Attachment, Trauma and Sexuality—Coming Home to the True Self

A 2-part Webinar Series with Ariel Giarretto

“Neither the church nor the opponents of the church have clearly understood that the secret, or unconscious, motivation of sexual repression is to make it all the more interesting. And on the other side, it has not been clearly understood that sexual biology and all that goes with it is a figuring force, on the level of biology, of what the whole universe is about, ecstatic play.” ~ Alan Watts

For countless generations, beliefs about sex and the body have been exceedingly pejorative and condemning. Although most religions develop these mores as a necessary means of keeping social order, such ideologies have a devastating effect on our psyches, emotions and relationships with others. Abiding by these creeds necessitates a thorough disconnection from our essential nature.

Calling on my decades of experience as a trauma therapist and trainer of Somatic Experiencing, combined with extensive training in somatic sexuality, this series will address what it takes to heal our sexuality and our relationship to our gender, and to our bodies.

Through the science and heart of attachment and trauma, we’ll examine how we are physiologically designed for connection, closeness and pleasure—which is as deeply “wired” as our response to threat—as well as what happens when this nature is denied.

Through a mix of educational material, experiential exercises, reflections and homework this series will provide numerous ways of coming home to the body, finding advanced levels of pleasure and helping to identify and overcome all that gets in the way.

We will cover:

• The science and psychobiology of attachment needs
• The physiology of trauma, and how disconnection from the body prevents the resolution of past trauma
• Exercises that support fuller embodied pleasure and self-acceptance
• Ways of recovering from sexuality trauma and sexual abuse, and how to do this at a respectful pace that prevents re-traumatization

 

Ariel Giarretto, MS, LMFT, is devoted to helping couples and individuals become more at ease in their bodies, as well as discovering what is their most authentic relationship to their gender, their sensuality and their sexuality. She is a long-term body-oriented psychotherapist, trauma specialist, and certified Sexological Bodyworker and Somatic Educator.

She is the co-developer of “The Full Embodiment Model” which offers a variety of workshops for people wanting to heal from the effects of sexuality/gender trauma, sexual abuse and disembodiment. Trained in a wide variety of somatic therapies, she is primarily informed by Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE). For 19 years she had been full-time SE teaching faculty, training and mentoring professionals all over the globe. Throughout the 90’s she was on staff at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, as a workshop and group leader, a private therapist and a member of the bodywork and massage crew.

She has special training in pre and perinatal trauma with Ray Castellino, as well as attachment and early developmental trauma, and has been a home birth advocate, and a “doula”. She is based in the San Francisco area where she is active in a number of sex-positive communities that meet regularly to practice and discuss alternative relationships, including safe sex, dealing with jealousy and consensual non-monogamy. For more info: www.fullembodiment.org