As with the five languages of love, I also believe there are seven languages of sex. These ‘languages’ represent our eroticism, our sexual taste. So perhaps rather than ‘languages’ it’s better to think of them like flavours or ‘cuisines’. Different cuisines use ingredients differently and the seven ‘cuisines’ of sex experience sex differently.

As with the languages of love, these seven flavours of sex are all important, yet most people will have their preferences, with some being more important than others, in life in general and at specific times. 

The seven flavours of sex are:

Physical

People with this eroticism love the physicality of sex. They like the rumpy-pumpy. They are particularly focused on the genitals and genital orgasms, anything else is a distraction or just the lead-up to the main event. They tend to have an intense sexual energy and are direct and to the point when it comes to sex.

Playful

People with a playful eroticism like to play! Their energy is upbeat. They might actually like to play sexual games, role play, dress-up, use toys., always with a sense of ‘Ooh, what fun!’. They are cheeky and flirty.

Sensual

People with a sensual eroticism love to engage all the senses. Atmosphere is important, with music, lighting scent and textures important (and no mess!). Their energy is slow and languid. They take their time and focus on sensation.

Mystical

People with an energy eroticism love the ‘spaces in between’, the very subtle, not quite there. This could be a sense of anticipation or what is to come, or the sinking in to moments of stillness and presence in order to feel more. They focus on subtle internal sensations. This is the opposite to the physicalists and is a flavour that is not well appreciated in our culture of bigger, harder, faster,

Wicked

People with a wicked eroticism like the thrill of danger, power exchange, playing on the edge. They enjoy a sense of transgression. This can take many forms: exhibitionism and voyeurism, playing on the edge of pleasure and pain, exploring the polarity of dominance and submission.

Romantic

For people with a romantic sexual flavour, it’s all about the romance, the heart connection, the love. They are less concerned about ‘what’ they are doing and more about the fact that they are engaged with their beloved. Or it might just be a simple cuddly kind of sexual encounter.

Mental

People who have a mental eroticism get turned on by the mind. This could be the classic sapiosexual who gets turned on by brilliant minds. Or they might feel connected and loved up through conversation in general, or they might love to talk about sex and their sexuality;,or they might like thinking about and planning sexual exploits.

How do we apply these in life and love? Well, to use the food analogy, an ingredient is used differently depending on the flavour you’re wanting to create. An onion, for example, will be used differently if you’re cooking a stir-fry, a curry or making a salad, yet it's the same onion. It’s the same with the Seven Flavours of Sex.

Let’s look at an example, outdoor sex:

• For someone with a sensual flavour, outdoor sex will be about the sensation of the outdoors, the sun and breeze on their skin, the scents.
• For someone with a playful flavour, it could be that they want to play hide-and-seek (and who know what will happen when you’re found…!).
• For someone with a romantic flavour it could be that ‘oh, we could have a picnic together and it would so beautiful and connecting, and then make love on the picnic rug…”.
• For someone with a wicked flavour it could be that “mmm, someone might see us…”.
• For someone with a physical flavour it could be that “we could do it up against a tree, yeah, never done that before!”.

Another example could be using rope:

• For someone with a wicked flavour (the one we tend to go to when thinking of rope) it could be the enjoyment of tying someone up and having power over them (with their permission of course).
• For someone with a mystical flavour it could be the blissful space they go into when being tied up.
• For someone with a sensual flavour it could be the sensation of having rope running over their skin.
• For someone with a playful flavour it could be role-playing captor and captured.
• For someone with a romantic flavour it could be tying themselves together like an extension of cuddle.
• For someone with a physical flavour it could be: tie this ankle to one side of the bed, this ankle to the other side, and bingo, easy access!

So, a couple could be engaging in sex outdoors, or using rope, but having different experience of the behaviour. Therefore, questions like: “Do you like sex outside?” or “Do you want to try using rope?” are too limiting. Once you know your own and your partner’s flavours, you can speak to the eroticism. If you’d like to try using rope for example, you might ask your partner: “How do you feel about rope, how would it be for you?” And if you know that you for example, would experience in a more wicked way, ie the thought of having control over your partner while they are tied up thrills you, yet you know that they are very sensual, then you would discuss it from a more sensual perspective to get them engaged with the idea.

You might also find that you in the mood for different flavours at different times. Or that you start with one flavour before you move into another.

And of course, these aren't seven discrete types, you might be in the mood for romantically playful connection, or wickedly mystical, or any other combination.

It's all about having language and concepts to become more self-aware and to be able to communicate your needs and desires to your partner, so that you can co-create intimate/erotic/sexual encounters - just the way you want them.

I find that too much of our language and concepts around sex imply that speed is good and slowness is bad. This is really not at all helpful in creating great sexual experiences. Instead of people relaxing and chilling and opening to each other, there’s pressure to get aroused quickly and have intense experiences. And if there’s one thing that gets in the way of being able to become aroused, let alone to actually enjoy sex, it’s pressure.

For example, recent additions to our sex vocabulary are sexual ‘accelerators’ and sexual ‘brakes’, with the accelerators being good and the brakes being bad. Now I know that the intention behind the language is to identify what things are helpful to you sexually and what are hindrances. But why use language that implies speed is good and slowness is bad? Why not use terms like enhancers and detractors? Or as I like to think of it, in my usual evocative style, things that make you go ‘mmm’ and things that make you go ’ngh’.

Less overtly, so often people have a speed-based concept of sex. Take the concept of libido, more often ‘high libido’ is attributed to people who get aroused quickly and  ‘low libido’ is attributed to people who become aroused slowly. And of course those with ‘low libido’ are seen as the problem. Why, because they are too slow. Which often leads to the slower one having sex before they’re ready, which,as  I’ve said before, is like eating food that’s undercooked – there’s nothing wrong with the food per se, it’s just not ready to be eaten.

But, like food, sex is best enjoyed slowly, with presence, savouring the experience of the eating. Not scoffing it down to get to the end. Or any other activity you do for pleasure together, like going for a walk or enjoying a show – you enjoy the process of the activity, not race through to the end of it!

So, whether it’s in the getting to sex phase or the having sex phase, take your time, enjoy the process, no pressure! Remember, the point of sex is connection through pleasure, so make every part pleasurable and connecting. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it, how you’re experiencing it.

There is already so much speed in modern life. Take the pressure off, particularly in the bedroom, and take your time, savour your lovemaking. You’ll find it so much more enjoyable, connecting and rejuvenating – all the things sex is supposed to be!

Don’t think of sex as having Key Performance Indicators. Sex isn’t about performance, it’s about pleasure! So, let’s talk about our Key Pleasure Indicators.

Good sex comes from the appreciation of the experience not the performance of ‘correct’ acts. It’s about the feeling. So, you’re not looking at quantitative KPIs – how often, how long, how many orgasms etc. You’re looking at qualitative KPIs. These might include:

Does it feel good

Does it feel mutual

Does it feel connected

Do you feel present

Do you feel embodied

Do you feel free to express yourself

Are you paying attention to each other

Are you savouring the experience

Does it make you feel better for having done it

Does it increase joy, contentment, happiness, satisfaction in life

These are quite broad and I’m sure you have a lot more specific ones that relate to your own individual sexuality. So, I invite you to think about your own KPIs, and if you have a partner to discuss them together, lightly and creatively, and get clear on your mutual Key Pleasure Indicators. Then set about achieving them!

We tend to think that the definition of ‘libido’ is sex drive, how much you want sex, or how often you get horny. But the original meaning of the word libido is life force energy. I think that is a much better way to conceptualise libido.

In the oriental traditions they say that the sexual energy is transformed into the life energy, the chi or ki. That’s what I notice clinically too. When people are flat, exhausted, stressed, depressed, their life force is low and they tend not to want sex. When people are engaged and joyful and connected, then they tend to be open to sex. Interestingly, I do see people with low life force who want sex, but it’s usually to relieve stress or because they’re bored and want a ‘hit’; and I see people with high life force who say they don’t want sex, but that’s usually because their concept of sex isn’t appealing or their experience of it hasn’t been great.

