Author: Christina Bogdanova


Sexuality and sexual life should bring joy, inspiration, and fulfilment and serve as an expression of deep connection with oneself and one’s body — regardless of the stage of life a person is in. However, the reality is that for many people, sexuality is a source of fear, frustration, shame, pain, or humiliation. These feelings often result from experiences of sexual abuse, molestation, or rape during childhood; sexual harassment or violence in adulthood; sanctions or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity; ridicule or bullying about the body or body parts; and more. The consequences frequently manifest as problems in self-perception, self-relation, and romantic relationships.

Difficulties in Intimacy and Sexual Life
These experiences can lead to self-loathing, body dissatisfaction, confusion, frustration, lack of fulfilment, conscious or unconscious relational patterns, and even physical illness—causing profound suffering. Many people dislike parts of their bodies or their entire body, leading to extreme dieting, surgery, compulsive exercise, or neglect. Others lack awareness of or vocabulary for the body’s signals, such as needs, preferences, sensations, and emotions. Some people have entirely disconnected from their bodies—especially from areas directly related to sexuality, such as the pelvis and genitals—which are often "frozen".

It is no coincidence that many women today struggle to conceive or give birth naturally, with high rates of caesarean deliveries linked to pelvic freezing from sexual trauma. Even in the absence of trauma, toxic shame around the pelvic region and genitals can lead to numbness and disconnection. Many people also feel lost in their understanding of intimacy, often entering relationships not for love, connection, or shared joy, but for reasons rooted in fear, insecurity, control, or power dynamics.

The result is a widespread experience of mechanical, frustrating, and unfulfilling sex lives—if any at all.

The Deep Impulse for Connection
Beneath all the toxicity, pain, and trauma—no matter how overwhelming—there exists a deep and persistent life impulse: the innate desire for connection, intimacy, and closeness. A fulfilling sexual life stems from a sense of belonging between partners, mutual validation, shared interests and pleasures, respect for bodily boundaries (one’s own and the partner’s), and a capacity to enjoy and give pleasure through touch.

Aims and Content of the Subject
This course aims to prepare students to identify and effectively address the core issues that disrupt sexual function and poison sexual experience. It debunks harmful myths about sexuality and sex, and explores topics that contribute to a satisfying and healthy sexual life:

• What enhances and what inhibits sexual desire?  
• How do external circumstances (e.g. relationship dynamics, setting, life context) and psychophysical states (e.g. emotions, mood, stress, body image, attitudes towards sex) influence sexuality?  
• What is sexual arousal beyond physiology? What is the interplay between expectation, attraction, and desire—three psychological processes with distinct neurological bases? Why is mismatched arousal important to understand?  
• What is and what isn’t sexual pleasure?

Approaches and Methods
This subject is based on the professional integration of theoretical models, working principles, and tools drawn from:

• Therapy of the Five Movements (a Neo-Reichian analytic body psychotherapy method)
• Somatic Sexuality Healing (a body-oriented approach to healing sexual trauma and disconnection from the body and sexual experience)  
• Somatic Experiencing (a neurophysiological trauma-healing method)  
• NeuroAffective Touch (a psychotherapeutic method for treating early developmental trauma through touch)  
• Research in the fields of sexology and trauma-informed body psychotherapy  

The course explores the biological, psychological, and social processes underpinning sexual behaviour in depth. A major focus is on working with couples who struggle with mismatched or low libido, divergent sexual preferences (including kink, BDSM, or pornography addiction), and other relational challenges, such as unmanaged daily stress, lack of prioritisation of intimacy, or ageing. Topics also include vaginismus, chronic pelvic pain, sexual dysfunction in both men and women, and infertility—along with strategies for therapeutic intervention.

Principles for Working with Sexual Trauma
The curriculum also covers principles and strategies for working with sexual trauma in its more obvious and brutal forms, as well as in subtle and difficult-to-detect manifestations. The aim is to support both women and men who have survived sexual trauma to overcome its effects in the present.

This includes approaches and interventions for working through fear, shame, and defences such as dissociation and projection, whether the abuse is in the past or ongoing. The course provides tools to foster recovery and integration, empower the client, and restore trust in one's body, pleasure, and capacity for safe and satisfying connection.