The Sexual Wellness Sessions

Understanding The Impact Of Birth Trauma With Dr Rebecca Moore

Research shows at least 1 in 3 women find some aspect of their birth traumatic. Someone's birthing experience can be influenced by an almost unlimited number of factors both contextual and personal, which can make all the difference to how someone feels about their childbirth experience.  Birth trauma can be considered to be a unique trauma experience for various reasons as Dr Rebecca Moore will explore in this episode, and in 2014 birth trauma was recognised in the NICE guidelines.

Many of those affected by birth trauma, describe struggling to know where to turn for support or how to even start a conversation, which can make them feel even more isolated in their experience and add to the symptoms and emotions that they are going through. In this episode Dr Rebecca Moore talks through how we can better understand the impact of a traumatic pregnancy or birth; both for those going through it, partners and loved ones; and how we can start to change the conversation and access to information for the better.

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Dr Rebecca Moore is a Perinatal Psychiatrist with over twenty years experience dealing with infertility, pregnancy loss, anxiety, depression, OCD and trauma. After developing a particular interest in birth trauma, she founded the annual Birth Trauma Conference and Make Birth Better.

Instagram - @BirthBetter @Drrebeccamoore 

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Discussing The Brain, Sex And Pleasure With Dr Nan Wise

Sex, pleasure and orgasm are influenced by numerous parts of our lives - biological, social and psychological - but what happens in our brain when we fantasise, experience desire or orgasm? And how do experiences like stress and anxiety interrupt our sex lives on a brain and body level? Neuroscientist, author and researcher Dr Nan Wise unpacks what she has seen in her research using fMRI brain scans, and goes onto explain how the different parts of our lives can work with and against each other to boost or hinder sexual experiences, and what we can to do help. She talks about the role that pleasure plays across our lives, and discusses how our ability to experience healthy pleasures--those that feel good and are good for us-- are not a luxury, but a necessity for overall well-being.

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Dr. Nan Wise is a certified sex therapist, certified relationship specialist, neuroscience researcher, and author of Amazon best seller Why Good Sex Matters: Understanding the Neuroscience of Pleasure for a Smarter, Happier, and More Purpose-Filled Life. Driven by the desire to understand how the brain operates to create moods and behaviours, she returned to academia and completed her Ph.D. in 2014. Her dissertation work, Genital stimulation, imagery, and orgasm in women: an fMRI analysis, resulted in three published studies. Her research has addressed gaps in the scientific literature regarding the neural basis of human sexuality, and as a result, garnered international attention. 

Follow Dr Nan on Instagram at @AskDoctorNan and read her Glamour column Ask Dr. Nan here 

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Unravelling Attachment Styles, Sex and Intimacy With Dr Stan Tatkin

Attachment theory is a commonly discussed psychological and relational theory that is rooted in how we develop attachments in early childhood, and continue them throughout our lives, adulthood and couple relationships. There are thousands of books written on the topic of how we can understand relationships, be better in relationships and choose the right partner - but Dr Stan Tatkin would argue that as humans we are all difficult and therefore difficult partners; which is why relationships are some of the hardest work that we'll do in our lives. 1.9 Million people have watched his Ted Talk Relationships Are Hard, But Why? And in this episode he explains what's going on for us in terms of our attachment styles, neuroscience and social worlds and how these shape our sex lives and relationships.

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Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT Clinician, author, researcher, PACT developer, and co-founder of the PACT Institute. Dr. Tatkin is an assistant clinical professor at UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine. He maintains a private practice in Southern California and leads PACT programs in the US and internationally. He is the author We Do, Wired for Love, Your Brain on Love, Relationship Rx, Wired for Dating, What Every Therapist Ought to Know, and co-author of Love and War in Intimate Relationships, and the upcoming, In Each Other’s Care.

Watch Stan's Ted Talk Here

Follow Stan on Instagram at @DrStanTatkin

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Navigating Sex With A Spinal Cord Injury With Ed & Lois Jackson

Adapting your life after an accident or illness is something that many individuals and couples have to go through, but many report sex and intimacy being the part of their lives that they feel least resourced to know how to manage with the big changes that have taken place for them. Knowing where to start, how to talk about it or even how to understand how sex might be affected post injury can feel like a very challenging conversation to have with a medical professional, let alone a partner.

 

Ed & Lois Jackson are a couple who have been through this first hand, when in their twenties their lives changed overnight when Ed suffered a life changing Spinal Cord Injury and was told he may never walk again. Fast forward a year and Ed was climbing Mount Snowdon, and the couple later founded charity Millimetres2Mountains to help those who have been through life changing illness or injury to face new challenges and re-define their own limitations. A big part of this conversation is about how an injury like this impacted them both as individuals and as a couple, both in terms of their relationship but also sex and intimacy. Ed has Brown Séquard Syndrome meaning that he has paralysis on one side of his body and loss of sensation on the other which means that they have had to be creative and adaptive when it comes to sex, and they share how learning how to communicate, laugh and be curious as a couple have been hugely important parts of the process.

