Shabnam Sadigova is a psychologist and psychosexual therapist.

Her work resides at the intersection of emotional depth, intimacy, and cultural understanding. With nearly 15 years of experience in mental and sexual health, her practice is informed by psychodynamic thinking, focusing on the unconscious, early relational experiences, and how these shape our inner world, relationships, and bodily life.

A journey through various countries and cultures has shaped her therapeutic approach, beginning with her academic foundation in Azerbaijan and extending to further clinical and specialized training in Turkey, Hungary, Norway, the Netherlands, and online training in the United States in psychodynamic psychotherapy. These experiences have allowed her to engage with diverse schools of psychotherapy while remaining rooted in a psychoanalytic frame.

Shabnam was the first psychologist in Azerbaijan to design and implement a structured system for online psychotherapy — long before it became globally widespread. She also created a psychotherapy support system within a reproductive health center, offering psychological care to couples undergoing fertility treatment. Her work in this area addressed the often-overlooked emotional dimensions of infertility and helped integrate mental health support into medical treatment pathways.

She works with individuals and couples navigating emotional and psychosexual difficulties — including intimacy challenges, infertility, the psychological impact of pregnancy and birth, sexual trauma, and questions around identity, embodiment, and desire.

Beyond her clinical work, she is committed to cultural and public engagement around issues often left unspoken. She founded SEXOPHONE TALKS, a live event series that uses storytelling, humour, and music to open up dialogue around sexuality in a socially conscious way. The event has been hosted in Vietnam, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, creating space for collective reflection and laughter in contexts where sexual conversations are often suppressed or silenced.

She also developed and piloted the first school-based comprehensive sexuality education curriculum in Azerbaijan, bringing structured, age-appropriate, and culturally sensitive sex education into a secondary school setting for the very first time.

Shabnam’s clinical work is complemented by ongoing training, supervision, and a sustained interest in depth psychology, sexuality, and relational life. She draws on her multilingual background (Azerbaijani, Turkish, English, Russian, and Dutch) to engage with a diverse array of individuals from various cultures.

She is a certified member of the European Society for Sexual Medicine, AASECT (American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists) and PANY (Psychoanalytic Association of New York).