So, anything you do that enhances your life force will enhance your libido.

Being is nature is a great way to do this. Nature is full of life force – it’s where life comes from! Bathing in nature’s life force is so enhancing of our own.

I just spent two weeks camping in central Australia. It was a total experience of this libidinal life force! There was the vast open desert, incredible rock formations, hidden gorges, oases, towering river red gums, multitudes of wildflowers, wallabies, emu, and so many different birds… Waking up to the dawn chorus of birdsong, walking all day and sitting around an open fire as the sun set, were such connected, spiritual experiences.

It's bathing in nature. It’s cleansing the spirit and the soul with nature. It’s allowing freshness and goodness and joy to permeate and fill your being. It’s libido, being in tune with life and nature, untarnished with the stress and negative energies of modern living.

The more you can bring this into your life the better. With plants, art, good food, beautiful relaxing spaces, music. And making love in the way I advocate! Not some sordid pornfest but connected, slow, intimate (which can also be playful and wild and wicked, the two aren’t mutually exclusive) – real, authentic, deep and light, blissful and transcendent.

Sex like this is also life force-enhancing, libido-enhancing, so it becomes a positive feedback loop, enhancing all of life and love!

It's why my clinic is full of plants and has beautiful views of trees, why my own home blurs the boundaries of garden and house, and why I hold my retreats in beautiful locations surrounded by nature. I encourage you to create this in your own life too!

When you know it’s time to welcome your lover into your depths, when you’re yearning to be filled, then, and only then do you invite your lover in…and as he enters you envelop his penis with your vagina, holding it warm and soft and wet…

Now that ain’t ‘penetration’!

Regular readers will know how I loathe the word penetration being used for sex. It literally means ‘breaking through resistance’. It’s appropriate if you think sex is something a man does to an unwilling woman – force himself into a resistant vagina and essentially masturbate there. Ugh. Not the approach to sex that I advocate!

 So let’s go back to my opening paragraph. Notice the language. Nothing aggressive there. It is soft and inviting. And it’s not one-sided, it’s not something a man does to a woman. It’s totally mutual. There is equal agency. He enters and she envelops. And that entering and enveloping is done when both partners are ready. She knows when she is ready and invites him in, then he accepts, or they wait if he’s not yet ready.

No expectation, no obligation, no going faster than either of you need. Just an awareness of self, an attention to other, a communication and a coming together with pleasure. In this way you are co-creating psychological safety, which allows for relaxation, vulnerability and openness. These are the conditions from which the greatest intimacy and pleasure comes.

This doesn’t just apply to heterosexual intercourse, it applies whenever anyone of any gender enters into the other’s personal space. The more personal that space, and particularly when you are entering another person’s body, the more essential it is that you wait for the invitation and then allow yourself to be welcomed in.

Notice in your own life if there is this mutuality. Is there invitation? Is there welcoming? Is there envelopment? 

 If there is – excellent! If there isn’t, then start to shift the way you engage. If you need help along the way, come to me for private sessions, online courses and retreats.

When it comes to sex, we tend to buy into the myth that bigger, harder, faster is best. While that approach might make for entertaining viewing on screen, what looks good is not necessarily what feels good. What feels good is a balance and a flow between the yin and the yang elements of sex. 

No doubt you are familiar with the Taoist concept of yin and yang, that the whole is made up of complementary opposites. Yin represents the softer, flowing side of life and yang represents the firmer, directed side. Too much of either puts us out of balance and life is not as harmonious as it could be. This applies just as much in our sex life as in the whole of life. In fact, we need the balance in the whole of life to have it in our sex life. Part of the problem is seeing sex as something separate from the rest of life. Thinking of sex as just what happens between two sets of genitals is a big part of the problem, it’s too linear and too detached, too yang.

