Celebrating National Masturbation Day

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.

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The Power of Psychedelic Therapy: Unlocking Entrepreneurial Potential through Integration

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.

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The Identified Patient: Unraveling the Dynamics and Finding Healing

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.

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How Eating a Tangerine Can Support Mindfulness

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.

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What is Indian Psychology?

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.

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The Body in Psychology

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.

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Birthing: A Multifaceted Experience

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.

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If Sitting in Meditation Doesn’t Work for You, Don’t

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.

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Painful ‘Sex’

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.”

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Celebrating Big Vulva Energy

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.

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The Similarities Between Vulva Gazing and the Labyrinth

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.

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Take Responsibility for Your Own Boundaries

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.

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Stormy Daniels: A Sexologist’s Perspective

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.

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The Shadow Side of the Psychedelic Resurgence

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.

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Initiation

Initiation is often accompanied by rituals and ceremonies that mark the transition from one stage of life to another. These rituals serve as a way of acknowledging the individual's growth and transformation and provide a sense of community and belonging. In many cultures, initiation is a collective process, with the community playing an active role in supporting the individual through their journey.

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An Orgasm is Perhaps Not What You Think It Is

Sexuality consists of five circles, which means it’s not limited to one body part in another body part. Sexuality is also flirting, touch, fantasy, sexual identity, and health, and, perhaps above all, a psychological state of being. So no, it’s not just about body parts. And even then, don’t discount the various ways sex can be performed be it oral, mutual masturbation, and digital, to name just a few ways of expression!

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From Pioneers to Popularity: My Journey in the Field of Psychedelic Science and Therapy

I care deeply about the topic and integrity of the field of psychedelic science, therapy, and research and continue to work as a teaching assistant and mentor groups. I provide didactic material around the clinical application of the academic material learned in class as well as how to network and collaborate with other professionals that may be beneficial to their career and the field of psychedelic science overall.

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Cancer and Sexuality

It is important to study women's sexual health because women have unique pleasure and health needs that differ from those of men. These issues are multifaceted and include sexual pleasure, menstrual understanding, sexual expression and communication, pregnancy-related curiosities and concerns, and menopausal transitions. Women's sexual health is not only essential for their physical well-being but also for their mental and emotional health because they are connected.

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