My Delight with Sarah Bartel – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Ellen Holloway interviews host Sarah Bartel about how she got started helping Catholic married women improve their sex lives. She also interviews Sarah about her My Delight course for Catholic women. They talk about what happens inside the course and who the course is for.

👉 DOWNLOAD THE FREE GUIDE:
Enhancing Marital Intimacy: 9 Skills for Mind, Body, and Spirit

Or you can get your name on the My Delight waitlist to hear about when the next class of My Delight will be offered!

My Delight Waitlist
Registration for Spring 2025 opens Feb 10-13, 2025!

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

Intimacy Insights for Brides-to-Be and Newlyweds: Expert Advice from Bridget Busacker

In this episode, I interview my lovely friend Bridget Busacker, founder of Managing Your Fertility, to chat about what we would tell newlywed or engaged women about sex and marriage. Join us as we imagine taking a bride-to-be out for coffee and consider what we would tell her about the importance of communication, the essential role of foreplay, handling discomfort, and why it's so important a couple work together to make it a mutually enjoyable experience.  We share stories and practical tips to help build a joyful and connected intimate life. 

00:00 Introduction to Bridget Busacker and Her Mission
00:45 Discussing the Newlywed Intimacy Blueprint Course
01:40 Advice for a Soon-to-be Married Woman
03:31 Practical Tips for Intimacy and Foreplay
15:00 Importance of Communication in Marriage
19:36 Addressing Pain and Discomfort During Intercourse
25:20 The Significance of Mutual Pleasure
26:24 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Links:

• Enhancing Intimacy Guide for Engaged and Married Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit, by Sarah Bartel
• The Newlywed Intimacy Blueprint by Bridget Busacker 
• Managing Your Fertility.com, your one-stop shop for Fertility Awareness Resources for Women and Couples 
• Find Bridget on Facebook: www.facebook.com/managingyourfertility
• Connect with Bridget on Instagram: www.instagram.com/managingyourfertility 

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

Intimacy Insights for Brides-to-Be and Newlyweds: Expert Advice from Bridget Busacker, part 2 of 2.

In this episode, I continue my interview with my lovely friend Bridget Busacker, founder of Managing Your Fertility. We chat about what we would tell newlywed or engaged women about sex and marriage. Join us as we imagine taking a bride-to-be out for coffee and consider what we would tell her about intimacy in marriage.  We share stories and practical tips to help build a joyful and connected intimate life. 

LINKS:

• Enhancing Intimacy Guide for Engaged and Married Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit, by Sarah Bartel
• The Newlywed Intimacy Blueprint by Bridget Busacker 
• Managing Your Fertility.com, your one-stop shop for Fertility Awareness Resources for Women and Couples 
• Find Bridget on Facebook: www.facebook.com/managingyourfertility
• Connect with Bridget on Instagram: www.instagram.com/managingyourfertility 

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

Do you ever feel embarrassed when it comes to talking with your husband about lovemaking? Do you know how to ask for what you need... or communicate if something feels "meh" ... or even worse, hurts? Monica Ortega, co-host with her husband Renzo of the Two Become Family podcast, chats with Sarah about the book she and Renzo wrote: Lovemaking: How to Talk About Sex with Your Spouse. As a faithful Catholic couple informed by church teaching and theology of the body, they noticed that when it comes to candid and practical advice--there's still a lot to figure out! Sarah and Monica talk about mental load both spouses bear (as well as the gallant, swoon-worthy way husbands can help wives with their mental load!), feeding sexual intimacy with the whole-life intimacy that a couple builds outside the bedroom, and how to tell your husband when something gives you the heebie-jeebies. 

Lovemaking: How to Talk about Sex with Your Spouse, Ave Maria Press, 2025

Two Become Family podcast

Catholic women! Learn 9 Skills for Body, Mind and Spirit Enhancing Marital Intimacy with this free guide.

Waitlist for Sarah's My Delight course for Catholic married and engaged women.

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

Sarah and Denise talk about self-care and body image. Denise a Catholic weight loss coach who helps women turn to God instead of food through her Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit program, 63 Surrendered program, and Restored Lent Challenge.  Restored helps women surrender to God, not the scale.

Denise shares about how authentic self-care is not about expense and luxury--it's a sacred activity given to us by the Lord. She also shares about how we can change our negative thoughts about our body.

Fast from the scale and experience the freedom and peace that come from surrendering fully to the Lord with Denise's Restored Lent Challenge! 

Learn more or join here.

Use coupon code 63LENT for $20 off.

You can also find Denise online at WeightLosswiththeHolySpirit.com

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

What is it like to go through My Delight as a happily married newlywed with a good love life? Is there still more to learn? Sarah chats with Dr. Jessica Whelan, a naturopath specializing in hormone health who is also a certified Creighton model FertiliCare NFP instructor and NaPro providor. They discuss being the higher-desire spouse, enjoying lovemaking while struggling with infertility and trying to conceive, and communicating about intimacy with your husband. Dr. Jessica shares what it is like to be in the sisterhood of Catholic women who go through My Delight together. 

Find out more about Dr. Jessica Whelan's hormone and fertility work at drwhelan.com

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

Sarah speaks with My Delight alum Kristen, mother of eight, who shares her story of her and her husband's conversion, as well as how she grew through the My Delight course. Kristen felt pretty good about their love life before, but experienced insights, growth, learning, and increased connection with her husband. She shares what new evening routine they've developed that's been a game-changer and why there's a bottle of whipped cream in the fridge that she and her husband won't let the kids have. She also shares what some of the highlights were for her among the guest experts and conversations shared inside the My Delight course.

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

What do newlywed and engaged women need to know about their pelvic floor as they enter into marital intimacy? Sarah is joined by Catholic pelvic floor specialist Veronica Stephens of RenewedResilience.net. They cover the basics of what a healthy, functioning pelvic floor should be able to do, as well as a few of the problems that can arise when the pelvic floor doesn't function properly--problems such as incontinence, pain during intercourse, and constipation. Veronica shares her unique path to her profession, from her beginnings as a theology major at Christendom College to finding her way to physical training and pelvic floor certifications to help women. Sarah and Veronica discuss the mind-body connection by which a woman's beliefs and memories about sex affects her vaginal muscles.

Veronica Stephens is at RenewedResilience.net

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

Sarah and her amazing friend Ellen Holloway of the Charting Towards Intimacy podcast share 7 tips for engaged women preparing for their first time after the wedding. They chat about setting expectations for yourself and with your husband-to-be, what essential items you are going to want to have on hand, butterflies in the stomach, the supreme importance of FOREPLAY, being like a flower, lingerie, and having fun. 

Ellen Holloway's Free Foreplay Guide for Catholic Women

Ellen Holloway's Charting Towards Intimacy podcast

Ginger and Peach Catholic-owned model-free lingerie boutique

Mentionables Model-free lingerie (10% OFF CODE: BARTEL)

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.

Before you can effectively to anything else to improve your love life in marriage, you have to get the porn out. 

Sarah shares 10 resources, programs, and tips to help husbands get free, to help wives heal from betrayal trauma, and to help married couples rebuild their intimate life.

If you wanted to redecorate your living room, but there was a fire in it, you'd have to put out the fire before you start thinking about paint colors and rearranging the furniture. Afterwards, you'd also have to clean up the scorch marks and care for burns. In the house of your marital intimacy, you need to get the porn out first in order to establish safety and authentic emotional intimacy. The distortions in assumptions about how sex should work then need to be corrected. (God made women's arousal curves much slower and longer than men's, but women in porn are paid to fake being aroused quickly.)  Emotional wounds from betrayal trauma need to be healed, and the couple needs to establish their intimacy anew from the ground up. 

4 Resources to Help Husbands Get Free from Porn:

1. Sexaholics Anonymous, a 12-step peer support program

2. Programs like  Pure Desires, Naked Truth Project

3. Strive: 21-Day Porn Detox, a Catholic program with Matt Fradd

4. CSAT counseling (Certified Sexual Addiction Therapists)

*BONUS TIP: Install device-protecting software like Covenant Eyes 

3 Resources to Help Wives Heal from Betrayal Trauma

5. Hope's Garden, a Catholic ministry online that includes a coaching option

6. Coaching with Catholic coach Casey Allison 

7. Bloom for Women and Bloom for Catholic Women

3 Tips to Help Post-Porn Couples Restore Authentic Intimacy

1. Talk to each other during lovemaking. This roots both husband and wife's mind in the present moment. Hearing her husband's voice is very connecting for the wife and distracts her from negative thoughts, worries that his mind is going back to memories of porn.

2. Specifically, the husband should reassure his wife out loud with words during their lovemaking time together that he's thinking only of her, that she is beautiful, her body is amazing, she is the one he chooses for life, he loves being just with her, etc.  She is likely to need LOTS of reassurance.

3. Husbands, tune in to your sense of smell, which porn cannot recreate. Listen to Catholic psychologist  Mario Sacasa, Ph.D. discuss this in

MORE RESOURCES

Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

Model-free lingerie! Get 10% off with my affiliate link for Mentionables.