When we take sex out of the ‘box’, and look at it less as an isolated behaviour separate from life, and view it more systemically, then we stay in a more balanced state sexually. Let’s look at this more specifically.

Starting with the physiology of our bodies, a lot of people would consider the yin and yang of sex as bluntly as being turned on or turned off, which is way too binary - there’s a lot more going on behind all that! What turns us on and turns us off, what enables desire and what dampens it, is a complex interplay within and between our nervous and endocrine systems.

Our nervous system is constantly flowing between the yang, up-regulated sympathetic system and the yin, down-regulated parasympathetic systems. If we are too much in the sympathetic, we’re stressed and we can’t become sexually aroused. Yet if we are too much in the parasympathetic, we’re so down-regulated we fall asleep, and can’t become aroused that way either. We need to be in a balance between the two, in a state of alert-relaxation, and from there flow between more yin parasympathetic romance and tenderness as well as more yang sympathetic system passion and excitement.

Now, in parallel within our nervous system there’s a balance between what we could consider the ‘yin’ hormones of oxytocin and vasopressin, the bonding hormones that give feelings of connection, as well as the endorphins, the feel-good hormones, that are released by tender, cuddly, yin activities; and the yang hormones of dopamine, the reward chemical, that leads you to want more (including more of your true love), and norepinephrine which makes you feel excited.

We need dopamine and norepinephrine, which are stimulated by novelty and interesting activities, so it's important that your relationship is stimulating and not complacent. And we need oxytocin and vasopressin as they are connecting and keep you feeling safe and connected and generally good about each other. So, both the tender affection and interesting activities are necessary in a relationship to produce the balance of bonding and desire. You need to be both tender and flirty, having cuddles on the couch as well as exciting adventures, to create both connection and interest. 

You need the balance in the lead up to sex and you need the balance during sex. Intensity is fine, but if all you’re having is shagadelic sex, striving for orgasmic intensity, then it’s yang without yin. Particularly if it’s tense intensity, which tends to happen if you go too fast too quickly and aren’t ready for it, as this produces cortisol, the long-term stress hormone, which is not good for feeling positive about yourself or your partner.

The focus on intensity, tension and orgasmic climax can also cause a dopamine drop after the big O, leading to a feeling of withdrawal from your partner as well as feeling irritated and disconnected. You need the oxytocin and vasopressin so that you balance out the dopamine drop and keep the happy feelings going. 

What’s happening physiologically then manifests experientially as a flow between the yin and yang emotions – tenderness and passion, romance and eroticism. 

When I talk to clients and others about this approach to sex, many people are so mired in the linear intense approach that they have no concept of what I’m talking about. So, I use metaphors to convey the concept.

A very simple metaphor is music. The standard view of sex is like heavy thrash metal - only intense. Very few us like that kind of music, it’s way too much! Yet we tend to approach sex like that. So ,think of sex more like a symphony, where you have quiet passages as well as more intense passages. There’s a journey in the music, not just one long lead-up to a grand finale.

My favourite metaphor is to think of sex like a picnic. There are no rules as to what you should eat in terms of order, pace and quantity. As enticing as pavlova might be, you don’t have to eat it to have a ‘successful’ picnic, and eating pavlova is certainly not why you’re having a picnic. You’re having a picnic because the whole experience is enjoyable, even if you only eat the dips, and even if you don’t eat at all and just enjoy the conversation.

When you get into a flow, instead of taking a linear direct approach to the main KPI of orgasm, and instead sink into a flowing encounter, each encounter becomes a unique co-creation of mutual pleasure and satisfaction.

How to do this? Most importantly, keep the balance and flow in the whole of your life and relationship. I call this beforeplay. It’s the bulk of life, making sure there’s a balance of the calm, cuddly, safe yin elements as well as the more exciting, flirty, active yang elements of relating. In this way your relationship never becomes complacent, you are always focused on keeping yourselves connected and engaged.

