Melissa Walker on sex therapy, erotic bodyfulness, belly dancing, and cooking the conversation of consent

In this conversation, I am speaking with Melissa Walker MA, LPC, R-DMT about the integration of the worlds of somatic psychotherapy, dance/movement therapy and sex therapy.  Melissa takes us along her personal journey of how a full body "yes," arose in relation to witnessing bellydance as a teenager, which propelled her on the path that lead to publishing of her book, Whole Body Sex: Somatic sex therapy and the lost language of the erotic body in January 2021. Melissa describes the importance of cultivating safe-enough space for conversations and experiences to unwind the harmful conditioning that has been inherited from a sex-negative culture to free us to access pleasure and cultivate intimacy.  She invites us into the magnificence of the body and the language of the erotic self, which is a world of discovery and a foundation for learning to relate lovingly to another. Melissa can be found online at www.embodiedrelationshipscenter.com/, and in addition to clinical work with individuals, couples and groups, Melissa provides trainings for therapists on her method of somatic concentric sex therapy, with trainings coming up in February in Boulder, Colorado and August, 2022 in Bellingham, Washington.  For more information or to join us, visit: https://embodiededucationinstituteofchicago.hubspotpagebuilder.com/sex-therapy-training Become a patron of the Return to Embodiment Podcast at https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment