The Sexual Wellness Sessions

Navigating Modern Love with Todd Baratz

Many of the ways in which we meet, date and maintain love, sex and intimacy have changed across generations; but what happens when these adaptations come up to clash with our historical and ingrained beliefs and expectations of relationships?

Has how we love changed, or has the context around love moved on which has shaped our expectations and experiences of intimacy in new ways?

In this episode, author of How To Love Someone Without Losing Your Mind Todd Baratz talks about how we are ‘pursuing a marketed version of love’. We discuss exactly what he means by that, and the ways in which love, and what we want from love, and how we 'do' love have changed in the modern world. 

Todd Baratz is a renowned psychotherapist and sex therapist who has worked with thousands of people who are navigating their challenges with love and relationships, and he brings such interesting perspective to one of the topics which continues to be one of the most common but complex human experiences - love. 

Follow Todd on Instagram at @YourDiagnonsense 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Becoming A Young Widow With Lotte Bowser

Whilst it can be considered that loss is the impossible-to-avoid flipside of love, becoming a widow at age 30 defies all predictions of what building a life with someone looks like. But, this was what happened to my guest Lotte Bowser, whose partner Ben died age 36 in the midst of their plans for making a future together.

This conversation digs deep into Lotte's experience of the rollercoaster of Ben's illness, treatment and death, and how dramatically differently their lives changed direction at a time when everything was about looking forward to what they had to come. Lotte shares so many insights into our ideas about the landscape of loss and how we so often pathologise and have fixed ideas about grief, and also how she started finding and navigating love again at a time when she felt like she needed to get to know herself again too. 

Lotte Bowser is a writer, host of the Lemonade podcast and author of the forthcoming Bittersweet: a Story of Love and Loss 

Follow Lotte on Instagram at @LotteBowser

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

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

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Rethinking Parenthood And Sex Lives With Dr Karen Gurney

“Why does sex make babies, and babies spell erotic disaster in couples?” ~ Esther Perel, The Secret To Desire In A Long Term Relationship, Ted Talk.

Dr Karen Gurney describes becoming parents as a 'relationship culture shock' and argues that it's unrealistic for us to expect our sex lives and intimacy to be unaffected by the competing priorities and mental load of parenthood. In this conversation we deep dive into how parents can approach their sex lives changing not as a parenthood vs sex battle, but as an opportunity to intentionally pay attention to desire, even when you aren't having sex.

As the first return guest to The Sexual Wellness Sessions, Karen offers advice from her new book How Not To Let Having Kids Ruin Your Sex Life and boosts our understanding of desire and how it functions, by sharing wisdom from her best seller Mind The Gap : The Truth About Desire And How To Futureproof Your Sex Life . She is one of the nation's favourite Psychosexual Therapists and Clinical Psychologists, whose mission is to translate sex science and therapy into everyday conversations and knowledge.

Follow Dr Karen Gurney on Instagram at @TheSexDoctor

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Reaching For Sexual Fulfilment With Casey Tanner

If sex is a skill to be learnt then can sexual fulfilment ever be really achieved, or is it something that changes with us throughout our lives?

Sex-misinformation is rife, and many of us are set up by our sexual expectations which means that we and our partners will inevitably fail or struggle in some way to achieve these perfect and unrealistic versions of sex. Casey Tanner is a therapist who talks about how these ideas of failing come from a version of sex which is all about productivity and achieving, rather than focusing on feeling it all. Appropriately this is the title of Casey's newest book which seeks to fill in so many of the gaps that we have in our sexual education, and in this conversation we unpack this goal-orientated model of sex that so many of us subscribe to, and discuss how we can get to a place of improved sexual satisfaction and fulfilment and how we can build a more secure relationship with our sexuality.

Casey Tanner is an author, certified sex therapist, and prominent voice in the field of millennial and Gen Z sexuality.  They are the author of Feel It All :A Therapist's Guide to Reimagining Your Relationship with Sex, and founder of The Expansive Group, a therapy practice which advocates for an expansive, anti-oppressive approach to sexuality, gender, and relationships.

Follow Casey Tanner on Instagram at @QueerSexTherapy

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Opening Up Relationships With Niki D

Relationships come in many different shapes, sizes and configurations and every relationship model comes with its own set of benefits, challenges and complexities. When it comes to opening up relationships it can be hard to know where to start, how to talk about it and how to manage the emotions and logistics that accompany a new relationship structure.

In this episode I interview Niki D, who is a relationship therapist with over 30 years experience who specialises in working with non-monogamous relationships helping people to explore relationship challenges and conflicts and where those may be coming from, and helping those that want to, to explore what opening up their relationship may look like, alongside working with those who are already in open relationships. 

Alongside being a therapist for over thirty years, Niki D runs the UK's first in-depth open and polyamorous relationship therapy training, has been a tutor and visiting lecturer at three psychotherapy courses for over 20 years, and has created the Seven Step Model for Co-creating an open relationship alongside publishing multiple academic chapters on sexual and relationship diversity.

Follow Niki D on Instagram at @OpeningUpCPD

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Answering The Most Asked Sex Questions With Charlene Douglas

When it comes to sex and intimacy, one guarantee is that everyone has questions - it's impossible for any single person to know everything there is to know about sex and relationships. The lack of normalising conversation around the topic of sex leaves so many people feeling like they don't know how to ask or where to go to get their questions answered, but the truth is that there is no one-size-fits-all answer and no magic formula - but there are ingredients to great sex.

So to get some of these most asked questions answered and find out what the ingredients are, I invited Sex Therapist and Intimacy Coach Charlene Douglas onto the podcast to discuss how we can make intimacy last, communicate better and improve intimacy and sex, whatever stage of our lives and relationships we're at. 

Charlene Douglas alongside her therapy work is also the author of Come Closer Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask a Sex and Relationship Therapist, and is one of the expert's on E4’s Married at First Sight UK and Channel 4's award winning series Jon and Lucy's Odd Couples, as well as The Sex Clinic.

Follow Charlene on Instagram at @CharleneDouglasOfficial

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Understanding MRKH With Ally Hensley and Ellamae Fullalove

There is a real lack of conversation around many medical conditions, and especially those which are not immediately visible, and MRKH falls into this category. Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome is a congenital condition which is characterised by the vagina and uterus being underdeveloped or absent, alongside other symptoms. As there are no physically outwards signs until someone reaches puberty and doesn't start their period, this leaves many discovering that they have the condition and everything that comes with it, typically around ages 16-18.

There are so many factors that can impact someone with the condition from being unable to carry a pregnancy, to uncomfortable, painful and sometimes impossible penetrative sex; through to the psychological influence, thoughts and shaping of identity and self-esteem, and the way that it can potentially shape relationships.

My brilliant guests for this conversation are both women with MRKH and huge advocates and conversation starters, and they bring so much of themselves to this episode as well as so much information about how we can get educated about a condition that impacts so many, but is still rarely heard of. 

Ally Hensley is an author, speaker and global ambassador for women's health. Born with MRKH syndrome, she advocates for awareness and support of this condition. Ally co-founded MRKH Australia and Global MRKH, and serves on the board of UK's MRKH Connect. Her podcast, Stigma Shakers, tackles taboo topics and has gained international recognition, and her debut memoir releases later in 2024.

 

Ellamae Fullalove, is an artist, speaker & founder of Va Va Womb, where she also runs her advocacy work - Mind Over MRKH. She founded a community where she curates social and mindful events in the UK , produced the worldwide MRKH podcast & sends gift boxes to MRKHers.  By day she works in social housing.

Follow Ally Hensley on Instagram at @Ally_Hensley and Ellamae Fullalove at @Ellamaebeing

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Bringing Relationship Blind Spots Into Focus With Emma Reed Turrell

Seeing things differently in relationships is inevitable - we can never expect to be 100% perfectly aligned with another person; but what about the stuff that we don't or can't see because it's in our blind spots?