Then when it comes to more intimate engagement, don’t go racing straight to the genitals! Make sure there is plenty of non-genital engagement – which includes having good conversation and connecting mentally as much as engaging with your entire bodies and enjoying the feeling of kisses and touch and whole of body skin contact. Don’t get genital until your body really wants it.

Pay attention to how you’re feeling on the inside, and make sure you are letting each other know how you’re feeling and what you’re wanting. Never make assumptions. Learn to communicate both verbally and non-verbally at all stages of engagement, so that you don’t fall into the same old tired linear script.

Focus on pleasure rather than orgasm. Orgasms are great, but they are an outcome of sex, not the purpose of sex. When you focus on the pleasure, rather than just ‘getting each other off’, you’ll find sex way more satisfying. Not that there is anything wrong with orgasms! But don’t assume you have to have them, or else you’ve ‘failed’. Nor limit yourself to one and think you’re done if there is more love-making to be expressed in an encounter! And when you do orgasm, focus on opening and releasing rather than tensing and forcing.

Never underestimate the importance of a conducive environment. Let your surroundings help get you in the mood. Having a beautiful tidy bedroom with music and soft lighting really does help a lot of people sink into the enjoyment of erotic connection (not to mention practicalities like having a lock on the door!)

And make sure that when the encounter comes to a close you continue to cuddle and chat so that you keep your nervous systems relaxed and the calming pleasure hormones flowing.

This approach to love and life means that you are priming your body to have balanced neural and endocrine systems on the inside, which manifests as pleasure, connection and all the good things about love and sex on the outside!
 

Consent has become an important topic, one that is absolutely necessary, important and overdue. 

However, as an accredited Psychosexual Therapist who has spent over ten thousand face-to-face hours talking in intimate detail with people about their sex lives, I know that as well-intentioned as the consent conversation is, until we start addressing what comes before consent, we won’t solve the problem of people being able to give consent. 

We tend to assume we know what sex is and what it is we are consenting to or not. But do we? We can’t consent if we don’t know the parameters, our own internal assumptions, of the thing we are consenting or not to. 

The first question I ask people when they come to me with their myriad issues, the essence of which comes down to being able to navigate sexual relating, is ‘what is sex’? The immediate response to which is generally a puzzled-look followed by, ‘oh, I’ve never really thought about that before.’ 

This is the problem – what do we mean when we refer to sex? What are we consenting to? So many people have a very limited view of sex, one that is generally framed in a patriarchal manner – that sex is something that men do to women and the woman has to agree to or say no. Even in same sex attracted couples I often see this approach: I have to agree to what you want, or what I think you want, or I say no. 

Our language is riddled with words that promote this. Take the term ‘penetration’ – who on earth thought that such an aggressive word was appropriate for the act of sex. And who does the ‘penetrating’? The penis owner! Why not call it ‘envelopment sex’ and move the focus to the vagina inviting, welcoming in and embracing the penis? (I can assure you that I’ve solved a lot of ‘women’s sexual dysfunctions’ simply by changing the language.) 

This tends to be accompanied by another unhelpful belief that sex is a linear process. It has a ‘green light’ early on followed by a series of KPIs that have to be met, leading to the ultimate and final one of the male ejaculation. Then the act is complete – and hopefully she’s had an orgasm along the way.

So many people say they have sex because ‘that’s what you do – don’t you?’. So many young people I see view sex as what they see on porn, they feel they are consenting to those behaviours. So many people in long term relationship view sex as something they have to do to keep their partner happy. Interestingly, aside from a small proportion of entitled folk (and that’s just as often a woman as a man) most people are more concerned about their partner than about themselves.

Let’s take this a step further – not only are people not conceptualising what sex is for themselves, they’re not discussing it with their partner. Even couples who have been together for decades don’t talk about sex much beyond the ‘sex tonight dear?’ – unless it’s a problem, in which case they can talk about it endlessly in a most unsexy way. Even though most people would say that they want a positive sex life, very few go anywhere near the depth of discussion that is required to be able to co-create something meaningful.

