Love, Sex & Intimacy – Details, episodes & analysis

Today I’m delighted to be joined by Naomi Harris who is a sexual pleasure and genital pain specialist.  

With Naomi’s blend of psycho-sexual, de-armouring and over 15 years experience as a naturopath, she offers a grounded and holistic approach to women’s sexual issues. She shares her wealth of wisdom on healing painful sex, numbness, dryness and more. 

Naomi shares:

• The shocking statistics on the prevalence of women who experience painful sex
• How to get support with painful sex
• Why it can take time for women to reach out for support 
• Why it is important to keep a symptoms diary 
• Questions to ask yourself if you are experiencing painful sex
• Some of the many reasons you might be experiencing pain with sex
• How you can heal painful sex
• Why you might experience numbness or dryness and how to start to heal
• Why your dryness might be caused by dehydration
• Why Naomi doesn’t like vibrators and the key thing to overcome when you stop using them
• Simple practices for self healing

Naomi Harris is a sexual pleasure and genital pain specialist. She supports women to heal their pelvic and sexual numbness, lack of libido and orgasm, pain and discomfort, so that they can live a turned on life full of pleasure, passion and epic sex. 

With over 15 years experience as a naturopath, she incorporates psycho-sexual understandings, as well as de-armouring and other therapies to a whole person approach to healing. 

She works online and in person with women around the world, who are managing a wide range of pelvic and sexual health situations and conditions

RESOURCES FROM NAOMI

Website

Instagram

Facebook

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter so you can find out about the latest podcast episode and get pleasure mapping, a guided audio practice

Book a complimentary consultation with Sarah 

Find Sarah online :

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Spotify for playlists

ABOUT YOUR HOST

Your podcast host is Sarah Rose Bright. Sarah is an Intimacy and Sex Coach who helps women & couples to truly enjoy sex and pleasure and create/deepen intimate relationships that are passionate, happy and healthy so that they can feel good about who they are.

Catherine Hale is a pioneer in creating workshop and event spaces with care and safety at the core. She calls this ‘a culture of care’.   

The sexuality workshop scene is evolving with ongoing revelations of unethical, unprofessional and often dangerous practice. Shining a light on bad practice is essential, and so is defining and promoting best practice.

We had this conversation to explore how the sexuality workshop scene has changed over the years, the risks of intense, cathartic processes, why safety in the nervous system allows you to go deeper, the importance of integration and how to choose the right facilitator for you and much more. 

Catherine shares:

• How the sexuality workshop scene has changed
• The difference between the gentle and the intense, cathartic approaches to sexual healing in sexuality workshops 
• The importance of safety within sexuality workshops
• How workshop spaces can re traumatise people 
• The difference between hyper and hypo sexuality and how this plays out in workshop settings 
• Why the most sparkly shiny looking workshops may not offer the deepest healing and transformation 
• How high intensity workshops match our societal conditioning around sexuality
• What a culture of care is and what that looks like in a workshop setting 
• The importance of integration
• How creating safety in the nervous system creates a base for deeper erotic exploration and lasting transformation
• How to establish if a facilitator or a training is right for you
• How a regulated nervous system supports you to be with uncertainty 

Catherine is a qualified trauma coach, sexological bodyworker, and postmenopausal woman who understands what it takes to heal and grow from the inside out. Her trauma-informed perspective focuses on reducing the harm of internalised capitalism in our bodies and businesses, recognising the need for radical rest in business, and unlocking the power of post-traumatic growth.

RESOURCES FROM CATHERINE

Website

Facebook

Anchored in Regulation  

Field Facilitation where Catherine will be teaching Culture of Care trauma informed certified Training 

Emergent Eros 

Culture of Care consulting

Red Flags in Workshops is an additional resource developed by Wilrieke Sophia. Their website contains free materials to understand power dynamics that may be at play, and how to reach out for support if you experience harm. 

