Hi loves.
Todays episode is different — you may notice that there’s no typical intro music/snippets — because it didn’t feel right today. This week has been heavy. Hell, this year has been a fucking trip. And I wrestled with the idea of not releasing a podcast episode today — I wasn’t sure how we would be experiencing this post election day time. And when I woke up yesterday morning, in a mix of deep feels/sadness and hope for a brighter future in the US, I knew that this conversation, with a soul human of mine, was one that I needed to share with all of you today.
And with that, I’d like to introduce to you my friend and kindred spirit, Alyssa Pressman (she/her).
Alyssa is a Licensed Clinical Therapist & Certified Sex + Relationship Coach. She specializes in pleasure & joy post trauma, grief & with chronic illness. She loves supporting women in moving closer to themselves, to other people and to creating lives that feel in deep alignment with their unique desires. She is a BRCA1 mutation carrier like me, and a person living with chronic illness and pain. Reaching for joy and pleasure has been deeply healing for her. When not working, you can find her dancing, lounging, reading or cooking, usually scantily clad if not naked. She loves talking, learning and sharing on all things sex, relationships, death, healing & dark nights of the soul-you know, all the super casual things.
I invite you to take this one on a walk outside, or curl up with a cup of tea and absorb these words as a way to get away, for a moment, from the chaos. You are so loved.
Things we discuss in todays episode:
Alyssa’s wake up call around a chronic illness that made it impossible to have penetrative sex without serious pain in her younger twenties
How her work as a sex & relationship coach started to empower her sexually, in a more wholistic way
Pelvic floor struggles
BRCA and the other piece of the fear with our mutual diagnosis: ovarian cancer
Self pleasure practices & building a relationship with your pussy
How to claim your sexuality as your own and experience life changing pleasure
Redefining what sex and pleasure is
How to talk to your partner(s) around how to have more connected intimacy with one another
Boobs, the beauty of being un-partnered, using pleasure as a form of self care and beyond
LINKS MENTIONED IN TODAYS EPISODE:
Live Your F*ck Yes Life Summit — snag your tickets for $29
Alyssa’s Instagram
WORK & CONNECT WITH AMANDA: