'A goldmine of wisdom' CYNDI DARNELL 'Gentle, kind and embracing' JUNO ROCHE 'Interesting and engaging' JUSTIN HANCOCK Gay, straight, queer, pansexual, demisexual, ace...? Sexuality is complex and diverse, but it doesn't have to be confusing. This down-to-earth guide is the ultimate companion for understanding, accepting and celebrating your sexuality. Written by two internationally renowned authors and therapists, the book explains how sexuality works in terms of our identities, attractions, desires and practices, and explores how it intersects with our personal experiences and the world around us. With activities and reflection points throughout, it offers space to tune into yourself and think deeply about your own sexuality. You'll hear from people across the sexuality spectrum and in different relationship set-ups, and be inspired by the ideas of scholars, activists and practitioners. Sexuality is a vast and wonderful landscape - let this book guide you on your journey!
Sexual Reflections: A Workbook for Designing and Celebrating Your Sexual Health Plan, by Alexandra Katehakis, Ph.D., helps you uncover and embrace your unique, optimal sexuality. Carefully researched, designed, and clinically tested, the Workbook gives you a powerful new program to achieve your authentic sexual expression. Meant to be used with your therapist (complete with therapist instructions in the Appendix), this cutting-edge body/mind Workbook assists you in attaining personally satisfying and sustainable, healthy sexual experiences that fully align with your own ethical and erotic values. Prepare for some "Aha!" moments as the Sexual Reflections: A Workbook engages you and your therapist in unblinkingly honest, individually-tailored exercises and conversations. This sex-positive guide celebrates and strengthens your unique healthy emotional and erotic intimacy with a partner. The Workbook begins with concrete actions supporting abstinence from sexual behaviors that destroy relationships (such as infidelity) or compromise integrity (such as sexual compulsivity). Having a healthy, satisfying, and therefore sustainable sex life takes a lot more than abstention from problematic sex. Constructing a positive sexuality starts with understanding all aspects of your sexuality -- physical, emotional, cognitive, interpersonal-intrapsychic, and spiritual-and is most objectively done in tandem with your therapist. The Workbook's sections lead you step by step through each of these aspects by presenting thought-provoking questions and emotionally evocative art, by inviting your responses with your own words and images, and by processing your reflections in the next session.Forthright and compassionate, Workbook sections first explore your awareness of your sexual responses, your ability to name and track bodily impulses, and your capacity to trust those impulses as a personal guide to what feels sexually right or wrong to you. Later sections consider how well you maintain healthy boundaries with a lover, how comfortably you can discuss preferred sexual experiences with appropriate others and how your spiritual beliefs might bring joy and meaning, rather than shame or guilt, to your sexual life. Weekly "homework assignments" and processing sessions cover the section topics and help you confirm which sexual acts are okay, not okay, or perfect for you through your bodily-based emotions. This tailored-to-you mind/body process hones your inner reflections, so you and your therapist can help you identify and live your unique, genuine-and thus genuinely sustainable--Sexual Health Plan.
Go beyond surviving to reclaim your sexual self. If you have experienced sexual abuse, assault, harassment, or rape, you may feel disconnected from your sexual self—even if you’ve overcome the initial trauma of your experience. You are a survivor; but surviving is just the beginning. This book explores what comes next. Written by a psychotherapist and grounded in cutting-edge research, Reclaiming Pleasure picks up where other sexual trauma recovery books leave off. It offers practical tools to help you cultivate a sense of safety, security and trust in order to reclaim the vitality, pleasure and great sex you deserve. The book will also serve as your compass on a journey toward the rediscovery of desire, letting you explore what you want from others and for yourself. This groundbreaking book will help you: Understand the lasting mental, physical, sexual, and relational impacts of sexual trauma Move beyond feelings of shame Reclaim pleasure and reignite passion in your life Surviving is merely the first step in the process of recovery from sexual trauma. With this sex-positive and empowering guide, you are invited to take your recovery to the next level. You’ll feel emboldened by the desire for better sex, healthier relationships, and a more connected, pleasurable life.
"This updated edition of Bornstein's formative My Gender Workbook (1997) provides an invigorating introduction to contemporary theory around gender, sexuality, and power. The original is a classic of modern transgender theory and literature and, alongside Bornstein's other work, has influenced an entire generation of trans writers and artists. This revised and expanded edition extends that legacy, offering an accessible foundation for examining gender in the reader's life and in the broader culture while arguing for the dismantling of all forms of oppression. For fans of the original, Bornstein's new material merits a fresh read..."--Publishers Weekly, starred review Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender theory, but most fail to provide a hands-on, accessible guide for those trying to sort out their own sexual identities. In My Gender Workbook, transgender activist Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender. Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today's world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, complete with quizzes, exercises, and puzzles, Bornstein gently but firmly guides readers toward discovering their own unique gender identity. Since its first publication in 1997, My Gender Workbook has been challenging, encouraging, questioning, and helping those trying to figure out how to become a "real man," a "real woman," or "something else entirely." In this exciting new edition of her classic text, Bornstein re-examines gender in light of issues like race, class, sexuality, and language. With new quizzes, new puzzles, new exercises, and plenty of Kate's playful and provocative style, My New Gender Workbook promises to help a new generation create their own unique place on the gender spectrum.
'Excellent' KATE BORNSTEIN 'The compassionate, accessible manual the world has been waiting for' LAURIE PENNY Have you ever questioned your own gender identity? Do you know somebody who is transgender or who identifies as non-binary? Do you ever feel confused when people talk about gender diversity? This down-to-earth guide is for anybody who wants to know more about gender, from its biology, history and sociology, to how it plays a role in our relationships and interactions with family, friends, partners and strangers. It looks at practical ways people can express their own gender, and will help you to understand people whose gender might be different from your own. With activities and points for reflection throughout, this book will help people of all genders engage with gender diversity and explore the ideas in the book in relation to their own lived experiences.
With "My Gender Workbook," Bornstein brings theory down to earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender. She also takes aim at efforts to naturalize gender differences.
How can you build unshakable confidence and resilience in a world still filled with ignorance, inequality, and discrimination? The Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook will teach you how to challenge internalized negative messages, handle stress, build a community of support, and embrace your true self. Resilience is a key ingredient for psychological health and wellness. It’s what gives people the psychological strength to cope with everyday stress, as well as major setbacks. For many people, stressful events may include job loss, financial problems, illness, natural disasters, medical emergencies, divorce, or the death of a loved one. But if you are queer or gender non-conforming, life stresses may also include discrimination in housing and health care, employment barriers, homelessness, family rejection, physical attacks or threats, and general unfair treatment and oppression—all of which lead to overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness. So, how can you gain resilience in a society that is so often toxic and unwelcoming? In this important workbook, you’ll discover how to cultivate the key components of resilience: holding a positive view of yourself and your abilities; knowing your worth and cultivating a strong sense of self-esteem; effectively utilizing resources; being assertive and creating a support community; fostering hope and growth within yourself, and finding the strength to help others. Once you know how to tap into your personal resilience, you’ll have an unlimited well you can draw from to navigate everyday challenges. By learning to challenge internalized negative messages and remove obstacles from your life, you can build the resilience you need to embrace your truest self in an imperfect world.
'Queer: A Graphic History Could Totally Change the Way You Think About Sex and Gender' Vice Activist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Jules Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel. From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, Queer explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas get tangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged. Along the way we look at key landmarks which shift our perspective of what's 'normal' - Alfred Kinsey's view of sexuality as a spectrum, Judith Butler's view of gendered behaviour as a performance, the play Wicked, or moments in Casino Royale when we're invited to view James Bond with the kind of desiring gaze usually directed at female bodies in mainstream media. Presented in a brilliantly engaging and witty style, this is a unique portrait of the universe of queer thinking.
A new, practical workbook from the New York Times bestselling author of Come As You Are that allows you to apply the book’s groundbreaking research and understanding of why and how women’s sexuality works to everyday life. In the twentieth century, women’s sexuality was seen as “Men’s Sexuality Lite”: basically the same, but not quite as good. From genital response to sexual desire to orgasm, we just couldn’t understand that complicated, inconsistent, crazy-making “lady business.” That is, until Emily Nagoski changed the game with her New York Times bestseller, Come As You Are. Using groundbreaking science and research, she proved that the most important factor in creating and sustaining a sex life filled with confidence and joy is not what the parts are or how they’re organized, but how you feel about them. Which means that things like stress, mood, trust, and body image are not peripheral factors in a woman’s sexual wellbeing; they are central to it. And, that even if you don’t yet feel that way, you are already sexually whole. Nagoski’s book changed countless women’s lives and approaches to sex, and now she offers the next step. The Come As You Are Workbook is a practical companion to this bestselling guide, filled with new activities, prompts, and thought-provoking examples to help you exercise and expand on the knowledge you’ve learned. This collection of worksheets, journaling prompts, illustrations, and diagrams is a practical and engaging companion for anyone who wants to further their understanding of their own bodies and sex lives.