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

For a FREE e-book, How Relaxed Love Making Can Transform Your Sex Life, visit Sarah’s website to sign up her newsletter

Book a complimentary consultation with Sarah 

Instagram

Facebook

I’m delighted to share this episode with relationship coach, Amara Charles, on how to heal conflict and reignite passion.  Amara shares how couples can heal conflict and restore confidence in the relationship and how to reignite passion and keep that passion alive.

Amara shares:

• 3 pitfalls of conflict and how couples can heal conflict 
• The one biggest thing that restores confidence in relationships
• What the Trinity of Power is
• The importance of curiosity and asking powerful questions
• The 4 Eros Types
• Reigniting passion in long term relationships
• 2 tips for keeping passion alive in long term relationships
• Her definition of spiritual sexuality 
• The power of love and forgiveness

Amara Charles is a trusted, highly acclaimed relationship coach to thousands and the best-selling author of The Sexual Practices of Quodoushka. With experience presenting spiritual intimacy retreats for over 30 years, Amara is a powerful, compassionate guide for those seeking to re-ignite their relationship with passion, sexual intimacy and Deeply Bonded Love.

RESOURCES FROM AMARA

Website: www.amaracharles.com

Lovers Type Quiz  https://www.amaracharles.com/loverstype

Book a 45 minute complimentary Intimacy Breakthrough session with Amara at: Www.amaracharleslove.com/apply  

Free Masterclass Training: 5 Shifts to Ignite Passion https://www.amaracharleslove.com/r/a

The Sexual Practices of Quodoushka on Amazon by Amara Charles 

Facebook: 

Amara Charles Nourishing Arts,  https://www.facebook.com/AmaraCharlesNourishingArts

FB group Creating Empowering Relationships https://www.facebook.com/groups/370147867235489

Facebook group: A Woman's Way to Lead  https://www.facebook.com/groups/awomenswaytolead

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter so you can find out about the latest podcast episode and get pleasure mapping, a guided audio practice

https://www.sarahrosebright.co.uk/guided-pleasure-mapping/

Book a complimentary consultation with Sarah  https://calendly.com/sarahrosebright

Find Sarah online 

Website www.sarahrosebright.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarahrosebright/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sarahrosebrightsexcoach

Spotify for playlists

This was a great conversation with Natalie Lue, a boundaries and relationship coach who‘s the creator of one of the longest running self-help blogs in the world, Baggage Reclaim, and The Baggage Reclaim Sessions podcast.  Her 5th book, The Joy of Saying No: A Simple Plan to Stop People Pleasing, Reclaim Boundaries, and Say Yes to the Life You Want came out this year.

Many people I work with would define themselves as ‘people pleasers’ or ‘recovering people pleasers’ and it deeply affects how you show up in dating and intimate relationships so it was important to have this conversation with Natalie.

Natalie shares the 5 types of people pleasers, why you might people please and how it can show up in your life, practical ways to begin to step out of people pleasing, people pleasing in dating and relationships and how to stop accepting ‘crumbs’. Natalie also shared the landmarks of healthy relationships and the 4 qualities of a loving partner.

Natalie shares:

• Nat’s definition of people pleasing
• Why you might people please and how it can show up in your life
• The 5 types of people pleasers
• The feelings and thoughts that can be associated with people pleasing
• Practical ways to begin to step out of people pleasing 
• People pleasing in dating and relationships
• How to stop accepting ‘crumbs’ when you are dating 
• The landmarks of healthy relationships 
• The 4 qualities of a loving partner
• What is changing in her life from peri-menopause 

Natalie Lue is a boundaries and relationship coach who‘s the creator of one of the longest running self-help blogs in the world, Baggage Reclaim, and The Baggage Reclaim Sessions podcast. The England-born, Ireland-raised author helps people understand how their emotional baggage is interfering with their ability to live their lives happily and authentically. Natalie’s authored five books, including Mr Unavailable and the Fallback Girl and The Joy of Saying No (Jan 2023, HarperCollins). Her advice has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, NPR, USA Today, and the BBC, among many others. 

