KIMBERLY ANN JOHNSON on Pleasure as Pathway /331

Photo by Jeff McGraw of a pair of red foxes playfully biting in a grass meadow.

Feeling into the state of our nervous systems and our relationships with each other and ourselves, this episode offers a powerful perspective on the importance of recognizing and tending to how life feels. Together, Ayana and this week’s guest Kimberly Ann Johnson discuss the depths of pleasure and the dimensions of healing. Kimberly brings deep knowledge regarding reproductive and sexual health, especially paying attention to the often untended somatic nature of sexual boundary repair and the complicated nature of what we bring into sexual relationships. 

Of course, sitting with grief and hardship is vital, but we must also see pleasure as valuable as we seek to grasp the holistic nature of life. In centering pleasure, Kimberly opens up pathways to authentic and grounded connection. How might we go beyond “default” modes of sex, conditionings around sex and power, and relationship dynamics that do not reflect the wholeness of our personhood? 

This conversation is steeped in trust and intimacy. Kimberly’s focus and understanding offers a guide to the ways we might come to handle and regulate our own nervous systems in order to act in alignment with our desires, rather than with the prescribed roles we have been put into through societal conditioning.

“Sexuality is much larger than a sex act. It’s how we interact with nature around us– not what we’re getting from it, but how we’re in contact with it. ”

— Kimberly Ann Johnson / Episode 331

Photo of Kimberly Ann Johnaon

Kimberly Ann Johnson is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, yoga teacher, postpartum advocate, and single mom. Working hands-on in integrative women’s health and trauma recovery for more than a decade, she helps women heal from birth injuries, gynecological surgeries, and sexual boundary violations. Kimberly is the author of the Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It for Good, as well as the early mothering classic The Fourth Trimester, and is the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast.

♫ The music featured in this episode is "Leaving Morning" by Lake Mary & Talk West, "Wash The Pain Away" and "Shelter" by Katie Gray.

Episode References

Sexual Authenticity by Kimberly Ann Johnson 

Sex Work Is Soul Work by Kimberly Ann Johnson 

A Hand in the Dark - Orphan Wisdom

Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It for Good by Kimberly Ann Johnson

Reckoning by Stephen Jenkinson and Kimberly Ann Johnson

Recommendations

All of Kimberly’s books are incredibly practical guides to deepen this work. Kimberly offers very accessible shorter online courses (for example: MotherCircle and Activate Your Inner Jaguar) that will help introduce people to the practice of this work.

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