I am your Pleasure Guide (bio)
Finding wholeness and integration has been a life-long pursuit. What few messages I was given about sexuality at a young age were primarily negative ones, coming from my conservative parents and southern baptist church environment. Mainly, I was told that the body was at war with the spirit, and everything “of this world” was evil, corrupted and bad, while everything of the christian spiritual world was pure, righteous and good. When I came to grips with my gay sexuality, I tried whole-heartedly to convert and conform to heterosexuality by immersing myself in an ex-gay ministry and reparative therapy - to not avail.
In my early twenties, I began to accept my sexuality not as a burden to bear, but as a beautiful gift that further blesses and enriches my life. But alas, plenty of damage had already been done, and I have spent the past two decades undoing much of it. To begin with, I was so alienated from my body, that the very basic need of touch made me very uncomfortable. Just this one basic sense - the ability to receive and enjoy touch - is reflective our how capable a person is to receive and enjoy any of the wonderful gifts the world has to offer. I wondered, “If I can’t enjoy something so integral to a human being’s life, what else am I missing?” So I took a massage class to have a safe environment where I could get over my discomfort. Little did I know that 21 years of piano technique and sensitivity to playing the keyboard would prime my fingers to be sensitive to the tension and relaxation in a person’s muscles. I blossomed in my massage education, as well as my enjoyment and skills of connecting with others by way of touch.
As part of my correcting the mis-information I had believed, I began to learn that christianity did not hold “the only set of keys to a spiritual life.” In fact, many aspects of the “us vrs. them” mentality I was indoctrinated into had abusive overtones which encouraged dependency upon their specific group and belief system, rather than affirming the responsibility and individual growth of all people. This kind of religious abuse, like the damage done to my sexuality, took many long hours in therapy to heal from as well. As I actively pursued what I found to be a healthy spirituality for myself, I branched out into mystic practices that draw from different spiritual traditions, like, Native Americans, Radical Faeries, as well as using nature, meditation, ritual, tantra, art and tarot cards to experience “relationship with God.” This willingness to enjoy parts of the “great mystery” of spirituality has filled my life with contentedness, joy and happiness.
In the midst of integrating all of the different aspects of myself back into a whole being, I became acutely aware that much of the damage done was simply from our society’s resolute naivety regarding a healthy understanding of positive sexuality. I figured that if I was to help others understand their own sexuality I had better get an advanced understanding myself. So in 2007, after six years of graduate school, I received a Doctorate of Education in Sexology from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco.
It has been an amazing honor and a complete blast that as I have authentically and publicly lived my life and gone through my integration process, it has inspired and supported others’ to go through their own healing processes, too. These days, I write a column for Pulp Magazine called Sex Ed In Bed. My first book, Ex-Gay No Way: Survival and Recovery From Religious Abuse was published in May of 2010 by Findhorn Press. I speak and lead workshops and classes on healthy sexuality and religious abuse. I also spend many hours in one-on-one consultations, practically and intimately supporting individuals’ and couples’ re-integration of body, mind and spirit. All of us are at our authentic best when every part of our beings - spirituality, sexuality, and mentality - are integrated into one whole, and I would be so very happy to help guide you along your journey too.
To learn more about my work as a sexologist, go to: GaySexpert.com
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