RESOURCES FROM NATALIE 

Natalie’s latest book - The Joy of Saying No: A Simple Plan to Stop People Pleasing, Reclaim Boundaries, and Say Yes to the Life You Want by Natalie Lee 

You can find Natalie’s blogs here

https://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/list-of-posts/

natalielue.substack.com

And you can also find Natalie on 

natalielue.com 

baggagereclaim.com 

instagram.com/natlue

Mentioned by Natalie 

Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne 

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter so you can find out about the latest podcast episode and get pleasure mapping, a guided audio practice

https://www.sarahrosebright.co.uk/guided-pleasure-mapping/

Book a complimentary consultation with Sarah  https://calendly.com/sarahrosebright

Find Sarah online 

Website

So happy to share this episode with Tobin Zivon. Tobin is the first guest to return to the podcast for a rich conversation exploring tantric sex and living a tantric life. Tobin shares his definition of tantra, what tantric sex is and some ways to explore tantra, tantra as a way of living and how to be with the difficult stuff in life, his views on polarity, how to invite a partner on a tantric journey with you and more.

Tobin shares:

• His definition of tantra
• Tantra as a way of living 
• What tantric sex is and some ways to explore tantra 
• The importance of presence
• Tantra as a way of living 
• How to be with the difficult stuff in life
• His views on polarity 
• How to invite a partner on a tantric journey with you

Tobin Zivon has been wholeheartedly dedicated to spiritual awakening and to serving others in the flowering of their highest potential for over 30 years.  Author of books “The Art of Mindful Living” and the forthcoming “Allies in Awakening: Living the Truth of Unconditional Love in Intimate Relationships,” he has been described as “The Ultimate Guide… A rare, exquisite blend of Therapist, Coach, Spiritual Teacher and Tantra Master all wrapped into one.”

He has worked with thousands of individuals and couples to help them break through stuck patterns and painful dynamics, helping them to find their way into a more fulfilling and connected life of authentic liberation, love and relationship satisfaction.

RESOURCES FROM TOBIN

On Tobin’s website you can download a free e-book, Emotional Alchemy and find details about his private work and online courses:

https://tobinzivon.com

Find Tobin on Facebook and message him to join his group, The Art of Awakened Relationship 

https://www.facebook.com/tobin.giblin

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter so you can find out about the latest podcast episode and get pleasure mapping, a guided audio practice

https://www.sarahrosebright.co.uk/guided-pleasure-mapping/

Book a complimentary consultation with Sarah  https://calendly.com/sarahrosebright

Find Sarah online 

Website www.sarahrosebright.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarahrosebright/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sarahrosebrightsexcoach

Spotify for playlists https://open.spotify.com/user/dog9xui4wwpjatvbnpb2t7l3y?si=jnc_V6wxSCqaqr3UhNgD6Q

ABOUT YOUR HOST

Your podcast host is Sarah Rose Bright. Sarah is an Intimacy and Sex Coach who helps women & couples to truly enjoy sex and pleasure and create/deepen intimate relationships that are passionate, happy and healthy so that they can feel good about who they are. 

Excited to share this episode with my partner and co-teacher, Graeme Waterfield.  We love chatting about intimacy, sex and pleasure and have conversations like this all the time. We share some of the common themes that we experience in our work and also explore what is possible when you shift your attention from goal based sex to presence and pleasure. 

We explore:

• What is possible beyond the goal based pleasure that most people learn.  
• How most people learn to ‘do’ sex and the limitations of that
• Why mainstream sex advice is misguided
• What is possible when we drop inside and meet each other from that place
• The role of the nervous system in connection and arousal 
• We are now bringing our decades of experience and our 5 years exploring and growing together to our couples programme, INTIMACY which starts September 2023. At the end of the conversation we share about INTIMACY with a special offer for those listening to this episode!

You can read all about INTIMACY here.  https://www.sarahrosebright.co.uk/intimacy/

After reading the info, if you have any additional questions or you would like to book a 30 minute call with Graeme and I to see if INTIMACY is right for you both, please message me.  

