I went to Buddhafield festival last month and there was a whole host of workshops relevant to my work. I was keen to see how others were teaching similar services.

Firstly I met Catherine Hale for an intimacy workshop. Catherine is a sexuality, empowerment and trauma specialist. This workshop was extremely interesting. She spoke about how we are conditioned from an early age to tolerate touching and being touched. Whether it’s wiping a mucky toddlers face to their protest, or making a child kiss or hug us or others when we choose against their will.

The workshop was all about consent, rewiring our brains and learning not to tolerate either as the giver or the receiver. One of the exercises was that the receiver of the touch had to ask where and how they wanted to be touched and for how long (it could be up to 3 minutes) then the giver had to either agree or compromise what they could willingly and lovingly give. As with any consent this was subject to change. The receiver could say ‘thank you I’ve had enough’ at any time as could the giver.

This was a fascinating social experiment around consent and asking for what we want. People can be very assertive in lots of areas in their life however when it comes to intimacy have trouble vocalising and asking for what they want and likewise trouble expressing when they’ve had enough of something.

I learnt a lot from this lady and I recommend that you look her up! Her approach is very holistic. You can find more information here. https://catherinehale.co.uk