Psychedelics have the potential to profoundly impact one's understanding of their sexuality and sexual expression. By heightening sensations, dissolving boundaries, fostering self-reflection, facilitating healing, and nurturing spiritual connections, these substances can pave the way for a more authentic and fulfilling sexual self.

Forest bathing offers a simple yet profound way to improve mental health by immersing oneself in nature, particularly forests. This practice aligns with the principles of ecopsychology, emphasizing the importance of nature connection, environmental awareness, and the healing power of the natural world.

Through therapy, individuals can develop a clearer understanding of their boundaries, acquire effective communication skills, and overcome guilt and shame associated with asserting their needs. By establishing and maintaining limits, individuals empower themselves, strengthen their sobriety (however that is personally defined).

Trauma can disrupt an individual's life story, making it difficult to find meaning or purpose. Astrology and human design present a narrative framework that weaves together past experiences, present circumstances, and future possibilities. By incorporating these belief systems into their healing journey, individuals can create a cohesive narrative of their lives, which can serve as a catalyst for growth, transformation, and resolution of trauma. It is crucial to recognize that they are not substitutes for professional therapeutic interventions when dealing with unresolved trauma. It is advisable to seek the guidance of mental health professional.

Join the Global Yoga Therapy Day Celebration: Whether you are new to yoga therapy or a seasoned practitioner, Global Yoga Therapy Day provides a wonderful opportunity to explore this transformative modality and its countless benefits. Seek out local events, workshops, and online resources to deepen your understanding of yoga therapy and somatic psychology.

Yet similar to partnered sex, there are different kinds of masturbation. Sometimes you may prefer a quickie. Other times you may want something slow and sensual. In addition to the time element, there’s rougher masturbation, gentler masturbation. There’s playing with edging, which means stopping stimulation before orgasming, waiting about 30 seconds, and then stimulating yourself again, waiting, stimulating, etc. until you’re ready to orgasm. This can result in a deeper and more intense orgasm.

For entrepreneurs seeking personal growth, enhanced creativity, and sustainable success, psychedelic therapy offers a powerful avenue for exploration. However, the true potential of psychedelic experiences lies in the integration process that follows. By embracing transformation, cultivating self-reflection, enhancing creativity, reducing stress, and aligning with conscious practices, entrepreneurs can unlock their full potential and create businesses that are both successful and socially responsible. Integration is not just a post-therapy phase but a lifelong practice that empowers entrepreneurs to thrive in their personal and professional endeavors.

The identified patient is a complex phenomenon that can have profound effects on a family's dynamics. By understanding the roles, dynamics, and underlying issues associated with the IP, families can embark on a journey of healing and growth. By acknowledging the shared responsibility and committing to open communication and professional support, families can move towards healthier, more harmonious relationships. Remember, true healing occurs when all family members actively participate and work together towards a more fulfilling future.

Brother Thay, as he was known, asked us to use all our senses when eating the tangerine, to let each bite hit the tongue and to notice the juice washing over it – the acidity, the sweetness, the tinge of sourness. He said, “Each time you look at a tangerine, you can see deeply into it. You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.” There is true and pure happiness in each and every tangerine if you just be with it.

Seeking out the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco for my doctoral degree was important and has tremendously helped shape my practice today. Started by Haridas Chaudhuri, student of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, this institute offered a lens into ways to address and help the whole person, not merely the mental aspect of the lived experience. Studying in India deepened my understanding of how art, music, body movement, and states of consciousness are as much an integral part of the practice of psychology as much as are the id, ego, superego, transference and countertransference. It was easy to see the archetypes personified before my eyes as I saw 50 foot statutes of Ganesha and Saturn.

I sought out my graduate studies beginning in human sexuality because the body is typically a central part of sexual expression. And then I found my way to the California Institute of Integral Studies, where Indian Psychology was, in part, what the school was founded on and Indian Psychology has a deep understanding that the human lived experience is far beyond the mind and most certainly includes the body, at the very least. Somatic psychology, a western psychology field, is a field that explores the relationship between the mind and body, emphasizing the importance of bodily sensations, movement, and physical experiences in psychological well-being and healing.