About Graeme

With 20 years of experience as a teacher and coach and having been on his own 30 year journey, Graeme Waterfield has come to see what helps people evolve and heal physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

Being a qualified Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gung & Meditation teacher with a background in counselling, Graeme offers completely unique packages of somatic, psychological and energetic tools to help you transform yourself and your life to become everything you want to be.

He has come to see that we all have a unique set of skills, our own unique soul expression or purpose. Once we can awaken and identify this, we can turn our life into a masterpiece. Graeme noticed that people often don’t maximise their potential as human beings because they haven’t yet learnt to harness their mental, emotional and spiritual power.

This is how he can help support you in your own growth. Showing you how to access your highest, most profound levels of thought and being. To help you break free of self-imposed limitation and create your own unique experience of heaven on earth in your relationships, work and life.

‘Actualise yourself,’ was Steve Jobs’ final instruction to all who attended his Stamford memorial service. ‘Self-actualisation’ is the name western psychology gives to personal enlightenment. It states that if we don’t become everything we are capable of being, we will feel like a failure and live an unfulfilled life.

As your trainer, Graeme will guide you into this self-actualisation and show you how to meet your greatest potential as a human being. Using ancient technologies and modern psychological approaches to awaken your inner potential, supporting you in finding the power to overcome adversity and maximise all areas of your life.

RESOURCES FROM GRAEME 

https://www.facebook.com/graeme.waterfield

https://www.graemewaterfield.co.uk/

RESOURCES FROM SARAH 

Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter so you can find out about the latest podcast episode and get pleasure mapping, a guided audio practice

In this episode, I am joined by Lauren Ohayon. Lauren is the founder of “Restore Your Core” (RYC®) and creator of the RYC® method for resolving core and pelvic floor issues. 

I invited Lauren on the podcast as pelvic floor issues are so common and they can have a huge effect on how a woman experiences sex, pleasure and intimacy.  So many women experience issues like prolapse and incontinence and can feel fear and shame. 

To me, the saddest thing is that these issues are not talked about enough and so many of them are preventable. I know if I had had more knowledge I would not have experienced a prolapse so it is important to create space for these conversations. 

I personally came across Lauren’s work on my journey of healing my prolapse and found RYC to be such a well put together programme and I could feel the difference in my body from building the strength in my core. 

Whether you have pelvic floor concerns or you want to know how to look after your pelvic floor, there is something here for you. I am delighted to share Lauren’s work and her wisdom. 

Lauren shares:

• The common issues that Lauren supports
• How common pelvic floor issues are 
• Why there is nothing to ‘fix’ when you have a pelvic floor issues
• The difference between a ‘weak’ and a hypertonic pelvic floor 
• How the healing journey can take time
• What to do if you find you are not getting the support you would like from your doctor
• Why so many women can take years to reach out for support
• Restore Your Core’s unique ‘whole body’ approach to pelvic floor issues 
• How Restore Your Core trainers support women to access their own ‘felt sense’
• When a pelvic exam is appropriate 
• How shame can impact pelvic floor issues
• How to look after your pelvic floor 
• Why the health of your core is so important
• Advice on sex with a prolapse 

Lauren Ohayon is the founder of “Restore Your Core” (RYC®) and creator of the RYC® method. With more than two decades’ experience as an internationally renowned yoga and pilates instructor, Lauren focuses on resolving core and pelvic floor issues minus the “burn and shred” mentality. The Restore Your Core® program is a comprehensive and sustainable fitness program that empowers women who aim to be strong, long, mobile and functional. Restore Your Core® also boasts highly trained movement teachers around the world; from India to Alaska and Australia to North America and Europe. Lauren and the Restore Your Core® teachers are helping women across the globe to gain core strength, achieve ideal pelvic floor function, and learn to move efficiently and exercise optimally—in a safe and nurturing community-driven environment.

