Shabnam Sadigova

Psychologist & Sex Therapist

Shabnam Sadigova is an Azerbaijani psychologist and sex therapist with nearly 20 years of clinical experience. Her practice encompasses individual psychotherapy, sexual health, couples therapy and reproductive mental health. She works with individuals and couples living in different countries, offering sessions exclusively online in Azerbaijani, Turkish and English.

Her clinical approach is grounded in psychodynamic thinking. She explores each person’s difficulties in the context of their personal history, emotional life and relationships, with attention to the interplay of psychological, biological, social and cultural factors.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from Baku State University and Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University. In 2010, she undertook a clinical internship in the Department of Psychiatry at Cerrahpaşa in Turkey. She completed a specialist training programme in psychotherapy in the Netherlands in 2011, followed by specialist courses in psychopathology and psychotherapeutic work with complex clinical cases in Denmark.

In 2019, she completed the ESSM School of Sexual Medicine with a scholarship from the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM). She has undertaken further training in psychoanalytic theory and psychotherapeutic technique at the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY). She also completed a postgraduate specialisation programme in sex and couples therapy at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in Spain.

She has worked as a psychologist in neurology, psychiatry and reproductive healthcare settings. At a reproductive health centre in Baku, she established and led the psychotherapy department. There, she worked with couples undergoing fertility treatment, including IVF, and collaborated with physicians from different specialties.

She founded Terapiya Evi in 2015 and has led clinical and educational projects in mental and sexual health in Azerbaijan and internationally.

In collaboration with Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation in Vietnam, she developed and delivered sexual and reproductive health programmes for survivors of human trafficking and provided training for professionals.

She is the founder of Sexophone Talks, an international series of events exploring sexuality, culture and intimate relationships, held in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Vietnam.

She also led a pilot project in comprehensive sexuality education in Azerbaijan, delivered in a school setting with funding from the Ministry of Science and Education.