful for each person in the context of their life.
What is sexual health psychology?
Our History
SHIPS was established in December 2018 by psychologist and educator Dr Sarah Ashton. Through her research and clinical work, Sarah had seen how difficult it could be for people to find psychologically grounded care that understood the intersections between sexual health, intimacy, trauma, identity, relationships and mental wellbeing.
SHIPS opened its first clinic in Fitzroy in March 2019 with three consulting rooms and a clear purpose: to provide thoughtful, affirming care without shame or unnecessary pathologising.
Demand grew quickly. Over the following years, SHIPS developed from a small practice into a multidisciplinary team of psychologists, counsellors, relationship therapists and sexologists. Alongside this growth, SHIPS established dedicated practitioner training, supervision and ongoing professional development in sexual health psychology.
In May 2025, SHIPS relocated its main clinic to the East Brunswick Village Wellness Centre. The new clinic was designed to provide a calm, accessible and welcoming environment for therapy while creating greater capacity for the growing SHIPS community.
Since opening, SHIPS has supported more than 5,600 clients across over 48,000 appointments. What began with three consulting rooms has become one of Australia’s largest teams working at the intersection of sexual health, intimacy and psychological care.
Throughout that growth, SHIPS’s purpose has remained consistent: to reduce shame, support meaningful connection and provide care that respects the complexity of each person’s life.