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Ed Jackson's professional rugby career got cut short when he dived into the shallow end of a swimming pool in 2017 sustaining a spinal cord injury at C6/C7. Life changed on a sixpence for both him and his wife Lois. A lot of things were taken away, including Ed's, identity, his bladder and bowel performance and his sexual function. Instead of focusing on what Ed couldn't do they directed all their energy into the things he could. This has led him to climbing mountains, public speaking and the creation of their own charity – The Millimetres 2 Mountains Foundation which uses the outdoors to support other people who have gone through trauma. Alongside co-founding the charity Lois also works as a life coach, a part of which is offering support for their beneficiaries. 

Follow Millimetres2Mountains on Instagram at @Millimetres2Mountains and learn more about them at https://www.millimetres2mountains.org/

Follow Lois on Instagram at @LoisJackson8

Follow Ed on Instagram at @EdJackson8

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Defining Porn Literacy With Avril Louise Clarke

With the changes the world has seen as a result of the internet, and latterly the smartphone with the debut of the iPhone in 2007; there has never been more availability of information and content online at the click of a button. This has completely changed the way in which so many people access pornography and has reduced barriers to who can access it and when.

 

With this ever-growing online sex culture, porn literacy can offer a way of helping people to think critically, and build awareness and knowledge around the portrayal of sex that they see online. This can help them to feel informed, and to close the comparison and expectation gap between the sex experienced in pornography and that they are having in real life. Porn literacy, which has developed from a media literacy model, can be considered to be an educational tool which also helps to move people away from leaning on pornography as a form of sex education, which is something that it was never designed to be.  Ethical pornographers Erika Lust Films created The Porn Conversation to help provide families and educators with free and accessible tools to teach and talk to the younger generations about sex and pornography so that they can feel educated, informed and more able to think critically about sexual content when they come across it.

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Avril Louise Clarke is a clinical sexologist and brand manager of the Erika Lust non-profit project, The Porn Conversation, which provides comprehensive sex education tools for families and educators to educate young people at home and in school – beginning with the topic of porn literacy. Taking on the role acting as a liaison between production and performers, she is also an in-house sexologist and intimacy coordinator on the set of Erika Lust Films.

Follow Avril on Instagram at @sexologygirl

Learn more about The P Conversation at https://thepconversation.org/

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Becoming Parents With Victoria Shalet

The transition to parenthood for a couple is one that consists of huge highs and plenty of challenges, as we navigate the shift of going from couple to family, and all that comes with that. Parenting can bring intense joy and love coupled with demands on our emotions, time, availability and energy as we nurture our children through different stages of their development, whilst trying to balance our own and our partners needs alongside it all. The Gottman's  studied new parents in a longitudinal study and found that 67% of couples experienced a decline in relationship satisfaction in the first three years of their baby’s life, and in this episode Relational Life Therapist Victoria Shalet discusses what's going on for couples and relationships during these parenting years, and what we can do to care for ourselves and our relationships.

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Victoria Shalet MBACP is a Psychotherapist and Certified Relational Life Therapist. She worked as an actor for over twenty years before re-training to be a Humanistic Psychotherapist. After a number of years working with individuals and couples, she was inspired to deepen her training in the US with renowned couple’s therapist Terry Real, and later went on to train with Trauma expert Gabor Maté in his Compassionate Inquiry programme.

Alongside her colleague Debbie Isaacs she is the co-creator of “The Couples Therapists” creating content on social media to help couples, and she is the founder of Oxford House Therapy – a therapy practice for different types of therapy in London.

Follow Victoria On Instagram At @spaceinmetherapy and @thecouplestherapists

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Exhibiting Body Diversity With Lydia Reeves

Many of us lack confidence in our bodies, and have anxieties or worries about how our body might look, especially when comparing ourselves to others. These anxieties can extend to our genitals with many struggling to accept their body which can interfere with desire, arousal and sexual functioning as well as self-esteem and sexual self confidence. Lydia Reeves is a female body casting artist who went through this herself as she struggled with how her vulva looked. This lead to her booking herself in for labiaplasty surgery aged 18, which she then ended up cancelling a year later.

 

Now Lydia is a body casting artist and an author, with her platform being focused on body diversity and acceptance helping people to learn how to celebrate not only their bodies, but accept themselves as a whole. Lydia has cast thousands of bodies, including thousands of vulva casts which aim to help people to break away from negative thinking about their bodies, and celebrate the difference in us all. 

