Meet Angela Skurtu
Hi, I’m Angela Skurtu, M.Ed., LMFT-S, CST-S — Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor, AASECT Certified Sex Therapist Supervisor, author, speaker, educator, business owner, and the founder of Open Bedroom Doors® and the Built to Last framework.
At the heart of everything I do is one mission:
Building relationships that last – in love, life and leadership.
For over 20 years, I’ve studied how humans connect, grow, communicate, heal, and build relationships that actually last — not just in marriage and sexuality, but in leadership, business, family systems, and personal identity. As I helped people with their sex lives, I began to notice that people were using the same skills for intimacy building in their businesses-honest communication, creating trust, and collaborative negotiation. As a result, I created The Built to Last Framework which teaches people how to heal in Mind, Body, Heart, Soul, and Spirit. This model helps people understand: • how humans learn, • how nervous systems respond to stress and safety, • how relationships evolve, • what creates emotional intimacy, • what blocks sexual connection, • and how people develop healthier identities and long-term visions for their lives. On the business side, the same framework evolved into: Test It. Do It. Prove It. Own It. Leave It. A human-centered business and leadership model focused on sustainable growth, emotional intelligence, communication, nervous system awareness, and long-term impact. If you look into the details, I am still teaching the same model. I have just learned how to apply it across multiple contexts. The Mind is the “Test it” phase in Business. The Body it the “Do it” phase in Business. The Heart is the “Prove it" phase. The Soul is the “Own it” phase. The Spirit is the “Leave it” phase. It is NO accident that these models mirror each other. Because whether we’re talking about relationships, sexuality, leadership, or entrepreneurship — humans are still humans. We all need safety, communication, trust, emotional regulation, identity, purpose, and connection to thrive.
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Author & Educator
I’m also the author of multiple books and courses focused on relationships, sexuality, healing, and emotional growth, including:
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Premarital Counseling: A Guide for Clinicians
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Helping Couples Overcome Infidelity: A Therapist’s Manual
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From Fck No to Fck Yes Sex — the first book in the Open Bedroom Doors series
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Built to Last Couples Course
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Built to Last Business Course
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Upcoming in 2026: It’s Not a Bomb! It’s Just Sex
The Open Bedroom Doors book series is designed to make conversations about sex more approachable, practical, emotionally intelligent, and shame-free for modern couples and individuals. I typically release about one book per year as part of this growing educational ecosystem.
In addition to writing, I train and supervise future therapists and sexual health professionals as both an LMFT Supervisor and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist Supervisor.
Speaker & Media Personality
I’ve been a podcast host and media educator since 2017, beginning with the About Sex Podcast and later expanding into the Open Bedroom Doors® media platform. Today, I host the Open Bedroom Doors Show, where I explore conversations around: sex, relationships, leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, identity, and modern human connection.
Over the years, I’ve been featured in podcasts, interviews, articles, conferences, media appearances, and speaking events focused on both mental health and entrepreneurship. From the bedroom to the boardroom — humans still need trust, communication, emotional safety, and connection.
Open Bedroom Doors
Open Bedroom Doors® is a movement toward healthier conversations, deeper connection, emotional honesty, sexual education, and relationships built to last. At the core, I’m also just your neighborhood sex therapist — someone deeply curious about humans, relationships, healing, communication, and what helps people feel safe enough to grow.
Angela the Sex Therapist
What Made Me Become a Sex Therapist?
Everybody asks me, “What made you become a sex therapist, Angela?”
I always say:
There’s a good story and a bad story.
Let’s start with the bad story first.
I was raised in purity culture in what I would describe as a very cult-like environment growing up. A lot of the messaging around sex felt rooted in control, shame, and fear rather than helping people develop healthy relationships with themselves, their bodies, or sexuality.
As a result, many of the young women and men around me got married very young — often at 18 or 19 years old — because they were taught that sex before marriage was shameful or wrong. Recently, I heard the term “child bride,” and while we technically were adults, there was still enormous pressure to marry early in order to have socially acceptable sexual relationships.
About a year into marriage, many of my friends started quietly admitting that they didn’t actually enjoy sex. They would tell me they were doing it for their partner, doing it “for him,” or simply tolerating it because they believed that was what marriage required.