In this conversation I delve into the question 'What Am I Missing?' when it comes to sex, relationships and intimacy with Emma Reed Turrell, the author of the new book with this same title. Emma talks about how we have a societal blindspot when it comes to our perception of romance and how these ideas of what she describes as 'known-unknowns' and 'unknown-unknowns' can show up in our relationships, dating lives and intimacy in a variety of ways, shaping our experiences, often without us realising. 

Alongside her work as a Psychotherapist Emma Reed Turrell is a writer, speaker and podcaster. She co-hosted the Best Friend Therapy podcast with Elizabeth Day which has recently finished,  and now hosts her new podcast Friendship Therapy – stories of real people real friends. She has two published books Please Yourself : How To Stop People-Pleasing and Transform the Way You Live and What Am I Missing.

Follow Emma on Instagram at @EmmaReedTurrell

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Translating Modern Love Languages With Anne Hodder-Shipp

Miscommunication in relationships is inevitable. We misunderstand each other, misinterpret and make assumptions about what our partners are thinking and we all bring our own thoughts, feelings and experiences to our relationships - but what happens if it feels like we aren't even speaking the same language?

In this episode Anne Hodder-Shipp discusses her theory of the 18 Modern Love Languages which is a revamp of the love language concept. They talk us through how we think about, understand and communicate love in an almost unlimited number of ways, and how some of our ideas about these 'love shoulds' are the things that may be causing disruption to our relationships in the first place.

Anne describes this idea of the modern love languages as expansive and non-hierarchical, and talks about how they are changing and adapting in the fast paced modern world that we are living in. She also encourages us to consider our own definitions of love, what it feels like to be loved and to recognise the individualness of this, rather than feeling that we don't feel love because it doesn't align with what we were told it should be. 

Anne Hodder-Shipp, CSE (she/they) is an AASECT Award-winning certified sex educator and relationship coach. They are the founder and lead educator at Everyone Deserves Sex Ed, a sex ed and professional development organization, and the creator and author of  Speaking from the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love – which has an accompanying guide - The Speaking from the Heart Workbook: A Practical Guide to the Modern Love Languages.

Follow Anne on Instagram at @TheAnneHodder

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.

Rebuilding Sex And Intimacy After Breast Cancer With Lauren Mahon

The impact of cancer can touch every part of our lives, but many people with cancer report that the impact that is rarely discussed is that on sex, pleasure, intimacy, relationships and dating. The experiences, treatments and changes that we go through are so layered in terms of the physical, emotional and psychological and it's impossible to separate the different parts out as we are in constant relationship between our bodies and how we think and feel about them, and this is something that cancer can completely hijack, which can have huge implications when it comes to sex and intimacy. 

Someone who has personally experienced this is Lauren Mahon, who after being diagnosed with breast cancer in her early thirties has become a tireless campaigner for breast cancer awareness through her online community Girls vs Cancer and as one of the hosts of the award winning podcast You, Me And The Big C with her great friends the late Dame Deborah James and Rachel Bland. Lauren is an advocate for talking about all aspects of cancer, and when it comes to the topic of sex lives she launched the Get F*cked campaign through Girls Vs Cancer which is helping to offer some guidance and resources to those who feel like they don't know where to start with getting to know themselves sexually again, both physically and emotionally through diagnosis, treatment and beyond.

This conversation covers so much, and Lauren openly goes into how cancer has shaped her sex life and relationships, from first discovering the lump which she would then find out was cancer during a self-pleasure session, through to how she shares that she had cancer when she's dating, and how her expectations and non-negotiables for sex have changed. 

Follow Lauren on Instagram at @IAmLaurenMahon

 

This series has been brought to you by the luxury sexual wellness brand Lelo, who are offering listeners 30% off all Lelo products purchased on BeautyBay.com  Use the code KMOYLE30 until 11.59pm on 31st December 2024.

 

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

 

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast, and always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider.