A WORKSHOP BY TAMI-LEE DUNCAN, M.ED., R.PSYCH.
Managing
Sexual Pain
A Workshop for Healing Sexual Pain and Reclaiming Pleasure
The average woman with sexual pain sees five physicians before she gets a real diagnosis. That process takes anywhere from two to ten years.
In the meantime, she's told to "relax." To try more foreplay. To see a therapist, with the implication that the problem is in her head rather than her body. She leaves appointments with referrals that lead nowhere, or with nothing at all. She starts Googling at midnight. She wonders if she's the only person this is happening to.
She's not. 75-80% of women will experience sexual pain at some point in their lives. The medical system has simply not kept pace with how common this is, how complex it is, or how far beyond the physical it reaches.
I built this workshop because that gap is real, and because the information you need to navigate it exists. You just shouldn't have to wait two years and five appointments to get it.
And Why This Exists
Tami-lee Duncan, M.Ed., R. Psych.
Registered Psychologist | Sexual Health Specialist | Educator | Advocate
About 15 years ago, a gynecologist I was connected with learned that I was a psychologist working in sexual health. He started sending me academic research, introduced me to pelvic floor physiotherapists in the area, and began referring women to me who were experiencing sexual pain. That conversation changed the direction of my practice.
Since then, I've worked with hundreds, if not closer to thousands, of women and their partners through every form of sexual pain. And at some point I noticed I was having the same conversations, repeatedly, across those appointments. Not because the women were the same, but because the gaps were. Nobody had explained the anatomy clearly. Nobody had connected the diagnostic language to what was actually happening in their body. Nobody had named what sexual pain does to a person's sense of self, or given them a framework for talking to their partner about it.
I had hour-long appointments and years of context that allowed me to connect those dots. Doctors are working with 15 minutes. Physiotherapists are focused on the physical work. That left a layer of care that consistently went unaddressed, and I kept meeting women who needed it.
This workshop is five of those conversations. The same ones I have with almost everyone who comes to me with sexual pain, built into a format that doesn't require a waitlist, a referral, or the particular courage it takes to say these things out loud to a stranger for the first time.
Beyond this work, I contribute to public sexual health education through media including a recurring series on CBC Edmonton AM, and I consult for professionals working in the area of sexual health. I welcome clients of all backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, and relationship arrangements.
My practice is rooted in a neurobiological understanding of psychology and empirically validated treatment methods. I practice primarily online throughout Alberta and British Columbia, with limited in-person availability in Edmonton and Victoria.
WHO I AM
WHAT NOBODY TELLS YOU
What Sexual Pain Actually Does
It doesn't stay in the body. That's the part nobody prepares you for.
It moves into how you see yourself; women I work with describe feeling broken, defective, like they're failing at something everyone else seems to manage without thinking. It moves into the relationship: the conversations you stop having, the distance that builds, the guilt that sits between you. And it moves into whether you feel allowed to want pleasure at all, or whether you've quietly given up on that part of your life.
By the time most women find me, they're not managing one problem. They're managing four: body, identity, relationship, and pleasure. Nobody has ever laid that out for them plainly. This workshop does.
THE WORKSHOP
What’s Inside
Understanding Your Body
01
You'll leave this module able to name what's happening, describe it accurately to a care provider, and understand why getting a clear diagnosis has been so difficult. It includes a diagnostic checklist built specifically for your next medical appointment.
Your Treatment Options
02
A plain-language map of the full treatment landscape: medical, physiological, and psychological. You then can understand what's being recommended and why. Most women spend years in treatment without this picture. This module gives it to you.
Your Identity and Sense of Self
03
The beliefs that form around chronic sexual pain are almost never accurate, and they don't respond to logic alone. This module is the psychological work of separating who you are from what you're experiencing, using values-based and strength-based tools from my clinical practice.
Communicating With Your Partner
04
Most women have tried this conversation and watched it go sideways. This module covers how to prepare, how to have it with a new partner, how to break the cycle in a long-term relationship, and what to do when it doesn't go as planned. A Communication Prep Worksheet is included.
Reclaiming Pleasure
05
The module most women tell me they came for, and feel least allowed to want. It addresses what pleasure actually means, what the research says about female sexual response, and how to access it even when pain is still present. This is not an afterthought. It's the point.
THIS IS FOR YOU IF
Who This Workshop Serves
— Women experiencing pelvic, vaginal, or vulvar pain of any cause
— Women whose pain is affecting their sense of self, their relationship, or their experience of intimacy
— Women already working with a pelvic floor physiotherapist who need the psychological and relational layer
— Women with limited benefits who can't access regular private therapy
— Women who are tired of leaving appointments with nothing useful
IMPORTANT TO KNOW
What This Is Not
If you need hands-on physical treatment, a pelvic floor physiotherapist is the right first step, and this workshop works well alongside that care. This workshop is not crisis support or trauma processing.
For some women, the solutions are psychological and insight alone changes everything. For others, the goal is broader: changing how you understand the pain, how you carry it, and reclaiming pleasure, with or without the pain fully resolving.
It's not breathing exercises. It's not mindfulness scripts you could find for free on YouTube. It's not generic wellness content dressed up as clinical information. It's psychoeducation built from 15 years and hundreds to thousands of real conversations with women in exactly your situation.
THE INVESTMENT
Begin When You’re Ready
Approximately the cost of one individual session with a Registered Psychologist. What it covers typically takes five to ten therapy sessions to work through in a clinical setting.
FULL WORKSHOP
$250
All five modules, handouts, worksheets & guided exercises
INDIVIDUAL MODULE
$75
Start with the area that’s most pressing right now
A NOTE ON PROOF
I can't share client testimonials. That's the ethical standard for a registered psychologist, and I'd rather be direct about it than work around it quietly.
“Quote from referring physician coming soon.”
- Referring Physician, MD
15
Years of Practice
#3777
Alberta Registration
#2425
British Columbia Registration
Gynecologists and pelvic floor physiotherapists refer to me specifically because they recognize the gap this work fills. And this workshop is built from actual clinical practice, not a content calendar. Every module reflects a conversation I have, repeatedly, with real women.
The specificity of what’s inside is the proof.
COMMON QUESTIONS
You Might Be Wondering
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For some women, the pain is driven by psychological factors and insight alone can make a real difference. For others, the physical component needs separate treatment, and what this workshop addresses is everything the pain affects beyond your body. Either way, the goal is the same: less suffering, more understanding, and more access to pleasure.
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Physiotherapy treats the physical mechanics. This workshop covers the psychological, relational, and identity dimensions that physiotherapy isn't designed to address. They work well together.
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It's the cost of one therapy session. Five modules, worksheets, handouts, and a framework that would typically take five to ten sessions to cover in a clinical setting. Individual modules are also available at $75 if you want to start smaller.
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It doesn't need to be. The workshop meets you wherever you are. Cause is irrelevant to the work.
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This is psychoeducation built specifically for sexual pain, from thousands of real clinical conversations on this exact issue. It is not generic CBT.
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The workshop is self-paced and modular. Work through one section at a time, return to it, move at whatever pace fits your life.
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Yes. If you purchase an individual module and later decide you want the full workshop, the cost of your module is applied to the full price. You only pay the difference.
You don't have to book a session
to get real answers.
Tami-lee Duncan, M.Ed., R. Psych.
Registered Psychologist | Female Sexual Health Specialist
Transcend Psychological