Suddenly I thought. . .
We were sold a lie!
Even back then, I was somehow the person everyone came to with questions. I was already the “filterless” one — the person people trusted to talk honestly about relationships, sex, identity, and emotions.
At the same time, the religious environment I grew up in was also not a safe place for LGBTQIA+ individuals. I had friends quietly coming to me for guidance because they didn’t know how to talk to their parents, didn’t know what to do, and were terrified of going to hell. Honestly, I didn’t fully know what to do either.
But I cared deeply about people. I cared about their pain. I cared about helping humans feel understood instead of ashamed. That compassion is what ultimately led me into the field of sex therapy.
Now for the good story. . .
Around that same time — around 2004 — I was living in Hawaii and watching Talk Sex with Sue Johanson on television. It was hilarious!
Sue Johanson would answer questions about sex on TV with humor, honesty, and zero shame. She reviewed sex toys using little charcoal briquettes as ratings long before emojis even existed on social media.
I remember watching her and thinking: “That’s my path. I’m going to become a sex therapist.” The rest is history.
I went on to earn my master’s degree in Couples and Family Therapy because I believed that if people were struggling sexually, there was usually more than one person involved. I wanted to understand relationships, communication, systems, attachment, and long-term partnership dynamics. Little did I know you can struggle sexually by yourself, too! Who knew?
After becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I pursued advanced certification as a sex therapist through AASECT. Honestly, it felt like earning a second master’s degree.
Humans are my favorite puzzles to solve. I love helping people understand themselves better, communicate more honestly, heal shame, reconnect emotionally, and create relationships that actually last. I love normalizing conversations about sex. And of course, I open bedroom doors!
Even my very first book, Premarital Counseling: A Guide for Clinicians, centered around one core question:
How do we help people prevent problems before they start so they can build relationships that last?
That question has guided my entire career. Today, whether I’m working as a therapist, educator, author, speaker, CEO, or media personality, my mission is still the same: To normalize conversations about sex— and help people build relationships that are truly Built to Last.
Angela the CEO & Business Educator
I know what you’re thinking: How in the world does a sex therapist become a business educator and CEO? Well honestly, my love affair with business started way earlier than my love for sex therapy.
Even as a child, I was fascinated by business, leadership, systems, and how people created sustainable lives for themselves. I still remember a game we played in third grade where we learned how to purchase assets, manage resources, and build businesses throughout the game. It wasn’t actual investing, but it introduced us to concepts around money, ownership, and creating long-term value.
I ended up getting second place, which honestly felt pretty impressive for a third grader. But more importantly, something in my brain lit up. I remember thinking: “What is this world? How does this all work? I can’t wait to learn it!” From that point forward, I became deeply curious about business, finance, leadership, systems, and long-term strategy.
Long before I knew I wanted to become a therapist, I was already reading books about business and finance in college. Between 2001 and 2009, while I was earning my degrees, I was also reading books like Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, The 4-Hour Work Week, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth and many books focused on business, finance, and leadership.
I didn’t fully know what kind of business I wanted to build yet — but I knew I cared deeply about meaningful work. While anybody can run a business, the businesses I care about are businesses with purpose. I care about meaningful dollars, impact, and helping people build something sustainable that actually improves lives rather than destroying them in the process. You know – that whole “work – life” balance thing?
Looking back now, it also makes sense that I became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist because LMFTs are trained as systems thinkers. We learn to understand patterns, relationships, environments, emotional dynamics, and how people function within larger systems. Guess what? A business is a system.
When I officially started my business in 2012, I quickly realized there was a major problem in my field. I kept asking other therapists how they successfully built private practices, and I kept hearing the same answer:
“Oh, my husband works full-time, so I can take my time building my practice.”
And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that path, it wasn’t my reality. At the time, I was the sole financial provider for my family. My former husband had experienced a severe accident and struggled with chronic pain that made working difficult. We were trying to navigate disability, medical issues, student loan debt, and survival while I was only making around $34,000 a year.
There was no safety net.
No family money.
No backup plan.
So while other people could afford to slowly “experiment” with business ownership, I had to figure out how to build something that actually worked. That pressure forced me to become incredibly intentional.