RESOURCES FROM LAUREN

Website restoreyourcore.com

Instagram @thelaurenohayon 

FB group Facebook.com/groups/restoreyourcore 

Email me@laurenohayon.com

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter so you can find out about the latest podcast episode and get pleasure mapping, a guided audio practice

https://www.sarahrosebright.co.uk/guided-pleasure-mapping/

Book a complimentary consultation with Sarah  https://calendly.com/sarahrosebright

Find Sarah online 

Website

Kimberly Ann Johnson is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, yoga teacher, postpartum advocate, and single mom. She is also the author of the Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It for Good, as well as the early mothering classic The Fourth Trimester, and is the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast.

I invited Kimberly to talk about sex that changes the world as she did an interview with this title which I loved so much as I really do believe sex has the power to change the world for good.

In this compelling and thought provoking conversation, Kimberly shares her thoughts and wisdom on how to reimagine sex with its potential to change the world, the feminine, motherhood, power, sex and relationships in current times and more. Kimberly shares not just her experience as a practitioner, she brings in her personal perspective as a woman and a mum of a teenager daughter.  I’d love to hear what stirs inside you from this conversation. 

Kimberly shares:

• Why it is important to start where you are
• The ingredients of sex that changes the world 
• The importance of connection to your pleasure hormones
• How less sex and less commitment can be survival features 
• The impact of the last few years on sex and relationships and how she sees the state of sex and relationships in current times
• How crying during sex can be therapeutic
• The different between the sex you see on the movies and sex which activates the oxytocin circuitry 
• The difference between the male and female arousal trajectories
• Why the clitoris is not just for pleasure 
• Understanding the feminine and masculine through the lens of Chinese medicine
• What it means to ‘centre’ the feminine 
• Her definition of sexual energy
• Motherhood as a threshold for changing how you want to experience sex and how she connected with her sexuality after becoming a mum
• How the language of consent is taking us further away from sex that changes the world
• How sexual desires are not always politically correct
• The landscape of sex and relationships for young people today and how to support the young people in your life 
• The impact of the current overculture on men
• Her definition of power 
• Thoughts on dating

Kimberly Ann Johnson is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, yoga teacher, postpartum advocate, and single mom. Working hands-on in integrative women’s health and trauma recovery for more than a decade, she helps women heal from birth injuries, gynecological surgeries, and sexual boundary violations. Kimberly is the author of the Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It for Good, as well as the early mothering classic The Fourth Trimester, and is the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast.

RESOURCES FROM KIMBERLY 

Website: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com

https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/mothercircle-facilitator-training/ 

https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/events/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimberly.ann.johnson/

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

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Today I’m delighted to share this conversation with Tamu Thomas.  Tamu helps ‘over-functioning, overworking, high achievers to prioritise their own well-being and life satisfaction alongside success and achievement’.  She is on a mission to help women ‘enhance how they live, love and work by recovering from their addiction to toxic productivity’.

You might be wondering what this has to do with love, sex and intimacy.  A lot!! Your work can have a huge impact on how you experience sex and intimacy.  I see this all the time with the women I work with who are often overworking, stressed and exhausted.

As Tamu helps women to have a different relationship with work she also supports them to have a better quality of life through areas like self care, pleasure, rest which we dive into. 

In this rich conversation, Tamu shares about what she calls ‘grounded self care’ and how that is good for society, the problems with ‘spiritual capitalism’ and ‘spiritual bypassing’, how pleasure can be challenging for women, how dominant powers in society can affect your ability to experience pleasure, her vision for revolutionising how we work, the impact of work on sex and intimacy, her quest to be a well rested woman and much more. 

