values +politic
As a coach, I hope to return people to the sacred home of their bodies. All of us have been socialized to operate at a distance from our soma. Whether it happens through the forces of capitalism, white supremacy, other forms of structural oppression, or plain old Cartesian thinking, I believe most global citizens are taught to quiet the voice of the body from childhood onward. We are taught to turn the noise of sensation and expression down in order to turn up a more compliant and complicit mind. Why? Because embodiment can lead to defiance, which the status quo rejects. When we can feel ourselves, we can feel the world. And when we feel the world, we better understand how to act against injustices and move towards what we care about. We better understand how to disrupt the state when necessary, and more significantly, to disrupt shapes of our own that no longer serve us.
I bring the humility and blindspots of my dominant cultural identities: I’m a white, able-bodied, thin, financially healthy, 3rd generation American, with generally stable mental health and neurotypical functioning. I reckon with the impact that my multiple identities may have on clients and co-creators. This looks like naming and dismantling racism in our work, and committing to repair when harm occurs. Studying and sharing East Asian spiritual medicine as a white person is complicated as fuck, and often leads to extractive harm against the people who created those traditions specifically to resist structural oppression. I am not free from the infection of white colonial supremacy, and I want to name the ways in which I hope to disrupt its presence in my work:
I learn from Black teachers: In addition to co-learning regularly in white affinity spaces, I come from a long history of mentorship from Black teachers. Perhaps most significant to my pleasure coaching practice is Devi Ward, a committed anti-racist tantrika, who passed me the Authentic Tantra lineage. Niguma, one of the most important keepers of the lineage, was also said to be a Black yogini. I honor both of their transmissions of this medicine by bringing an actively anti-racist lens to my own transmission of the work. Most significantly, my minster, Kim Crutcher, completely transformed my orientation to spirit and the cosmic love of the universe. If you are craving spiritual leadership development, hit her up immediately.
I cite and credit. I name the original inventors and imaginaries of the Tantra line I coach: the Tibetan Buddhist Shangpa Kagyu lineage; as well as the somatic traditions I coach rooted the Aikido traditions, first founded as a tradition by Morihei Ueshiba.
I compensate. I grew up with a family that tithed to a Protestant Church every week. I now see tithing as a way of infusing reparations with my version of God. I make a monthly practice of tithing to Black and Asian-led organizations who are centering pleasure justice in their work, and tithe 10% of my signature course earnings.
I open source a ton of content. I make my recordings available for free for anyone who wants them, and offer free materials regularly. I practice from the belief that white folks cannot own spiritual content created by non-white communities. No one owns spirit, and I believe white folks have to be especially hypervigilant about what spiritual practices we make money on.
I offer discounted or free coaching and courses for BIPOC folks.
I also bring the super powers of my non-dominant identities to the table: I’m a survivor of ongoing childhood violence and sexual assault in college. Both made me really good at attending to emotional and energetic safety in groups and in individual work. I’m queer, polyintimate, and think the gender binary is a pink and blue trash fire ready to go extinct with Republicans. The expansive flavor of my sexual, romantic and gender orientation has led me to love big as hell in life, which shows up in my coaching, facilitation, and relationships.
I blend pleasure, intimacy and somatic coaching for people who want to better feel the world beginning with their own body. I do it for women and non-binary folks looking to deepen their access to sensation and pleasure in defiance to the barriers the patriarchy has laid on them. I do it for cis-men looking to dismantle hostile masculinity through contacting parts of themselves that have been buried away. I do it for sexual violence survivors looking to reclaim and return to their bodies. I do it for white folks looking to dislodge the habits of white supremacy in their own bodies, and who are hungry to build their skill in dismantling those habits in others. I do it for all people who have been positioned at a distance from their bodies because I believe our collective wholeness and holiness rely on a fully embodied humanity. My coaching moves from that unapologetically spiritual place.
Sometimes my work is strictly somatic. Sometimes it’s tantric. Sometimes it blends both frameworks. A client might leave six months of work with me knowing more about the relationship structures and practices that lead to greater intimacy in their lives. They might leave having uncovered and rewritten a somatic pattern (which we call a conditioned tendency) that was blocking generative collaborations at work. They might leave having orgasmed for the first time. Regardless of focus, my promise to the people I work with is a deeper sense of who they are, what they long for, what excites them, and how the intersection of their longing and excitement leads to purpose.