Somatic comes from the greek word ”soma”, which means the material body. I like to define the somatic body as the body perceived from within, which includes its emotional and spiritual aspects. Somatic sex education is a growing field that focuses on sex education from the lived experience of the body. The little sex education I received in school was focused on rational ideas about risks and reproduction. Very few people are educated about pleasure, consent, and solely feeling one’s sensations. I believe that limits our experience of pleasure and of sensual and sexual fulfillment, as sex is an embodied experience.
Society teaches us that pleasure is shameful and that we must hide it. We limit our experience of pleasure and may only associate pleasure and eroticism to sexual intercourse and the ideas we have around what it has to be like. However, our capacity for pleasure is pretty much limitless. When we start to connect to our sensations, our pleasure can expand while paying attention to textures, sounds, our breath, etc.
Sometimes, when I ask people to tune in with what their body wants and desires, they ask ”how do I know?” It is a very legitimate question, as we are educated to not pay attention to our bodily needs and desires. Starting as young as elementary school, we learn to ignore our functional need to go to the bathroom to schedule it with school recesses. In a world where we start to ignore our NEEDS at such a young age, re-learning to pay attention and to listen to what we desire is a learning process that asks for practice.
Some things that can limit our experience of sexuality, other than lack of education, are shame, trauma, and pain, to name a few. As somatic sex educators, we are trained to accompany individuals and groups on their journey to the sensual and sexual life they choose. Through individual sessions, workshops, online coaching and ongoing groups, our clients can explore conscious breath, movement, and touch in the container of safe professional relationship. They can practice feeling and expressing desires, and learning communication and negotiation in the erotic realm. We help clients bring pleasure and aliveness into their erotic life and relationships. We work through body-based exercises and experiences that include somatic awareness, orienting towards pleasure, and celebrating boundaries and desires.
I studied at the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education (ISSSE), based in Victoria, Canada. I chose to study at the Institute as it is the only one that offers an extensive understanding of gender diversity, trauma, the nervous system, and systemic oppressions. The somatic sex education program includes the complete and extended Sexological Bodywork curriculum. I am also a member of the Somatic Sex Educators Association and adhere to their professional code of ethics.