Summit: Pleasure Activism & Embodied Intimacy

Session 1 — When Animals Are Safe, They Play: Exploring the Non-Narrative Bases for Intimacy
Buster Rådvik · 75-minute experiential session

By consciously taking a "safe distance" from others, we can enjoy exploring our longing for connection. Once we trust that we're free to move in and out of connection, the co-creative nature of embodied intimacy can arise. A playful exploration of the "active defense" of flight — leave knowing what a somatic sense of safety feels like in the presence of another.

Session 2 — Pleasure Can Change the World: Life-Giving Activism
Kai Cheng Thom · 75-minute experiential session

How do we make social change movements joyful, sustainable, and soul-nurturing? Certified Somatic Sex Educator and Transformational Embodiment Coach Kai Cheng Thom dives into frameworks and practices that integrate activism, collective healing, and embodied joy. Leave with two personal somatic practices and two facilitation techniques for pleasure activism.

Session 3 — How to Get Out of the Relationship Loop of Doom
Brian Yang · 75-minute experiential session

Explore the stages and cycles every relationship moves through, how recurring challenges and pains often trace back to childhood trauma, and how to step out of the loop of doom for good.

Session 4 — Creating Conscious Love
Sheleana Aiyana · 75-minute experiential session

Discover conscious relationship tools to experience deeper intimacy, understanding, and connection — with yourself and with your partner.

Session 5 — The Science of the Art of Breathing: Keys to the Pleasures of Love, Sex, and Healing Trauma
Dr. Stella Resnick · 75-minute experiential session

Withheld breath withholds pleasure — a sign of trapped energy and trauma. Dr. Stella Resnick presents the evidence connecting trauma, withheld breath, and pleasure-resistance, and guides experiential exercises for locating where breath is held in the body, expanding tight muscles, and restoring natural pleasure. Especially informative for emotional, physical, relational, and sexual pain.

Experience a somatic sense of safety in the presence of another

Move freely between connection and "safe distance" as a path to intimacy

Use pleasure as a framework for sustainable, joyful activism

Identify the relational cycles and childhood roots of relationship pain

Apply tools to escape the "relationship loop of doom"

Cultivate conscious love through embodied relational practice

Understand the link between withheld breath, trauma, and pleasure-resistance

Use breath to release trauma and restore natural pleasure

Practice embodied consent, conscious touch, and open-hearted communication