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Lydia Reeves is a Brighton-based female body casting artist, who after body casting thousands of vulvas and hearing about the relationships that people had with their bodies, put 200 of these vulva casts into a book alongside these intimate stories. Lydia's work celebrates body diversity and acceptance showing that no two bodies, and no two vulvas are the same. She runs body casting sessions from her studio in Brighton, running casting sessions for breasts, vulvas, bums, pregnant bodies, chests and much more.

Follow Lydia On Instagram At @lydiareeves_artist and find out more about her book My Vulva And I

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Explaining Painful Sex With Dr Aziza Sesay

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists nearly 3/4 women will experience pain during intercourse at some point during their lives, and yet despite this many struggle to get answers to why they are experiencing this type of pain.

 

There are multiple reasons that someone may be experiencing pain in their genitals and pelvic area. It can occur at different points during their menstrual cycle, can be a more constant pain, or it can be more acute at certain times for example during or after sex. Commonly associated conditions with pain during sex are endometriosis, vulvodynia, vaginismus, menopause, and skin conditions such as lichen sclerosus, and pain can be a side effect of some medications and treatments; but there are multiple other conditions and reasons that someone can find sex painful.

 

Many people also describe finding it hard to know where to go to help with these symptoms, or even how to describe them and so in this episode Dr Aziza Sesay, an NHS GP with a specialist interest in women's health discusses how we can get to know our own bodies and importantly our own normal, how to advocate to ourselves and what symptoms to make sure that we don't ignore.

 

Disclaimer - This podcast episode contains general health awareness information, and is not to be used for personal medical advice. If listeners have concerns about their health arising from this conversation, they should please speak to their doctor or a medical professional.

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Dr Aziza Sesay is an NHS GP, GP educator, Honorary Senior Clinical lecturer, speaker and health content creator. Dr Sesay is the creative director of Black Female Doctors UK organisation and is an Ambassador for The Eve Appeal

Follow Dr Aziza Sesay On Instagram At @TalkswithDrSesay

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This episode was brought to you by Ferly, the sexual wellness app empowering women and couples to overcome sexual challenges affecting their relationships. To date they’ve helped over half a million women and couples struggling with things like low libido, inability to orgasm, low body confidence and/or pain during sex. Ferly’s achieved this by guiding people through science-based tools and techniques that help them feel better in their bodies and their beds.

The app is available on IOS and Android.

Download it for free today and start your journey to a healthier, more confident and more pleasurable life. I have the privilege of working with Ferly as their resident advisor and I truly believe that the app has the ability to be transformative for female sexual wellness.

Find out more about Ferly at https://weareferly.com/

Follow Ferly On Instagram At @theferlymethod

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Interviewing Queer Icons With Jack Guinness

In this episode Jack Guinness describes how The Queer Bible is the book that the younger him needed and wished for. Growing up in Britain under Section 28 meant that generations of LGBTQI+ people grew up without seeing themselves or people like them in books, publications or media. This left so many feeling isolated in their feelings and experiences which Jack describes as a big part of his own life. He talks about how in telling the stories of many queer icons, written by and contributed to by so many other queer figures puts these stories out in the world where they belong, helping many to connect to their history. He describes The Queer Bible as a love letter to the LGBTQI+ community and its allies.

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Jack Guinness is the founder and editor of The Queer Bible,  Contributing Editor at GQ Magazine and is a British model, writer and presenter. The Queer Bible is a collection of essays which are a celebration of shared LGBTQ+ history and queer icons.

Follow Jack On Instagram At @JackGuinness 

Follow The Queer Bible On Instagram @QueerBible and find out more at https://www.queerbible.com/

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy

Sexfluencing With Scotty Unfamous

The sexual wellness industry is booming with new products, platforms and apps joining the market all the time. When this is in combination with the huge role that social media and the internet plays in our lives, we can see that influencers have the potential to play a big role in starting conversations, raising awareness and breaking down taboos. Someone who has harnessed this is Shakira Scott, known as Scotty who Trademarked the term Sexfluencer™ to combine her sex education work with brand partnerships, being an advocate, and helping people to learn more about how to boost their sexual wellness and pleasure. Scotty talks about the importance of representation and how she wanted to be what she couldn't see when it came to these conversations - in a way providing what she felt was so missing for her. In this conversation we talk about what being a Sexfluencer™ is, how it works for her as a job and also some of the biggest challenges and misconceptions that she comes up against both in person and online.  

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Shakira 'Scotty Unfamous' Scott is a sex educator, Sexfluencer and multi award-winning erotic and romance author. For the last six years she's been helping people to unlearn shame, build confidence and embrace their desires with her 'How To Live Your Best Heaux Life' workshops.

Follow Scotty On Instagram At @ScottyUnfamous and TikTok @scottyunfamous_ and find out more about her work at https://shakirascott.com/

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

 

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy