Surrogate Therapy Takes a Hands-On Approach to Overcoming Sexual Trauma

—Up to and Including Intercourse By Shannon Gormley Touch, erotic or not, can communicate painful memories, insecurities and vulnerabilities that are hard to verbalize. One of the most revelatory moments of Carlene Ostedgaard’s career was the time she got an orgasm from having her shoulder touched. It happened a few years ago, when Ostedgaard, 35, …

How to Move Forward When You’re in a Sexless Marriage

A Q&A with a clinical psychologist who specializes in getting couples to talk openly about sex. By Sophia Benoit Recently, a 36-year-old man posted something stupid on Reddit. This is not breaking news—this happens likely thousands of times per day, but the post made it over to Twitter, and people went in. The issue at …

Meet the BDSM therapists treating clients with restraints, mummification and impact play

By Gillian Fisher When we say BDSM, you probably think of chains, whips, and all sorts of sexy stuff. But there’s far more to it. BDSM has long been recognised as an erotic practice, with more people than ever introducing aspects of bondage, domination, sadism and masochism into their sexual pursuits. A combination of changing …

Happy endings

The ins and outs of clinical sexology By Matt Tilley Sexology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of human sexuality, including sexual behaviours, interests and function. A sexologist is a trained professional who specialises in human sexuality. There are many different ways a sexologist may work, and many different areas she may work in – in …

Sex Education Rally Reminds Teens “You Are Not Chewed Gum”

“There is no shame in having all the information possible.” By Katelyn Burns “You are not chewed gum,” read an art display featuring wads of gum, located in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., unveiled on October 30 by advocates for science-based comprehensive sexual education. The display, organized by Advocates for Youth …

Ways of Being

Three new books explore the variety of transgender experiences. By Stephanie Burt Assigned one gender at birth, we’d felt like the other since childhood. That feeling—which had nothing to do with sexual desire—grew until life in the wrong gender seemed not worth living. So we came out as trans women or trans men to loved …

On Sex and Relationships for Autistic Folks

By Jera Brown “One of the greatest dangers that face an autistic adult is not having sufficient information to deal with adult issues,” writes autistic romance writer Dahlia Donovan on her blog. One of the big problems, according to Dahlia, is that the information that’s out there isn’t designed for autistic folks. The Problem: Lack …