Meet Julie Labanz | Certified Sex Therapist and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julie Labanz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julie, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
In some ways this has gotten harder and in others, easier. When you own your own business, your brain never fully stops thinking about it: what marketing could I be doing? What people should I be reaching? Am I getting enough clients? The list goes on. I learned from a former boss the value of creating intentional space to turn off work and be unavailable, unapologetically. I’ve learned to keep certain business hours and stick to them. I do not respond to messages on the weekends or while on vacation to ensure that boundaries are maintained. This helps me to fully decompress from work and fully enjoy my life when the day is done or the weekend arrives. The one challenge I’ve noticed is working from home. Since COVID-19, I’ve been fully remote in my work which makes it difficult to separate work and life sometimes. My home is my work and vice versa. So I’ve been working with my own therapist on figuring out how to create spaces in my home that are dedicated to work and others that are no-work zones. It’s tempting to want to sit on the couch and comfortably knock out some paperwork, but that just sucks me back into making my comfortable spaces, working spaces, which means I’m thinking about work too often. So I’m learning to create boundaries even within my living space that help me better balance work and life so that they don’t get too blended. It’s important to be able to turn off work for a while and enjoy other wonderful aspects of life to the fullest!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Be Known grows from a place of wanting people to feel truly seen and understood. We are not fully known without connection to other people and sex is the most vulnerable place we can be known by someone else. I wanted to create a safe and non-judgmental environment for people to fully explore these parts of themselves that are often shut down or shamed by culture, society, family, religion, etc. I bring a unique lens to this field as I was raised by very sex positive parents and yet grew up religious for quite some time. I had two very different perspectives on sex and intimacy and witnessed many people struggle to talk about something that felt very natural to me (thanks mom and dad!). The desire to become a sex therapist stemmed from many, many conversations with people who were taught that sex is “dirty” or “wrong” or “bad” until they were in a monogamous marriage and then all of a sudden it’s supposed to be “good” but no one ever talked about what “good” even meant. So many people don’t learn about pleasure and how to cultivate it – we simply learn about avoiding sex and the negative consequences that can come from it (physically or emotionally) if it happens before marriage. So it’s become my personal mission to help people better learn about what “good” really means to them when it comes to sex.
At its baseline, it should be consensual and pain-free. Everything after that is up to interpretation and exploration. Because of this sex-positive mindset, while starting the business itself was fairly easy, sex positivity is certainly not appealing to everyone. I’ve tried to get connected with churches to help them reframe some of their messaging to make it less shame-based but was always shut down or passed over. But on the flip side, I’ve had a lot of people that have been hurt by the church or coming out of purity culture that have found a safe space to land in therapy with me.
Overall, starting the business and getting people into sex therapy wasn’t all that difficult which goes to show how much people are dying to talk about these issues and don’t have many options as far as well-educated guidance goes. I’m so thankful to be a resource to others who need support and help in learning what sex positivity can mean for them. This journey has been so rewarding and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love when people visit Cincinnati! We have so many cool spots to check out and the city continues to grow with fun options. As of late, as far as activities go, I typically take people for a walk along to river to visit Sawyer Point, Friendship Park, etc. or take a walk around Mt. Adams to get a gorgeous view of the city. Pickleball has been such a fun activity so going to Sawyer Point or ACES would be another place to take them. Going to a drag show in Northside (typically Good Judy’s) is generally a must on my list. I’d probably also do something like Top Golf or an escape room as a fun activity.

I also enjoy walking around OTR/Washington Park and grabbing food at Abigail Street or Pepp & Dolores and then grabbing a drink afterwards at Ghost Baby or Revel. Other excellent food places I’d take a friend would be: MidCity, Melt, Lalo Chino, Boca, Bouquet, Cork N’ Crust, Cafe Alma (for amazing brunch), or Unwind (for drinks and small bites). It’s worth noting that I’m vegan, so all of these places have excellent accommodations for vegans. Specifically for drinks I would take them to Anjou in Walnut Hills or Somerset (and again, Ghost Baby – yum!).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A big shoutout goes to my business partner, Matt Lachman, who has encouraged me to grow in so many ways. Matt and I have a shared passion of bringing sex positivity to the world and he is so great about keeping me focused on that mission. Through witnessing him grow his own practice to collaborating on shared cases to creating courses together – Matt’s drive for this work boosts my own confidence in continuing to do what we do. I love the way that he challenges societal norms and is always pushing for a growth mindset, rather than worrying about what others are doing. My personal and professional growth are in large part molded by my relationship with Matt. Of course, another big shout out is to my husband, Carl. He helps me think creatively about solutions when I feel I’m hitting a wall. He is so patient and kindly reminds me to stop freaking out when scarcity mindset does want to creep in. He is the ying to my yang and helps me grow my business in the areas that I’m weak (think all the math that a therapist didn’t think they’d have to do again). I am forever thankful to have him as a source of encouragement in growing my business in whatever direction I want to take it.
Lastly, my parents. I wouldn’t have started my own business without them! They were the first to fully invest and believe in me and they are the first people to bring sex positive messages into my life. I am forever grateful for their love and support.

Website: beknowntherapy.com

Instagram: @beknowntherapy

Facebook: Facebook.com/beknowntherapy

Other: sexpositivetherapy.org for CE sex therapy trainings