ABOUT DR. DENISE RENYE
Dr. Denise Renye brings a grounded, compassionate, and highly skilled presence to conversations about sexuality, intimacy, trauma, and personal transformation. Her approach creates a space where people can speak openly about sensitive experiences while feeling deeply respected and at ease.
She specializes in the intersections of sexuality, relationships, nervous system regulation, embodiment, and states of consciousness. Her work supports patients and couples seeking greater intimacy, healing, authenticity, and integration, as well as clients and students engaging in coaching, consultation, and educational programs.
Dr. Renye holds a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality from Widener University in Philadelphia, one of only two accredited graduate programs in human sexuality in the United States. She also earned both a Master’s and a Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, a professional school recognized for integrating Western psychology with Eastern philosophy and contemplative practice.
She is a licensed clinical psychologist, an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (CST), and a certified sexologist through the American College of Sexologists and the American Board of Sexology. She has been practicing as a sexologist and sex therapist for over 20 years, bringing depth, clinical precision, and compassion to work at the intersection of sexuality, trauma, intimacy, and embodiment.
Her work focuses on the intersection of sexuality, embodiment, and consciousness.
Training & Credentials
• AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (CST)
• Yoga Therapist (International Association of Yoga Therapy)
• 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (Yoga Alliance)
• Psychoanalytic psychology certification through the Access Institute
• EMDR-informed trauma treatment
• Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research, inaugural cohort graduate, Center for Psychedelic Therapies & Research, California Institute of Integral Studies
• MDMA-assisted therapy training through MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)
Denise Renye, M.Ed., M.A., PsyD, CST, ABS, C-IAYT, RYT
Dr. Renye integrates somatic awareness, depth psychology, and relational neuroscience to support healing that is not only understood cognitively but embodied. Her approach and theoretical orientation is informed by relational psychoanalysis, attachment theory, somatic psychology, liberation-oriented perspectives, and the psychology of religious and mystical experience, drawing from the work of Marion Milner, Winnicott, Bion, Bowlby, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, William James, Marion Woodman, and Mary Cosimano.
Her training in yoga therapy and contemplative practice includes immersive study in India, Bali, and South Korea, as well as trauma-informed work with the Prison Yoga Project, deepening her understanding of embodiment, nervous system regulation, and healing across diverse cultural and institutional contexts.
She has conducted and published research on embodied psycho-spiritual experience and continues to explore the relationship between psyche, soma, sexuality, and consciousness.
Professional Background
Before founding her boutique private practice, Dr. Renye worked extensively in community mental health and trauma-informed settings in urban environments, including Early Intervention programs for infants and families, intimate partner violence shelters and advocacy programs, sexual assault crisis centers, addiction recovery programs, trauma centers, and housing-insecure populations. She worked extensively with LGBTQIA+ communities and families in these settings, including individuals navigating family estrangement and religious-based rejection, and has provided court advocacy and crisis counseling. Her work also involved collaboration with law enforcement, clergy, and community leaders in crisis response and survivor support.
Earlier in her career, she founded and led a national consultation firm providing executive coaching, leadership development, and organizational communication consulting. Her work focused on strengthening workplace culture and fostering mutual understanding between frontline workers and leadership teams, ensuring that voices across all levels were heard.
Clinical Practice
Dr. Renye provides psychotherapy, sex therapy, and couples therapy for patients, supporting healing at the intersection of sexuality, trauma, attachment, embodiment, and relational intimacy.
She also offers clinical consultation and supervision for therapists and healthcare professionals seeking support with complex cases involving sexuality, trauma, attachment dynamics, and relational processes. This includes individual and group consultation as well as specialized consultation related to surrogate partner therapy and intimacy work.
She offers psychedelic preparation and integration for individuals participating in legal, medically supervised, ceremonial, or research-based experiences.
She provides psychotherapy to patients who are located in California, Colorado, and Oregon via telehealth and sees patients in person in Marin County, serving individuals and couples across Marin, Sonoma, Napa, San Francisco, Point Reyes, and the greater Bay Area.
Her clinical practice is LGBTQIA+ affirming and welcomes individuals across the full spectrum of gender identity, sexual orientation, and relationship structures.
Informed by her training in yoga therapy and contemplative traditions, her work integrates breathwork, mindfulness, and somatic awareness to support regulation, embodiment, and the integration of psycho-spiritual experience.
Coaching & Professional Consultation
Separate from her clinical practice, Dr. Renye offers high-touch coaching and advisory services for clients seeking personal growth, relational insight, leadership development, and deeper self-awareness.
Drawing on her background in executive and organizational consulting, she works with leaders, entrepreneurs, and teams to strengthen communication, navigate conflict, cultivate emotionally intelligent leadership, and foster psychologically healthy workplace cultures. Her expertise is particularly sought after for addressing complex interpersonal dynamics, boundary-setting, and creating environments rooted in respect and accountability.
She develops and leads select coaching programs for high achievers, executives, and professionals seeking greater fulfillment, relational depth, and sustainable success beyond performance alone.
Her coaching offerings span leadership development, embodiment-based work, relational and couples coaching, sexuality and intimacy development, psychedelic integration support, and programs supporting life transitions and personal transformation.
These services focus on insight, development, and performance rather than mental health diagnosis or treatment. Coaching and educational services are not psychotherapy and do not constitute mental health treatment. Coaching services are available to clients worldwide.
Teaching & Educational Programs
Dr. Renye teaches and develops educational programs, courses, and trainings for students, clinicians, and professionals seeking deeper understanding of sexuality, embodiment, relational health, and personal transformation. Her online courses and learning intensives translate clinical insight and contemplative practice into accessible, integrative learning experiences. Educational programs and courses are available globally.
Healing begins when we learn to inhabit our bodies, listen inwardly, and live
in conscious relationship with ourselves and others.
Featured in
It is a great privilege to have an essay included in this anthology of women's experiences published and released March 20, 2022. My piece is entitled "Embracing the Divine Feminine: How the Patriarchy Perpetuates Trauma (and How to Heal from It)"
Understanding trauma is liberating. Healing trauma is revolutionary. Speaking about trauma is political. Women and their bodies are no longer willing to be silent to or be the secret store of patriarchal abuse, control, and power. Goddess is showing the way, cell-by-cell, emotion-by-emotion, sensation-by-sensation. Healing trauma is a portal for freedom and a gateway to societal and collective change.
Re-Membering with Goddess is an anthology of women's experiences of trauma—trauma as a result of patriarchy; trauma perpetuated by patriarchy; and how through personal healing of trauma the Goddess is re-membered, re-embodied and resurrected.
As repeating loops of trauma restriction release--in the mind, body and nervous system—Goddess is re-embodied and rises... and the patriarchy falls.
An honoring of the Hawaiian people, blending together the ho'oponopono prayer with Hay mirror work, this audio is to be used as a daily practice to increase valuing of the beautiful self you are.
“The only task in your life and mine is the restoration of our Identities ~ our Minds ~ back to their original state of void or zero.” ~ Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len (teacher: Morrnah Simeona)
10 minutes 15 seconds
Donations accepted and can be sent directly to peoples of Hawaii via the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. This organization offers affordable legal aid to individuals, families, and communities aiming to safeguard their traditional cultural practices and preserve ancestral connections to their 'āina (land) and precious natural resources.
"Creating spaces that are inclusive and accepting of people across various continua is, in theory, what the sex positive community as well as the psychedelic community are centered upon. At first glance it might seem like psychedelics have little to no overlap with kink/BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism). However, there is more in common upon deeper reflection with a great deal of overlap. Furthermore, by communicating with one another, the psychedelic and kink communities can learn from each other and this can more deeply benefit queer folx.
As a psychologist, a certified sexologist with years of academic and real-world experience, as well as a certified psychedelic researcher and therapist, I’m primarily interested in supporting people to become more fully themselves. Psychedelics as well as kink/BDSM offer the potential to do that."
-Excerpt from ‘The Dungeons of Perception: How the Psychedelic and Kink Community Can Learn from Each Other to the Benefit of the Queer Community’;
By: Dr. Denise Renye
As psychedelic-assisted therapy gains traction in popular culture and through policy reforms, Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine aims to foster accessibility and diversity in psychedelic science, practice, and discourse.
By addressing and dismantling sexist, heteronormative, transphobic, and homophobic forms of oppression in the psychedelic community, this collection lays groundwork for an inclusive future. Edited by researchers and authors Alexander B. Belser, PhD, Clancy Cavnar, PsyD, and, Beatriz C. Labate, PhD, Queering Psychedelics features a broad range of perspectives from queer academic researchers, LGBTQIA+ clinicians, and indigenous and transgender advocates.
Each of the 38 essays — from some of the contemporary movement’s most influential leaders including Terrence Ching, PhD, Kile Ortigo, PhD, and Diana Quinn, ND — presents insights into cultural heritages and historical contexts, implications for research and clinical work, and discussions of the healing potential of psychedelic medicine.
Covering topics of consent, privilege, intersectionality and identity, Queering Psychedelics grapples with how modern psychedelic research might address the unique needs and traumas of sexual and gender minorities—populations that can suffer from challenging mental health conditions brought on by social exclusion, pathologization, criminalization, and stigmatization. This book delves into the dark history of psychedelic conversion therapy while illuminating promising research showing substances including MDMA and psilocybin can offer life-changing experiences for marginalized communities.
Queering Psychedelics integrates indigenous outlooks on psychedelics, gender roles, and identity while aligning them with those of other marginalized groups: women, people of color, the disabled, the impoverished. This book interrogates the continuing radical potential of queer psychedelia in today’s era of assimilation, paving the way for an inclusive and intersectional world.
“Well-referenced wisdom written by the brightest minds of the psychedelic community. From treating addiction with psychedelic therapy to uncovering the terrifying history of psychedelic-assisted conversion therapy, these shining stars and psychonauts are taking down heteronorms, homophobia, transphobia and plain old sexism. Here’s to liberation for all!” —Julie Holland, MD, Author of GOOD CHEMISTRY: The Science of Connection, From Soul to Psychedelics
Similarly, conflict alone is not what damages relationships. The determining factor is whether repair occurs. Following moments of rupture, couples either find ways to re-engage, take responsibility, and restore connection, or they remain in states of defensiveness, withdrawal, or escalation. The ability to repair is central to relationship stability, and it is not simply a matter of communication technique. It is closely tied to each partner’s capacity to regulate their internal state sufficiently to remain engaged during and after conflict.