I joined Chamber of Commerce groups, networking organizations, business communities, and leadership spaces. I studied marketing, search engine optimization, branding, website development, media strategy, hiring, systems, finances, and entrepreneurship.
And because I had very limited resources, I had to learn how to test ideas carefully without destroying my finances or burning myself out in the process. Over time, I slowly built my business piece by piece.
What became fascinating was that while I was helping couples and individuals improve their sex lives and relationships, I started noticing something unexpected: The same people who learned how to build healthier relationships also started improving their businesses and leadership skills.
Not because they were “flirting” in business — but because they were learning emotional intelligence, communication, vulnerability, boundaries, nervous system regulation, trust-building, burnout prevention, and identity development.
Side note: One of the biggest reasons people struggle sexually is burnout.
I started attracting more entrepreneurs, executives, healthcare professionals, and leaders who had built their careers by overworking, over-functioning, and doing everything themselves. The exact skills that helped them become successful were now the same skills causing burnout, emotional exhaustion, disconnection, leadership struggles, and relationship problems.
Whether someone was a business owner, entrepreneur, or executive leader, they eventually reached a point where the identity and survival strategies that once helped them succeed no longer worked for the life they actually wanted to build. That realization became the foundation for my Built to Last Business Course.
The business version of the model is:
Test It. Do It. Prove It. Own It. Leave It.
It’s still rooted in the same Mind, Body, Heart, Soul, Spirit framework I use in relationship and sexual health work — because humans are still humans regardless of the environment they’re operating in.
In the Mind / Test It phase, I teach people how to safely test ideas, evaluate risk, think strategically, and make sustainable business decisions without destroying their finances.
In the Body / Do It phase, we focus on nervous system regulation, risk tolerance, execution, and learning how to function under pressure without burning out.
In the Heart / Prove It phase, we focus on relationships, leadership, trust-building, teamwork, visibility, community, and reputation — because businesses succeed or fail based on how consistently people build trust.
In the Soul / Own It phase, we focus on identity. Who are you as a leader? What kind of business owner are you becoming? What values actually matter to you?
And finally, in the Spirit / Leave It phase, we focus on sustainability, vision, leaving a legacy, and building businesses that evolve alongside real life.
Because life does happen. People get sick. Parents age. Children need support. Marriages change. Burnout happens. Bodies change. Nervous systems hit capacity. We need businesses that work with our lives (not fall apart as soon as life happens!).
I’ve personally lived through many of those realities while building my own business — including navigating financial instability, burnout, motherhood, maternity leave without a safety net, relationship changes, caregiving stress, and rebuilding seasons. That’s why I care so deeply about teaching sustainable business ownership.
Hustle culture simply isn’t enough anymore. Working 10–12 hour days forever isn’t a sustainable business model. It’s survival mode.
What I teach now is how to build businesses that support your life instead of consuming it.
Businesses that evolve.
Businesses that align with your values.
Businesses that create meaningful impact.
Businesses that are Built to Last.
If that’s the kind of leadership and business education you’re looking for, let’s get started!
Angela the Media Personality
I knew visibility mattered in business, but honestly, I didn’t fully know how I wanted to approach it. That changed when I met Spencer Graves from 106.5 The Arch, a local radio station in St. Louis. Around 2016–2017, the station had started experimenting with podcasts, and Spencer approached me about creating one together.
At the time, I knew absolutely nothing about podcasting. I remember him explaining it to me this way:
“A podcast is basically an interesting conversation where the listener feels like a fly on the wall in the room.”
And I thought:
“Interesting. Okay, let’s do it.”
So we started recording conversations about sex, relationships, and human connection. It was fun, educational, awkward, hilarious, and deeply meaningful all at once.
Then came episode seven. Duh! Duh! Duh!
For whatever reason, I decided we should make our “lucky number seven” episode about anal sex. Spencer asked me, “What’s lucky about that?” and I basically responded with, “I don’t know. It’ll be fun.”
We recorded it. Unfortunately, what we didn’t realize was that the station producers had apparently not been listening to the podcasts up to that point. And guess which episode they decided to check in on first?
Yep. The anal sex episode.
Needless to say, the station was not prepared for a sex therapist talking openly about all the things people normally avoid talking about publicly.
