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Arlene Krieger likes helping people. For more than 20 years in South Florida — from Miami to Fort Lauderdale — she helped people work through problems with their marriages, relationships or sexuality.
Now she’s doing all that in Downtown DeLand.
Krieger is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a master’s degree and an extensive background working with family dynamics. Her Ph.D. is in clinical sexology and human sexuality. She specializes in issues of family, relationships, intimacy and sexuality.
Her practice opened about a month ago in a small office at 112 W. Indiana Ave., Suite 205.
“I took a small office because it’s a small town,” Krieger told The Beacon recently.
Krieger has overcome a lot in her own life. Married at 19, she divorced 14 years later after having three now-adult children. She went back to college in her mid-30s, got her undergraduate degree, and entered law school.
A year into her legal studies, she realized she was too people-oriented to pursue law, so she got her master’s degree and then her doctorate.
More than 30 years after her divorce, Krieger married again a little more than a year ago. Her new husband is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former fighter pilot.
“We bought a home in DeLand and put a pool in,” Krieger said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
In her practice, Krieger intends to continue the work she did in South Florida.
“I want to help couples reconnect with each other,” she said. “I want to help people find out what’s wrong and figure out how to make it right.”
She doesn’t believe in long-term counseling. Krieger wants to provide brief, solution-focused input in intensive sessions. She doesn’t plan to hold more than five sessions a day, none of which are strictly limited to a specified duration.
Being a small practice also means she does not accept insurance coverage. Patients pay out of pocket for her services — $150 a session, which she believes is in line with what similar practices in the area charge.
Krieger also tries to dispel the common misconceptions about her sexology work.
“It’s talk therapy — with NO touching involved,” she emphasized. “We can talk about issues like a lack of desire, boredom, menopause, prostate issues, etc. I will make referrals for people with medical issues.”
Krieger also has a book out titled Sex: From the Couch, which she says is a nonfiction self-help book. Published just a couple of months ago, it is a collection of 13 short stories she has amassed over the decades of her practice. All the stories are true, she said, although some details have been changed to protect the subjects’ identities.
“The stories look at what people do to each other when they’re in love, and what not to do,” Krieger said.
To contact Krieger, call her at 561-414-9596, email her at AskDrArlene@gmail.com, or go to her website (which hasn’t been updated from her South Florida days but which she still uses) at www.BocaTherapy.com. She sees clients by appointment only.