Note the language I’m using here. Firstly, “co-create”, yes, sexual intimacy needs to be co-created. It needs to be ‘where are you at’ and ‘where am I at’ and from that we co-create. Not just at the start of an interaction, but all the way through. And secondly, “meaningful” – what is the meaning of sex? The model of sex as ‘getting each other off in the way that we think we should be without talking about it or even wondering why’ doesn’t work. We need to understand the why. 

And to do that we need to step outside the model of sex that we inherited from the millennia of patriarchy, which, while it’s been around for a very long time, does not represent what really drives humans sexually. Let me be brief: most other mammals only have sex to reproduce, when the female is fertile, and there is no ‘fatherhood’, their infants are self-sufficient enough for a mother to manage them on her own. But humans have big brains and big skulls, so we have to give birth to our young when they are very helpless or they wouldn’t fit out the birth canal. A prehistoric mother couldn’t raise an infant to a viable age on her own. There was evolutionary pressure for the fathers to stay around. Men who embraced fatherhood were more likely to have offspring who reached reproductive age and continued their gene line.

Parents who bonded and loved and supported each other and their vulnerable young were the ones whose genes survived. How, in part, did this bonding happen? Through activities that released the bonding and pleasure hormones – sexual intimacy, from touches, hugs, kisses to all kinds of genital engagement.

Sex in humans is primarily a bonding activity, the emotional component is an essential part of quality sex in humans. We need to embrace it as such and teach our young people that. It is something that two people do to create connection through pleasure. There are no other KPIs. It is a moment-by-moment co-creation where each brings to the moment their true selves

I know clinically that this shift in attitude changes everything. It moves it from performance to self-expression, from a physical behaviour to an emotional, dare I say spiritual, connection. Let’s move the consent conversation in society at large in the same direction. Let’s talk about the beauty and the goodness and the mutuality of sex and inspire our young people to engage in a way that is pleasurable and life-enhancing. And as their parents and elders, let’s sort out our own sexuality so that we can model and discuss sexuality as the important and wonderful part of life that it can be.

Download Audio: Moans & Groans – why sound is good in sex and to how make more

I was talking to a female client recently who has become very sex averse. As she described her sexual history, I pointed out that it sounded like she’d been engaging in obligation sex with her husband for a long time and therefore had been subjecting herself to low-level sexual trauma.

“Oh, no” she immediately replied, “I consented to it.”

 She paused.

 I waited.

Then she softly added: “But not on the inside.”

She realised that she was ‘consenting’ to sex due to external pressures. She thought it was something she should do and so agreed to do. But in fact, on the inside, she was screaming a big “NO”.

And because she wasn’t wanting it, she wasn’t enjoying it, so it became a traumatic experience, which of course led to her never wanting it, ever, ever again.

What I find so interesting is that this is a highly educated professional woman. I see this so often. Women who in all other areas of life are independent and assertive and empowered, but who when it comes to sex, fall into the old patriarchal trope that sex is something a man does to a woman and her only options are to succumb or run. Either she goes along with his expectations (or what she thinks are his expectations) or she says ‘no’, either directly or more passively by avoiding any possibility of it happening.

And it’s not only something women experience with their male partners, I also see plenty of men who dutifully perform sex even though they don’t really want to, or who avoid the possibility of it happening. And I see it frequently in same sex couples.

So regardless of the gender and orientation of the couple, the problem is the lack of co-creation. Without that mutuality, there is no intimacy, there is no connection, and so the sex is at best mundane and at worst traumatic.

Whenever you find yourself asking: “What do I think my partner is wanting and how can I meet that real or supposed need?” – it’s going to be bad.

The question you need to ask yourself is: “What am I feeling right now? What I am wanting right now?”

Once you’ve identified that (and if you’re not used to paying attention to your own feelings that might not be easy), then you need to share it with your partner.

That sharing of yourself is a vulnerable, intimate act. So therefore it’s also scary and not easy if you’re not practiced at it. But that vulnerability and intimacy, that sharing of self,  is the precursor to quality sex and love-making. Without it you are not present to the engagement and it just becomes your body doing things or having things done to it, which to repeat my point above, makes sex either mundane at best or traumatic at worst.

In contrast, when both people are in touch with what they are feeling and wanting, and when both are sharing that, then the couple can co-create experiences that are good for both of them moment-by-moment.

Now sometimes, it is true, there may be disappointment if one person wants something that the other doesn’t; and there may be times where we might give things a go even if we’re not sure we’re into it at that moment – but always knowing that we  can change our minds, redirect the encounter, or bring it to a close at any time. So this sharing of self and co-creating is not some idealised version of sex where it’s all perfect and there aren’t any wobbly moments. Not at all. Sex, like the rest of life together, means there will be difference – whether it’s difference in what you want for dinner, how you want to spend the holidays, how frequently you want to visit the in-laws, etc, etc.

It’s never a ‘perfect flow’. But it is real and authentic and in that is freedom and creative expression from both sides. That is consent on the inside, and that is what makes for quality experiences.

How do you know when you’re having good sex? When there are no negative feelings and emotions associated with it. That is, when it comes from, feels like and results in positive states.

There are so many negative emotions associated with sex – shame, guilt, fear, obligation, disgust, entitlement, boredom, as well as negative physical sensations of pain and discomfort. None of these make for good sex. So, ask yourself:

What’s driving you? 

If you feel obliged to do it to keep your partner happy, it’s not good sex.

If you feel an expectation that you should have sex, it’s not good sex.

If you feel entitled to sex regardless of where your partner’s at, it’s not good sex.

How does it feel when you’re doing it?

If it’s painful or uncomfortable, it’s not good sex.

If it’s boring, it’s not good sex.

If you wish it would end, it’s not good sex.

If you feel you have to hit certain KPIs, it’s not good sex.

If you’re doing what your partner wants not what you want, it’s not good sex

If you were enjoying it, but now you’re not and you don’t stop, it’s not good sex.

How does it feel afterwards?

If you feel shame, it’s not good sex.

If you feel disgust, it’s not good sex.

If you feel relief it’s over (and you won’t have to do it again for a while), it’s not good sex.

Well, that all sounds pretty negative! So when is it good?

It’s good sex when you are engaging because you truly want to, it’s mutual, it’s pleasurable, it’s connected, you’re engaging in a way that you feel good moment by moment, and it leaves you feeling that your life has been enhanced for the doing of it.

It’s the same with more specific desires. What’s driving them?

For example, say a man wants to watch his wife having sex with another man. Is this coming from an internalised shame that he doesn’t deserve a woman like her? Or is it coming from the fact that watching her as a third person gives him a different perspective that adds to the sexiness and his pleasure? If it’s the first there are unresolved negative emotions driving the desire, and if it’s the second then the desire is coming from a positive place.

To take another example, say a woman wants to be submissive sexually. Is this because she is too ashamed to express her desires and wants her partner to be in control so she doesn’t have to say anything? Or is it because being submissive enhances her eroticism and pleasure (and she’s discussed this with her partner in great detail previously)? If it’s the former it’s coming from a negative state and if it’s the latter then it’s positive.

One more example, say someone is diligently attempting to give their partner an orgasm, but it’s not happening. Are they persevering because they feel they’ll have ‘failed’ if their partner doesn’t have an orgasm? Or are they persevering because they are enjoying the experience of pleasuring their partner regardless of the outcome (and knowing their partner will let them know either way)? If it’s the former it’s coming from a negative expectation and if it’s the latter it’s positive.

So you can see that it’s not about specific behaviours being good or bad, it’s what driving them. Pretty well anything is ok (assuming it’s sane and legal) if it’s engaged in with self-awareness and open sharing with your partner.

Pay attention to what you’re feeling before during and after, you’ll learn so much about yourself. Share with each other, support each other, and you’ll find that you’ll clear negativity associated with your sexuality. And of course, if you’re finding it challenging, see a professional like me to help shine a light and gain clarity!