Dalychia Saah is a professor, writer, public speaker, and the co-founder of Afrosexology. She joined us with Afrosexology co-founder, Rafaella Fiallo, at Sessions Live 2019 to talk about "Less Oppression, More Orgasms," which was about eroticism being a tool for healing. 

Take her Erotic Evaluation inspired by Audre Lorde's Uses of the Erotic. To find out more about Dalychia and Rafaella's work and upcoming projects and events, visit www.afrosexology.com.

I’ve always been drawn to texture. I love the way new carpet feels under my feet, how silk and sheer fabrics feel on my body, how sand feels in my hands. I was often that child in the store running my hands across aisles to feel any and everything. And like most children, my wandering hands were often times met with a light hand slap followed by the directive to not touch. Eventually I learned to stop reaching out and touching things I felt drawn to, by internally slapping my own hand...

Rafaella Fiallo, MSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Sexuality Educator in St. Louis, MO who joined us with Afrosexology co-founder, Dalychia Saah, at Sessions Live 2019 to talk about "Less Oppression, More Orgasms," which was about eroticism being a tool for healing. This article originally appeared at www.healingxchg.com.

To find out more about Rafaella and Dalychia's work and upcoming projects and events, visit www.afrosexology.com.

Your erotic self is yearning to be explored and all you need is this simple formula.

Alexandra Solomon, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Family Institute and faculty at Northwestern University who joined us at Sessions Live 2019 to provide a response to the keynote, "Finding the Erotic Self." She has also appeared on the Sessions Platform, where she and Esther address the question of, Do the Young Love Differently Than the Old(er)? 

To find out more about Alexandra's work and upcoming projects and events, visit www.dralexandrasolomon.com.  

Our intimate relationships are a powerful crucible for growth and healing if we are committed to practicing relational self-awareness. Relational self-awareness is an ongoing curious and compassionate relationship with ourselves that becomes the foundation for a thriving intimate partnership. In my work as a relationship educator and couples therapist, what has become abundantly clear to me is that our relational self-awareness is incomplete unless it includes sexual...

Dr. Holly Richmond is a Somatic Psychologist, Certified Sex Therapist (CST), and Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) who joined us at Sessions Live 2019 to talk about "Eros Resurrected", which was about reframing trauma and moving beyond recovery.

To find out more about Holly's work and upcoming projects and events, visit www.drhollyrichmond.com.  

I was captivated by the idea of a full-day conference about Finding Eros from the moment Esther and her team asked me to participate. It is essential that we take eroticism out of the closed container of sexuality, and apply concepts of vitality, vivacity and lifeforce to all areas of our lives and our clients’ lives. It wasn’t until I took a moment to reflect more deeply that I realized there have been many moments when I’ve done this for myself, and really, this is what I’m most often doing with clients. I don’t teach them to have better sex or better...

Sara Nasserzadeh, PhD DipPST CSC, is a social psychologist, researcher and clinician who joined us at Sessions Live 2019 to walk us through a "Sexual Attitude Reassessment-A Taster", which helps promote participants’ awareness of their attitudes and values related to sexuality, and to assist them in understanding how these attitudes and values affect them professionally and personally. She has also appeared on the Sessions Platform, where she and Esther talk about Cultural Proficiency in Therapy.

To find out more about Sara's work and upcoming projects and events, visit www.sara-nasserzadeh.com.  

There are different styles of love that were initially introduced by the Greek and later on expanded on by others. In our society, there is a huge emphasis on Eros or erotic and sexual love without much consideration of the self that needs to experience and express this type of love.

At Sessions Live, in our SAR-Taster experience, we focused on Philautia...

Ian Kerner, Ph.D., LMFT is a psychotherapist and sexuality counselor who joined us at Sessions Live 2019 to talk about "Emboldening the Erotic Imagination", which was about how to overcome challenges in creating an erotic atmosphere and merging relational and recreational sex. He has also appeared on the Sessions Platform, where he and Esther address the question - how important is sex anyway? 

To find out more about Ian's work and upcoming projects and events, visit www.iankerner.com.  

It was a blast to participate in Sessions Live. Just a day earlier, I was in the ER with a kidney stone, and I was texting Nick and Esther that they might have to go ahead without me. I think some of my energy and enthusiasm on the day came from the exhilarating feeling of escaping an inferno of pain and just being alive. It was wonderful to be part of such an energized community. To spend a day digging into the topic of Eros and accessing the topic...

Esther Perel is a psychotherapist and host and founder of Sessions and Sessions Live. Her keynote was titled "Finding the Erotic Self: A Journey for Practitioners." 

To learn more from Esther and become part of her online community, visit www.sessions.estherperel.com.  

I still feel the energy from Sessions Live 2019. Through the thought-provoking presentations, the conversations and the experiential activities, we established the importance of cultivating aliveness as we generate our own erotic energy to stay vibrant and vital as we work to infuse our clients with the same feeling.

Sessions Live is a salon that addresses the pertinent issues of relationships today and an incubator for new ideas. True to the nature of this event, I felt inspired by the new ideas and discussions shared in the room and challenged to go deeper.

I was most taken by the reclamation around our sexuality. We must not only deal with the oppressive forces and trauma but actually...