Dissociation and Sexual Healing

A short article casting dissociation in a creative light, and offering a healing direction.

Eros Guide Interview , August, 2003

Selah Martha is the director of women's programs at Body Electric. In addition to teaching, she works in private practice with people of all genders, orientations, and ages.
 
EROS GUIDE: How do you define your work?

Selah: Primarily, as a process of embodiment. I think that most of our personal and cultural ills stem from disembodiment, a systematic learning to not trust in the body as our essential home while we are on this earth. When it comes to sexuality, I don't think the missing piece is technique. It is presence, to others and to ourselves. We are taught to enter into sexuality with an almost utilitarian approach (What will this do for me?), rather than a moment by moment exploratory, expansive, relational approach. For me, becoming resident in every cell of our bodies is the key to changing this unsatisfying pattern.

EG: How long have you been doing this work?

SM: I would say that consciously I have been doing the work since I started a yoga practice in the late 70s, when I began to understand that all my answers were going to come to me through my body, not through my intellect. I have learned from Tantric Yoga, Re-evaluation Co-counseling, Connie Wolfe, 12-step programs, the Transformational Movement community, singing with Pilar Montaine, and many colleagues and students at the Body Electric School. I have had a professional private practice with individuals of all ages, couples, and groups since 1991. I have been teaching for BodyElectricSchool since 1995.

EG: What issues do clients bring into their sessions with you?

SM: There are many presenting issues, usually having to do with dissatisfaction with their sex life, wanting more, knowing more is possible, but not knowing how to create more. Most clients are ready for a change in their lives. They are ready for a deeper understanding of how they are getting in the way of their own power and how to change that.

 EG: What kinds of changes have you witnessed in clients and in yourself?

SM: The biggest change I have witnessed comes down to more aliveness in their bodies, which is a mixture of more forgiveness, more acceptance, more sensation, more connection, more trust in their desires and hunches about what they need. This all goes for me, too.

Out On A Quim (archival newsletter)


1999 newsletter of the Body Electric School women's program. Articles on:

Intuitive Technology of the Sacred Erotic Circle

Gender Fluidity

The Zen of Wrestling

Why Do Erotic Work?

plus poetry and photos