Jem Stopes
Sex Therapist & Couples Therapist
I specialise in:
About me
Hi, I'm Jem!
My first career was in languages – Russian, French, and Czech. In search of greater meaning, I left that behind in 2013 and hitchhiked some 25,000 miles across Europe, Africa and Asia on my own.
I came to a halt in 2016 in Bristol and trained in Mediation and then in Non-Violent Communication and began to practice as a volunteer mediator for Resolve West working on a range of cases within the community. In 2017 I trained in the Restorative Circles Approach with Belinda Hopkins and started to apply it within activist groups including XR. From 2019 onwards I have held my own private practice offering conflict resolution within inter-personal and professional contexts.
I wanted a way to go deeper with people, and to engage with some of the root causes of the conflicts I was meeting as a mediator. To this end I trained in 2020 as a coach with MOE Foundation and studied a foundation at BCPC (Bath Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy). I then went on to study a diploma in Clinical Sexology (sex and relationship therapy) at the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology.
I bring a strong empathic presence to all of the work that I do. This is supported by my own journey with meditation and personal therapy. I had chronic back pain for ten years which I eventually resolved through somatic meditation. The process of bringing my own inner workings to my conscious awareness has been hugely formative for me.
I've spent a lot of time in Berlin over the years, including some periods living here. In 2025 I took the plunge and made the city my full-time home.
I speak:
Location:
Approach
I love helping people get the most out of their relationships - whether you're in a couple now and looking for support, or you're single and want to know how to make your relationships stick - I'd be happy to have an exploratory call to see if we click.
I have over 5 years of experience working with themes like desire discrepancy between partners, communication difficulties, and attachment issues, to name a few. As a psychosexual therapist, I'm trained to support with challenges in sexual function like erection problems, premature ejaculation, vaginismus and difficulties with orgasms.
I take a pluralist approach, which means I adapt the way I work to meet the client in front of me. My influences include person-centred counselling, CBT, mindfulness/Buddhist teachings, parts work, and life coaching.
I have training and lived experience with kink/BDSM, Consensual Non-Monogamy, Trans/Non-Binary Identities and Sex Positive Culture.
Having happy relationships and a healthy sex life is so important, and yet it can be so hard to talk openly about, even in therapy! I bring a warm and informal atmosphere to help us get stuck in with ease.
