Hi lovely humans!

I've been MIA newsletter-wise probably since I started my Substack (where some of you follow me!) but I'm realizing these two platforms get to serve different purposes and so I am bringing you all together for some announcements and to share some posts you may have missed. It's a long one so here's what to expect in the email:

Upcoming Events

• Breathing into Consent: Practicing the Sacred Pause (for everyone) with discount code
• Who Ya Gonna Call? Working Together to Support our Clients (for client-facing professionals) with discount code
• Workshop Weavers (for people who hold/seek to hold space/create educational spaces) - initial announcement

Posts you may have missed

• Mostly Substack post titles and their links

Ways to work with me

• Coaching, consulting, 3-day intensives, and self-paced course

Upcoming Events!

Sex Down South

I'll be co-hosting two new spaces at this year's Sex Down South Conference. I always describe this conference as a hug because of the care that is taken to create a comfortable and supportive space for learning (and play!). If you haven't gotten your ticket yet and you're thinking about joining, sales end August 30th and code "YAEL" gets you 20% off. Let me know if you have any questions about the space!

Breathing into Consent: Practicing the Sacred Pause with Tashé Ann & me

Where should we sit? Can I kiss you? Give me a hug! Can I come over tonight? Did any of these questions or commands make you hesitate—or squirm? We make countless decisions every day and may sometimes respond before we've fully tuned into what our mind, body, and heart truly want. For those who struggle with self-sacrifice or fear that changing their minds isn’t an option, this can be especially distressing. 

In this workshop, we will practice the sacred pause, a somatic tool for responding to requests from a place of mind/body/heart knowing. Together we’ll cultivate the skill of honoring our authentic responses and practice expressing when we’ve changed our minds. 

Insta announcement you can share.

Who Ya Gonna Call? Working Together to Support our Clients with Great J and me

• Are clients needing support beyond your scope? 
• Feeling stuck or isolated in your work?
• Wishing you had a trusted referral network ready to go? 

Join us at Sex Down South to meet other sex professionals, learn about one another’s modalities, and begin vetting folks for triadic and referral networks! We'll be engaging in interactive activities including speed practitioning and role play!

Insta announcement (slides 3 & 4) you can share

New Course: Workshop Weavers

I began facilitating workshops 20 years ago as a teen reproductive rights peer educator with the New York Civil Liberties Union and have been creating my own curriculum for nearly 15 years. I LOVE hosting spaces and witnessing people connect more deeply with themselves and others and realized that nurturing those types of spaces is a gift that requires practice and intention. As a university instructor, I've had the opportunity to train future sex educators in the art of teaching and facilitating and now I'd like to support my community more broadly in developing the gift of creating spaces dedicated to learning and growth.

I am debating two different formats and would love your feedback as I formalize this program. Please reply letting me know your preferred format if you have any interest in this type of offering (no worries, you are not committing to anything - simply helping me understand the capacity of those who may be interested):

(1) an online course with live sessions for

(a) building community

(b) live-practice & feedback on what you are creating

(c) facilitation skills practice.

This is the more extensive option with around 4-8 live sessions ~ 2 hours each 

(2) two long Sundays to develop skills of putting together a workshop (with time to begin putting materials together) but with little to no live facilitation practice and some between session work (less extensive option since it doesn't include practicing facilitation and less live practice)  

Posts you may have missed this summer and spring

• FAQ: How do I get my partner on board with using a toy?
• My thoughts on the (yummy) Snail Curve (use code DRYAEL for 10% off)
• The Pleasure and Power of the Pause: A guided worksheet to practice consent, emotional safety, & pleasure without pressure
• Who comes to coaching? And What Do We Do?
• Disrupting the dangerous immigrant fallacy
• My first time taking Plan B
• Fuck being fuck-zoned
• I'm a sex educator who hates condoms
• Five Ways to (Re)Connect with Your Partner
• Final steps (& lessons) of becoming a doctora
• Gotta catch 'em all polyamory

Ways to work with me

Coaching

I work with individuals, couples, and polycules on topics related to intimacy, sex, body esteem, communication, relationship style, and identity.

Monthly offer: One FREE half-hour private session to a new BIPOC or queer/trans/NB and/or disabled client per month in gratitude for the support I have received over the years from members of these communities. This is first-come-first-serve and there is an opening for September. Use code FREE under "special offer code" at the end of the form to be considered.

Body Knows Best

Body Knows Best: How to Communicate with Your Body for More Pleasure is a four module self-paced course dedicated to people who have become disconnected from their body’s messaging (potentially due to negligence, survival, or trauma) & people who struggle to remain present in their pleasure.

3-Day Intensives

I will be offering private somatic sexology retreats for individuals and couples in Puerto Rico as a container for exploration, healing, and claiming of pleasure and agency.

This space is for you if you resonate with one of the following:

• I have trouble staying present or leaning into pleasure
• I struggle to see myself as worthy of pleasure, connection, safety, or to see my wants and needs as valid (this can happen a lot within both monogamous and non-monogamous relationships)
• it's hard to have authentically consensual experiences due to people pleasing, fawning, or other trauma and fear responses that get in the way
• I haven't had space where I can explore my sexual orientation, gender identity, kinky tendencies, etc. without judgment 
• I feel disconnected from my body and/or feelings

More info to come later :) You can reply "Puerto Rico" to this email to be amongst the first to receive more information.

Consulting

If you're seeking someone to review your curriculum, support you in exploring options for entering the sex education field, brainstorm your programming, or help you develop a workshop, click here.

It's finally over

Alright, I shared all the things I had on my list to share over the past few weeks (I think). May you all have a lovely week!

Dr. Yael