15.2: Sexological Bodywork
“Sexological Bodywork is a body-based educational modality that supports individuals, couples, and groups to learn to direct their erotic development and to deepen their erotic wellbeing and embodiment” (Association of Certified Sexological Bodyworkers, 2022).
Sexological bodywork was developed by Joseph Kramer. Kramer is a gay man who was raised by a strictly Catholic family in the 1950s. It was through his own spiritual journey of discovering the importance of connection to the body and sexuality, that he was inspired to create and provide intimacy workshops for gay men during the AIDS epidemic. He saw how gay men’s bodies were being associated with disease and fear, and how a lack of touch and affection was having a negative impact on the community (Dewey, 1992).
According to Kramer “We were in the middle of this AIDS epidemic, I can’t tell you how horrible it was, it was really horrible and yet there was this joyous thing we were doing. We were light in the darkness truly and yet the darkness affected all of us. It was a wonderful and a terrible time, the most terrible time of my life” (Rose & Rose, 2019, 47:11)
Joseph Kramer began weaving an international fellowship of gay men. It was through these embodied workshops that he formed the idea that later became the field of sexological bodywork. He partnered with his friend Annie Sprinkle ( https://anniesprinkle.org/ ), in order to learn how to do the work with women’s bodies as well (Rose & Rose, 2019, 31:25). Today, sexological bodyworkers work with people of all genders.
Sexological Bodyworkers help clients explore arousal and pleasure using a variety of modalities including erotic massage, breathwork, how to teach and manage consent and boundaries, masturbation coaching and pelvic release bodywork. All touch is one way. This means that the bodyworker is touching the client but the client is not touching the bodyworker. It’s an opportunity for the client to focus on the feelings in their own body, without any pressure to please a partner.
There are many reasons why people may seek out sexological bodywork. They may be experiencing physical challenges, such as an inability to orgasm, pelvic pain or premature ejaculation. Maybe they want to improve confidence with their sexuality, or let go of feelings of shame around their body. They may be working on sexual trauma recovery. Perhaps they just want to learn to experience more sexual pleasure.
Practitioners follow a Code of Ethics and maintain professional boundaries with clients (Association of Certified Sexological Bodyworkers, n.d.).