An orgasm is possible during childbirth because the baby is moving through the same parts of the body involved in sexual pleasure. As we know, the clitoris is more than the small nub most people think it is, meaning as the baby passes through the vagina it may stimulate the clitoris along the way. An orgasmic birth is also a possibility because of hormones: Oxytocin, the feel-good, bonding hormone, is released during childbirth, lactation, and orgasm.

When you hear “meditation,” what comes to mind? Do you imagine sitting cross-legged with your palms up, resting on your knees, fingers in a mudra? That’s certainly one kind of meditation but it’s not the only one. As we mentioned in our blog on how to cultivate a spiritual practice, sitting completely still is not recommended for those with trauma histories, panic, and anxiety because it may not feel safe enough for those folx to sit quietly with their eyes closed. Their nervous systems associate that with “danger” so it can be hard to meditate in that way.

At Whole Person Integration and Psychology, we don’t think sex should ever be painful. In fact, if sex doesn’t involve pleasure, is it even sex? Something can look like sex and even result in pregnancy, but if there’s no pleasure, what are the people involved even doing? There are numerous reasons to have sex, but just as we mentioned, an orgasm is perhaps not what you think it is, there should be different names for sex because not all sex is created equal. It’s perhaps why people already put a qualifier onto sex, classifying it as “good” and “bad.”

It’s vital that we each take radical responsibility for our own selves, use language properly, and have integrity around our sexuality because otherwise, someone’s life could be at stake, sometimes literally.

Have you ever noticed all the phallic symbols in the world, the monuments, the figurines, the everything that pay homage to the penis, and wondered where the corresponding vulva tributes were? I know you have. And if you haven’t, perhaps you now will. Like most things pertaining to the divine feminine, they were hidden away. And while that can feel unfair and just plain wrong, it also makes a sort of senf because  the physicality of the vulva and vagina themselves are hidden inside of tissue folds. The vulva has been a mystery, a sacred mystery, since this is where life is birthed through. But the ancient “Sheela Na Gig” brings this mystery out in a very bold way.

Similar to traversing a labyrinth, vulva gazing looks simple but it’s not easy, especially at the beginning of cultivating the practice. Many thoughts and feelings may arise such as disgust, apprehension, surprise, curiosity, cultural messages, and internalized misogyny. Yet it’s also the case for people with the aforementioned parts, the vulva is the center of them, their core, their innermost being. Seeing themselves with a hand mirror can be a profound and sacred experience. The vulva can be a portal to a realm beyond the mundane. The vagina and vulva are where life is birthed through and while in some ways birth is mundane as it happens every day, it’s also a transcendent experience.

Boundary-setting may feel difficult or foreign even because many (most) folx didn’t learn boundary setting and maintenance growing up. It’s not uncommon for a person with an addiction or addictive behavior to grow up in an environment where boundaries were not honored. For instance, they may have grown up in a chaotic home where there was no enforced bedtime, or their privacy was invaded by a caregiver reading their personal journal. Oftentimes, food, a substance, or behavior is a way to regain a semblance of control in the person’s life and/or offers an escape from emotions that feel too intense to feel. Something that was occasional becomes more frequent until it becomes an addiction.

Society heaps shame onto sex workers. People’s discomfort stems from ingrained and indoctrinated beliefs. They think sex works not a valid profession, which it is.. Daniels is an excellent example of that. She has worked in the sex industry for more than two decades as a performer, writer, and director. She’s a self-made woman that doesn’t bow down to shame or let society’s expectations of her put her in a box. She’s a badass who ultimately brought Trump to justice despite great personal risk.

All too often, the psychedelic community neglects to pay homage to these indigenous traditions and healers. A famous example is that of María Sabina Magdalena García, more commonly known as María Sabina. She was a shaman and curandera, or medicine woman. Born around 1894 in a small town called Huautla de Jiménez, in southern Mexico, this Mazatec woman was exposed to hallucinogenic mushrooms, called “Los Niños Santos,” or “holy children,” from an early age at traditional ceremonies she attended with her father’s family.