I felt weird about bringing up sex in front of our male marriage counselor. I think I said that I felt awkward talking about it, and he was like, "I'm a psychologist! I've heard everything. You can talk about anything." So that made me feel better about it, but I still find I stare at the carpet and can't look at him if we're talking about anything sexual. And since it's marriage counseling, that's a topic that comes up from time to time.

Maybe you could just start by saying you wanted to bring up some issues related to your past, but you feel weird doing so with him because of what they relate to. And hopefully he'll get where you're going with that, or can help guide you. Or if he asks why you feel weird, say it's because he's of the opposite gender, and then he should get what sort of thing you want to talk about. Or if you can't say it, write it down/type it and hand it to him.