And just like that…
the podcast got canceled.
I was devastated. Not because I thought I was becoming famous or anything like that — but because I suddenly realized how much I loved this format. I loved having real conversations. I loved educating people this way. I loved normalizing conversations about sex in a way that felt human instead of clinical or shame-filled. I didn’t know I needed media work until I lost it.
At the time, my former husband looked at me and said,
“Angela, it’s really not that hard to make a podcast ourselves.”
After a lot of sadness, frustration, and a few tears, we decided to build our own show from home. That became the About Sex Podcast, which we recorded out of our basement in St. Louis.
Yes… we invited people into our basement. Which sounds mildly terrifying when you say it out loud. But thankfully, by that point, I had already built enough trust and credibility in the local community that people knew I was an actual therapist and not a serial killer.
So people came. And those conversations became one of the most formative educational experiences of my life. We interviewed people from all walks of life about sexuality, relationships, communication, identity, intimacy, kink, marriage, desire, shame, and emotional growth. They were just honest conversations.
And through those conversations, I learned something incredibly important:
People desperately want permission to talk honestly about sex. They want spaces where they can be curious, vulnerable, awkward, funny, thoughtful, confused, and human without immediately feeling judged or shamed. Over time, podcasting became more than just content creation for me. It became part of my mission.
Somewhere along the way, life happened too. My former husband and I divorced, and eventually I reached a point of burnout around 2021. I stepped away from creating my own show for a while because I needed space to recover, rebuild, learn, and evolve. But during that time, I never fully left media.
Instead, I started appearing on other people’s podcasts, interviews, TV segments, articles, conferences, and media platforms. I studied how successful shows worked. I learned about branding, visibility, email marketing, social media strategy, reels, content ecosystems, speaking, storytelling, audience engagement, and what it really means to build a media platform.
And eventually, all of that experience led to the creation of the Open Bedroom Doors Show: Real Talk for Real Relationships. This was an entire educational and media platform built around my larger mission: to normalize conversations about sex, relationships, emotional health, identity, leadership, and human connection.
And incredibly, within its very first season, the Open Bedroom Doors Show received the 2026 Podcast of the Year award from AASECT — the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists.
That moment meant so much to me because it represented years of growth, rebuilding, learning, visibility, risk-taking, and continuing to show up even when the journey wasn’t always easy.
Today, my media work includes:
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hosting the Open Bedroom Doors Show,
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speaking locally, nationally, and internationally,
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writing books and courses,
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media interviews for articles, podcasts and TV,
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and helping create healthier, more honest conversations around relationships, sexuality, leadership, and emotional wellness.
What I’ve ultimately learned is this: Visibility is leadership. It’s creating spaces where people feel less alone. It’s helping people have conversations they were taught to fear. It’s challenging shame. It’s building trust at scale.
And through Open Bedroom Doors, that’s exactly what I intend to keep doing.
More About Angela Skurtu
Licensed Marriage Therapist in the state of Missouri and
AASECT Certified Sex Therapist
Angela Skurtu is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Missouri and a nationally certified Sex Therapist through the American Association for Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT). She holds a Master of Education in Counseling and Family Therapy from the University of Oregon and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Since 2008, she has been helping couples navigate intimacy, communication, and sexual health.
As an AAMFT and AASECT-approved supervisor, Angela is a recognized expert in the field of sexual and relationship health. Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Women’s Day Magazine, The Post-Dispatch, Good Therapy,and Psychology Today. In 2017, she received a media award from the Missouri Association for Marriage and Family Therapists for her contributions to blogging, podcasting, and media appearances. She also received the 2020 Best of Ballwin Award for marriage and family counseling.
Angela is a sought-after keynote speaker at local and national conferences, including events for the Missouri Mental Health Counseling Association, the American Academy of Psychotherapists, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists. She is also an AASECT-approved continuing education provider.
She is the author of Pre-Marital Counseling: A Guide for Clinicians (2016), Helping Couples Overcome Infidelity: A Therapist’s Manual (2018), and FROM F*CK NO TO F*CK YES! (2025) available on Amazon. She also hosts The About Sex Podcast, offering candid conversations on relationships and sexual health.