SONYA JF BARNETT: BECOMING A PRIVATE PRACTICE SEX THERAPIST AS A SECOND CAREER | EP 192

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MEET SONYA

Sonya JF Barnett is a Registered Psychotherapist, certified sex educator, and lover of trees. She has a varied history in art direction, feminist erotica production, intimacy coordination, and fierce feminist organizing. She has written about, filmed, spoken on, studied, and is a fierce activist for sexual rights, education, and wellbeing.

Learn more about Sonya on her website, Instagram, and Psychology Today profiles.

In This Episode

• From art into therapy
• How Sonya became a therapist 
• Running a private practice
• What’s next for Sonya

From art into therapy 

Before joining the profession, Sonya had another career working as an art director for design agencies. 

‘At the time I wasn’t, I guess you could say, “getting my freak on”! I wasn’t as passionate about it after a while, and I needed something extra to do that would allow me to tap into the more passionate, artistic side of me.’ – Sonya JF Barnett 

After trying out a few life drawing classes, Sonya started hosting her own classes. Later, the classes turned into a larger-than-anticipated community, which had a big focus on sexuality. 

‘The additional thing that came out of that was that people would start coming to me and ask questions about their personal lives, about their relationships and their sex lives … I seemed to be that safer person to answer those questions for them.’ – Sonya JF Barnett 

Sonya’s work with life drawing and the deeper exploration was called “Keyhole Sessions”, and it was her hobby alongside her career as an art director. However, over the course of a few years, Keyhole Sessions encouraged Sonya to step into counselling and become a therapist. 

How Sonya became a therapist 

Sonya played around with the idea of creating something more official and tangible from her work with Keyhole Sessions, which led up to her decision to become a sex therapist. 

‘At that time, about 15 years ago, there wasn’t a formal process to [become a sex therapist] … It didn’t exist then. At that time … I became a certified sex educator.’ – Sonya JF Barnett

She got involved in as much sexual therapy education as she could get into at the time, which, compounded over time, led her to become a fully fledged therapist. She completed her undergrad at the University of Toronto. 

‘I thought, “This is perfect for me!” I learned everything I could about sexuality and its intersections with race, gender, politics, like everything … I learned so much there, and I loved that program.’ – Sonya JF Barnett

From there, Sonya completed an online program for her Master’s in Counseling Psychology, which was in 2016.

Running a private practice

Sonya sees most of her clients virtually, but also offers walk-and-talk sessions outdoors in natural settings. She enjoys using nature-based therapy and wants to help her clients by incorporating the benefits of being outdoors during therapy sessions. 

In running her practice, Sonya also uses Jane App to run her systems and complete admin tasks. If you’d like to give it a try, use Jules’ code FEARLESS2MO for a two-month discount!

Sonya also enjoys experimenting with her schedule in her Canadian private practice. She enjoys finding ways to take care of her practice and clients while also taking care of herself. 

‘I don’t have to be seeing clients from nine to six or seven … I can spread it out as much as I want, how I want … I have set boundaries for myself, and that’s a really nice thing that you can do in private practice.’ – Sonya JF Barnett

What’s next for Sonya

Sonya explains how she has been feeling the lack of community while working as a virtual therapist. While she prefers running a solo private practice, since she sees her clients virtually or for nature-based walk-and-talk therapy, she does miss the community that one has when working with more people. Therefore, one of her upcoming goals is to build a peer group. 

Furthermore, Sonya is designing and building out a sex therapist retreat in September 2026!

Resources Mentioned and Useful Links:

Anusha Kassan: Purchasing a Group Private Practice in Canada | EP 191

Learn more about the tools and deals that I love and use for my Canadian private practice

Sign up for my free e-course on How to Start an Online Canadian Private Practice

Jane App (use code FEARLESS2MO for two months free)

Get started with Hushmail here and get one month for free!

Learn more about Sonya on her website, Instagram, and Psychology Today profiles

Click here to check out Sonya’s upcoming retreats!

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