Bodyful Episode #09: Dr. Rachel Allyn Reminds Us that Pleasure is Ours to Claim

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by Valerie Martin

Pleasure is not just a sex-positive buzzword or a euphoric state to chase sometimes— it is essential to our humanity. When we prioritize pleasure, we connect back to the truest version of ourselves.

In this conversation with Dr. Rachel Allyn, holistic clinical psychologist and author of the recently released book. The Pleasure Is All Yours, we chat the power and importance of pleasure, WTF “bodyfulness” really means, and why it matters.

Pleasure is most often associated with sex— and while sex is important, pleasure is SO much more than just that. It’s one of the fundamental aspects of being fully alive in the time we are given in these beautiful, messy, awkward, miraculous flesh suits.

The full spectrum of life includes the capacity for both tremendous pain AND tremendous pleasure— and learning how to make space for both to coexist is a necessary piece of feeling the truth of our own aliveness, instead of always feeling removed from our experience or seeking to fill the good ole Bottomless Pit of Despair. While the experience of pleasure may seem fleeting, cultivating moments of pleasure can compound into deeper, lasting states of joy and contentment.

For many of us, we’ve spent so much time being conditioned into how we’re “supposed” to think, feel, and act that we’ve forgotten what it feels like to trust the knowing of our own body. This leaves us feeling a disconnect, both with ourselves and with others.

Through Dr. Allyn’s bodyfulness framework that she shares in her book (this conversation is just a teaser!), readers can learn to reconnect to their bodies, their hearts, and release internalized shame and conditioning.

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Dr. Rachel Allyn (she/her)

Rachel Allyn, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified yoga instructor, public speaker, and relationship columnist. She is the founder of YogaPsych, PLLC, a psychotherapy practice for adults that blends Western medicine with Eastern philosophy, and connects the mind with the body. She has been in private practice for almost fifteen years working with individuals and couples dealing with sexuality, intimacy, and relationship problems as well as trauma, depression, anxiety, and loss. She’s been quoted in books and magazines including Yoga Journal, Women’s Health, Outside, Good Housekeeping, and Cosmopolitan.

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Bodyful Episode #07: Tara Galeano on Women Rediscovering Their Bodies

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by Valerie Martin

The more I learn in my clinical sexology doctoral program, the more I’m blown away by the field of sexology in general and the highly skilled sex therapists, coaches, and educators like this episode’s guest, Tara Galeano.

Tara got into sex therapy initially because her therapy clients were walking to talk about their sexual challenges and longings, so she committed to deepening her knowledge and expertise to be able to better support them. Later in her career, she had an awakening of her own, in which she recognized just how much she had been falling into the cultural trap of minimizing her needs and desires.

In Tara’s case, that reckoning coincided with the end of her 25 year marriage (due to layered issues that you’ll hear about in the interview)— and the beginning of a deeper commitment to herself and the fulfillment of her needs, desires, and pleasure in ALL capacities.

Tara also developed a specialty in working with women in treatment for cancer, which led to the creation of her book, Rediscovering My Body— first written for women with cancer, and then revised and re-released for ALL women longing to reconnect with their sexuality. It’s in a beautiful interactive journaling/coloring format with guided exercises— I got a copy since we initially recorded our conversation, and have started working through it. It will definitely be one I recommend to many of my clients!

As I mention in the intro of this episode, we had a technical glitch where we lost the last 15 minutes of Tara’s side of the conversation— so the episode ends more abruptly than we intended, but there’s still a lot of goodness in this one. I hope you enjoy it!

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Tara Galeano (she/her)

Tara is the founder of Rediscovering My Body and Boulder Sex Therapy, and is an author, speaker, retreat host, and  sexual empowerment coach. She has worked with women for over two decades to get their sexy back. Tara knows that there is pleasure in the body, beyond our wildest dreams, and every woman can access it. In “Rediscovering My Body”, she teaches women how to show up for pleasure in their lives. Tara rediscovered her own body after leaving her twenty-five-year marriage. Realizing that she had given so much of herself away, she knew that she needed to come back to the inherent wisdom of the body. Now Tara has embodied this path and is moving forward to share this with women everywhere with her book, her online courses, and community, and her retreats. She lives in San Francisco with her soul sister and is learning how to live more fully in her nomadic heart.

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Bodyful Episode #01: Melissa Walker on Whole-Body Sex & Reclaiming the Language of the Body

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Bodyful is my 5th podcast to produce, and I’ve never been this excited or proud to share anything I’ve created.

Already, just with this first interview and the future guests I have lined up so far, I know this is going to be something really special.

When I was recently scouring through Amazon’s catalog of somatic psychotherapy books, I came across a recent release called Whole Body Sex and was immediately intrigued. Even just reading the book’s description, I knew I had to speak with author (and Colorado-based therapist) Melissa Walker for this podcast.

In this lively, deep conversation, Melissa shares with us about the model she created (Somatic Concentric Sex Therapy), the importance of expanding our definition of erotic, and what it looks like to approach embodiment work from an inclusive, liberation-oriented perspective.

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Melissa Walker

Melissa is a somatic sex and relationtionship therapist, author, educator, and author of Whole-Body Sex: Somatic Sex Therapy and the Lost Language of the Erotic Body. She offers somatic counseling for individuals, couples, and conscious nonmonogamous relationships, as well as online workshops for those wanting to refine skills of relational and erotic embodiment. Melissa facilitates integrous learning experiences about bodyful eroticism and intimacy as a source of increased vitality, inspiring relationships, and healing of the whole self. Fundamentally, these offerings support allyship with sexuality as a transformative force within us all. 

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