Reconnecting with your sensual feminine
Liv Thompson is the owner of Awakening Intimacy Healing & Counselling. She is a qualified counsellor and high school teacher. She has a Master of Teaching, Bachelor of Economics, Diploma of Counselling, and in her last semester of Master of Science in Medicine (Sexual & Reproductive Health - Psychosexual Therapy) at University of Sydney
Awakening Intimacy Healing & Counselling is my baby. I'm a woman, mum, daughter, and sister ... in that order. For a long long time though, that order was very different. I identified as a wife and mum first and foremost, and within that identity was my career as a high school teacher. Then I saw myself as a daughter ... the good daughter in fact, the one who never got into trouble at school and who tried to do "the right thing'" so as not to disappoint my parents. Then I was a sister ... and lastly, I was an individual ... and although I identified as female, I never saw myself as a woman in the holistic sense.
Religious Conditioning
I was raised in an extremely conservative religion and I was super observant. I was a daughter of God and a mother of Zion. I did "the right thing" and I tried my hardest to actually live the doctrines of the religion, which included remaining sexually pure before marriage. I was married for time and all eternity in our temple. I had my sons baptised. I didn't always attend church every Sunday, mainly because I was lazy and tired from working hard throughout the week. But I believed wholly in the sanctity of marriage.
Part of being a good wife in the religion, was being pleasing to your husband ... and from the lessons on sexual purity I had received from the age of 12, I believed this to include pleasuring my husband sexually, even if I didn't feel like it. But then being a mum with a career, I was exhausted. So my husband referred to me as a "weekend warrior". Kind of funny, but he didn't call me that as a term of endearment. It was a snide comment, but appropriate ... I only had the energy and mindset for sex come the weekend.
Sensual Awakening
Long story short! Our sex life was unsatisfying for both of us. Although I had suggested marriage counselling on and off throughout our marriage, it wasn't until we had been married for 24 years that he suggested it. I of course agreed and set about scheduling an appointment. The first counsellor we saw kept banging on about my relationship with my vagina. I thought, WTF!!! This is a little inappropriate. And it validated my husband's position that I was the one that was broken sexually.
But I was open minded and I took on board what the counsellor suggested and looked into Yoni massage. During my research, I stumbled upon an officially recognised modality of therapy called Yoni Mapping Therapy (a lot of the Yoni massage therapists seemed like sleazy men to me!!) And it flicked a switch on in me.
After that, it was a slow burn but I began to feel energised and alive as a woman, as though I have unearthed something sacred. I felt feminine for once. I felt sensual. I started to feel whole. My Yoni healer had helped me to see I could continue to have a deep relationship with God while enjoying sex. My sexual energy is now my inner spark that motivates me each morning to get out of bed and productive. I see beauty and wonder in the world.
Teacher to Sexologist
I became intrigued by how negatively my sensuality had been impacted by the religious teachings. I had planned to change careers from a teacher to an adolescent counsellor. I had been so well supported by gorgeous women healers, I wanted to be able to help other women unearth and reconnect with their sexuality and sensual feminine.
My journey inspired me to go back to university and study human sexuality and become a psychosexual therapist and sexologist. I have a holistic understanding of sensuality, intimacy, sexuality, and intimate relationships, grounded in scientific evidence and academic knowledge rather than the religious teachings of man.
And so I started Awakening Intimacy Healing & Counselling to help women understand they are not broken. They are normal, whole, sensual women who have the ability to be in control of their sexual pleasure without feeling pain, shame, or guilt.
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