My Story

In many ways, this work chose me. I was born in Los Angeles, California, into a queer family. I was a sexually curious being (as many youth are) and with a lack of education or awareness of my agency, body, or power, I found myself in dangerous and traumatic situations. It is a Violence that young girls are given no information about their bodies- and that their sexuality is supposed to form and contort around male desire. Craving an understanding of my body and my pleasure, I began looking for answers. The theatre became a makeshift church for me. Pouring my emotions into characters, trying to understand human behavior and love and sex and heartbreak. Feminism played a prolific role in my upbringing. Certain societal beliefs and the social construction of ‘the way things ought to be’ captivated my attention, my anger. When I went to college, I decided to double major in theatre and sociology with an emphasis on human sexuality. I had heard of one sex therapist back then (around 2013) and while I had no idea if it was an actual career- it felt clandestine to follow this thread. 

Fate brought me to Paris, where I completed my undergraduate education- with a full emphasis on sexuality and psychology. I left my first love, the theatre, behind. I became fascinated by great female thinkers, by the breaking down of rigid societal structures, by sexuality, erotic material, people, relationships, love, heartbreak, orgasm, all of it… In reclamation, I started blogging about my sex life online. At the time it was my way of owning my sexuality- and giving others permission to do the same. Interviewing my peers and friends and strangers about good sex and bad sex and everything in between, my blog built a bit of a following in Paris.

After graduating, I moved to Australia, and was hired to work in the Australian Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine as a sexologist. Honing my skills in the area of women’s pleasure, female anatomy, and orgasm, I became an expert in anorgasmia and sexual desire. The truth of sexology work became undeniable to me– sex is never just about sex, and to be a great sexologist I needed a broader education in the mind, in psychology. 

Returning to the USA, I started a Master’s program in psychotherapy. I also enrolled in a sex therapy certification problem. While I was in both those programs, I would see about 8 clients a week in the Australian sexology clinic (through zoom) and 8 or more of my own “sex coaching” clients. Collecting stories, gathering data, deepening my craft.

Six years into private practice, I am a product of my upbringing, my time abroad, my international clientele, my bachelor's degree in sexuality, my master's degree in psychotherapy, and my lived experience as a woman. What I am is hard to define- sex coach felt right for a very long time, but it did not quite grasp the depth of the work I was doing with clients. My work expands beyond sex- into joy, grief, family, work, food, authenticity, love, rage, creativity, pleasure, and eroticism. It is not one thing. Sexuality is and has always been my window into healing people- but the work expands beyond a limited conversation of sex positions or which lubes to buy. I look at sexual expression as a way of being- one that is grossly misunderstood in our overly objectifying and erotophobic culture.

I will lean on philosophy to explain what I can not:

“Eroticism has its own secrets and I am trying to probe them now. Would that be possible without first getting at the very core of existence?”

- From ‘Death and Eroticism’ by Georges Bataille. 

    • B.A. in Gender, Sexuality and Society with a minor in Psychology (cum laude) from the American University of Paris in Paris, France. 

    • M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy from California State University Fullerton, in California. 

    • Sex Therapy Certification from the Institute of Sexual Education and Enlightenment.

    • Counseling Service Award for Clarke’s “passion and knowledge for all things sex and sexuality, and for offering multiple workshops and class lectures during her time in the counseling department.”

    • 5 years clinical experience as a Sexologist in the Australian Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine (specialty in sexual pain conditions and anorgasmia) (200+ clients)

    • 6 years in private practice as Clarke Rose (200+ international clients)

    • Ongoing guest lecturer at California State University Fullerton teaching the Sex Therapy classes to psychotherapy graduate students. 

    • Retreat facilitator work in the areas of body, trauma, sex, gender, and liberation. 

    • Led several workshops for university students at The American University of Paris and California State University Fullerton. 

    • Led professional workshops in New York City (Forme Wellness) and California (with Margo Renata). 

    • Completed graduate school psychotherapy hours at St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood, California (as a counselor to girls aged 14-18) and at Orange Coast College (to college students aged 18 and up). 

    • Conducted a 50+ page qualitative research project looking into the reality of sexual satisfaction in long term relationships/marriages: “Sexuality Professionals’ Lived Experiences Using Psychosexual Therapy with Couples in Long-Term Relationships Experiencing Deficits in Sexual Satisfaction”

    • Conducted a 50+ page qualitative research project into the impact of mainstream pornography on women’s sexual satisfaction and agency: “Sex Deserves Better: Mainstream Pornography, Female Pleasure, and Women’s Sexual Agency”