Tamu shares:

• Her journey from burnout, panic attacks and depression to today
• Her definition of grounded self care
• How self care leads to social and environmental care
• How discipline can be a protective pattern 
• The problems with ‘spiritual capitalism’ and ‘spiritual bypassing’ 
• The difference between the ‘wounded inner child’ to the ‘healthy adult self’
• Why people can find joy, bliss and pleasure unfamiliar emotions 
• How women can constrict their pleasure 
• The pleasure / power axis and how dominant powers in society can affect your ability to experience pleasure 
• Her quest to be a well rested woman 
• A practice to connect with how it feels like to be you 
• The importance of feeling safe in your body 
• How being in a survival state affects pleasure
• Her vision for revolutionising how we work
• How the systems we grow up in shape our identity around work and who you are 
• Why many people do not feel safe in their workplace 
• The value of getting clear on the type of life you want and crafting your work around that so you live to work rather than work to live 
• The impact of work on sex and intimacy

Tamu Thomas helps over-functioning, overworking, high achievers fall in love with themselves so they can make powerful choices about how they live, love and work.

Tamu’s integrated approach is practical and relatable. She's person-centred, evidence-based and trauma-informed. Tamu’s holistic approach to supporting the bodies, minds and experience of her clients makes her work nurturing, deep and unique – just like her.

Tamu’s work is informed by her background of sixteen years in social work, somatic coach training, her love of behavioural neuroscience and polyvagal theory, positive psychology, spirituality and joy. Tamu combines these modalities to create a multifaceted body of work.

Tamu supports her clients and workshop attendees understand themselves as valuable and worthy of caring for themselves. This enables them to prioritise their own well-being and life satisfaction alongside success and achievement.

Her mission is to help women enhance how they live, love and work by recovering from their addiction to toxic productivity.

RESOURCES FROM TAMU

https://www.livethreesixty.com/

I’m delighted to share this fascinating conversation with Damien Bohler, founder of Evolutionary Relating. Damien is an explorer who dives deep into the possibilities for intimate relationships finding the ways to support people to truly thrive in life and love. 

We explored relationships from the difficult stuff to the juice and the joy including the potential of intimate relationships, common relationship challenges and dynamics, polarity, attachment styles, what the Gene Keys are and how to work with the shadows and gifts in dating and relationships, the difference between parasympathetic arousal and arousal through intensity and more. 

We spoke about the Gene Keys and the Venus Sequence in our conversation and there are links to both in the show notes. Enjoy!! 

Damien shares:

• His framework called ‘Evolutionary Relating’
• Common relationship challenges and dynamics 
• The potential of intimate relationships
• His definition of polarity and what ‘polarity sets’ are and how they play out in relationships
• The need for similarity and difference in intimate relationships
• Attachment styles and how they impact dating and  relationships
• The difference between parasympathetic arousal and arousal through intensity
• What the Gene Keys are and how you can work with them in relationships and when you are dating
• Working with shadow patterns in relationships using the Gene Keys
• Why having standards are essential when you are dating 

Damien is a pragmatic visionary, synthesist and deep diver. He is focused on the future trajectory of humanity through relationship, and the practical, actionable tools, concepts and practices to get there. His gift is the interweaving of complex subjects into forms that can be easily integrated and embodied. His range of interest and expertise ranges throughout the realms of human relationship: authentic relating, attachment theory, polarity, sexuality, nervous system regulation, boundaries, Human Design, Gene Keys, transpersonal shadow work, and much more. His joy and delight is to find the ways in which it all fits together in a functioning dynamic tapestry to support us in truly thriving in life and love. He is the founder, director and head facilitator at Evolutionary Relating.

RESOURCES FROM DAMIEN

https://evolutionaryrelating.org/contact/ 

FB :  https://www.facebook.com/Damien.Bohler1/

IG: @evorelating

GENE KEYS 

Gene Keys - get your profile here 

https://genekeys.com/free-profile/

Purchasing Gene Keys courses 

There are 2 of the main Gene Key sequences which you can buy at a great price of $150 each. They are brilliantly done and highly recommended.

The Venus Sequence for love and relationships. This has the attractor sphere in that Damien mentioned in the show)

https://genekeys.com/venus-sequence/ref/1912/?campaign=VenusSequence

The Activation (or Genius) sequence 

https://genekeys.com/activation-sequence/ref/1912/?campaign=ActivationSequence

RESOURCES FROM SARAH

Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter so you can find out about the latest podcast episode and get pleasure mapping, a guided audio practice