Alex Tatum, PhD, CST, CST-S
he/him/his

I believe connection to ourselves and others sits at the core of our distress. Whether we are grieving, (barely) managing difficult relationships, or feeling lonely, we tend to fall back on coping strategies that we learned early in life. Oftentimes, these coping strategies served a beneficial purpose, but they may now be causing more harm than good. My role is to help you identify new patterns of thought and behavior to help you achieve your goals and live a satisfying life. In order to accomplish this, I strive to establish an honest and authentic relationship that entails facing difficult emotions in order to develop deeper, intimate relationships with those we care about. As such, I invite prospective clients to first consider whether they feel ready to embrace vulnerability with a sense of curiosity and openness. I integrate attachment, humanistic, and feminist approaches to integrate intersecting identities (e.g., LGBTQ, BIPOC, polyamorous, kinky) and I thoroughly enjoy building collaborative relationships that empower clients to enact the change they would like to see in their lives.

I completed my postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota Medical School where I acquired specialized training in sex and gender issues including erectile dysfunction, compulsive sexual behavior, relationship distress, and transgender identity and transition concerns. I am a Certified Sex Therapist (CST) and Certified Sex Therapy Supervisor (CST-S) through the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), a licensed clinical psychologist (LCP) in Illinois, and a licensed health service provider in psychology (HSPP) in Indiana. I am also an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Ball State University, where I direct a graduate sex therapy minor and supervise doctoral students’ clinical work.

Clinical Specialities:

  • Compulsive sexual behavior (e.g., distress associated with pornography use, multiple sex partners, infidelity)

  • Consensual non-monogamy (e.g., collaborative negotiation of relationship agreements, jealousy and compersion, unpacking insecurities that arise when shifting a relationship from monogamy to an open relationship or polyamory)

  • Kink and BDSM (e.g., building curiosity about new and exciting activities, challenging internalized shame, coping with body esteem)

  • LGBTQ+ identities (e.g., coming out, dating, socially and medically transitioning genders)

  • Relationship distress (e.g., discrepant or absent sexual desire, communication difficulties, resentment, diverging long-term goals)

  • Sexual dysfunctions (e.g., erectile difficulties, distress from low or high libido, genito-pelvic pain during receptive anal or vaginal penetration)

  • Depression and anxiety (e.g., lack of interest in activities previously associated with joy, hypervigilance of one’s surrounding environment)

  • Complex trauma (e.g., pattern of insecure attachments going back to childhood, repeated engagement with intense and high-conflict relationships)

Therapist Identity Disclosures: cisgender, queer, polyamorous, multiracial, neurodivergent