Jan 112016
 

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Announcing the Explore More Summit! A 10-day virtual summit January 28-February 6, 2016 hosted by Dawn Serra. Explore More Summit features intimate interviews with 30 experts from around the world on all things sex, relationships, and self-love including Allison Moon, Amy Jo Goddard, Ashley Manta, Barbara Carrellas, Bianca Laureano, Charlie Glickman, Conner Habib, Cyndi Darnell, Dan Savage, Devi Ward, Elena Lipson, Feminista Jones, Erin Lee Kaufmann, Gina Senarighi, JoEllen Notte, Karen B.K. Chan, Lauren Marie Fleming, Dirty Lola, Meg John Barker, Nadine Thornhill, Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson, Marlene Wasserman, Reid Mihalko, Sophie Delancey, Stacey Herrera, Sunny Megatron and Ken Melvoin-Berg, Toby Hill-Meyer, Victoria Rosa, Virgie Tovar, and me, Tristan Taormino! Trust me…these talks are PHENOMENAL.

All of the talks air for free on their designated day. If you register for the summit before January 28, you’ll also get a free workbook emailed to you each morning during the summit with all kinds of prompts and questions that build on the talks. Get all the details about the free interviews, bonuses, and upgrades!

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Dec 222015
 

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I hope are having a wonderful holiday season with family and friends — and that you are excited about dreaming and visioning for what comes next. I know that the New Year is a great way to set yourself up for new experiences and all the growth you want to achieve. And I want to let you know about an upcoming virtual giveaway that I’m excited to be featured in. It’s called SEX, DESIRE, INTIMACY LIBRARY. It is available now through January 20, 2016.

—> Check it out here 

It’s hosted by my friend and colleague Amy Jo Goddard, sexual empowerment expert and author of “Woman On Fire: 9 Elements to Wake Up Your Erotic Energy, Personal Power and Sexual Intelligence.” Amy Jo has invited some of the luminaries from the worlds to share their brilliance with you in the form of a virtual library that features some of the best sexuality resources online today: videos, audio teachings, eBooks, guides and more—all available at no cost. They will be available until January 20, 2016.

She’s asked me to take part and to offer a special teaching that I’m really excited about, titled “Embrace Your Inner Kinkster and Find Your Voice: Discovering BDSM.” I’m so excited to be part of this event! And here’s why:

  1. This Library features the works of some of the very best sex educators, coaches, speakers, and authors: Reid Mihalko, Kamala Devi, Jaiya, Betty Dodson, Cathy Vartuli, Barbara Carrellas, Monique Darling, Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson, just to name a few.
  2. You’ll learn about a huge range of sexuality topics, everything from activating desire to overcoming sexual shame and trauma, to exploring BDSM and tantra, to deepening your intimate connections, to creating more pleasure in your every day life.
  3. Adult sex education has the potential to transform lives. When you make an effort to learn new sexual skills, so much can open up for you.

So please join me in the SEX, DESIRE, INTIMACY LIBRARY. It is available now through January 20, 2016.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn about in the Library:

– How to ignite desire and activate a sexual practice

– Tools from Tantra and BDSM to have more ecstatic connection

– Ways to communicate more clearly about sex, both in and outside the bedroom

– Authentic seduction – how to attract lovers in a way that feels natural and real

– Energetic sex and how to explore it with yourself and with others

– Overcoming body shame/stigma

– Self-love and pleasure hypnosis

– Pelvic heart integration

– How to touch your lover

– Forgiveness and the language of apology

– Healing sexual trauma

– How to start exploring kinky sex

– How to have more sensuality and pleasure in your life

– A roadmap to exploring polyamory

It’s totally free. Share it with a friend who wants to kick it up a notch this year in their sex and relationships; they’ll love you for it.

Mar 192013
 

BC by B.Nitke 2x2.8'This Friday, March 22nd at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET on Sex Out Loud radio, Author, Urban Tantra creator, sacred sexuality expert Barbara Carrellas comes to Sex Out Loud to talk ecstasy – what it is and why it’s not just important, but necessary. Her latest book, Ecstasy Is Necessary is a masterful, engaging work of art that combines profound and expansive ideas about sexuality with really practical, useful exercises that everyone can do. Carrellas will also discuss the creation of Urban Tantra and how you can integrate it into your own life. Check out sexoutloudradio.com for all the ways to listen to the show.

Barbara Carrellas is an author, sex/life coach, sex educator, university lecturer, workshop facilitator, motivational speaker and theater artist. Her most recent books are Ecstasy is Necessary: A Practical Guide, Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century and Luxurious Loving: Tantric Inspirations for Passion and Pleasure. Barbara’s pioneering Urban Tantra® workshops were named best in New York City by TimeOut/New York magazine. She is also the co-founder of Erotic Awakening, a groundbreaking series of workshops which toured the United States and Australia.

Barbara currently offers inspiring and life-changing workshops, lectures, and keynotes on a variety of topics to individuals, schools, conferences, businesses, and the arts.

Barbara is also a Sex/Life coach, offering her clients sex information and education, intuitive readings, emotional and mental rebalancing, resources and referrals. The essence of her work is the inseparable connection between your sex life and the rest of your life, and the happy integration of body, mind, and spirit.

Barbara brings a holistic, metaphysical, practical, humorous, entertaining and gender-fluid approach to conscious sexuality and to all her work. She began her work in metaphysics and conscious sexuality during the AIDS crisis in the late 1980’s—a time when the connections between sex, spirit and healing were at their most strained. Barbara has facilitated countless healing circles and support groups for women, men, transgender people, artists, people with life-threatening illnesses and people with HIV/AIDS. For four years she was a facilitator for and on the Board of Directors of the New York Healing Circle, which was founded in response to the AIDS crisis and incorporated the principles of Louise Hay’s work. As her workshops grew in popularity and in attendance, her work expanded to include people from all walks of life and in all stages of sexual evolution.

The more Barbara explored sex and consciousness, the more she saw the possibilities for healing and expanded consciousness in all forms of “sacred” practices, including Tantra, Tao, Quodoushka, Reiki, breathwork, metaphysics, performance, ritual, herbal medicine, bodywork, erotic massage, commercial sex work and BDSM. Her books and her workshops are an eclectic mix of sexual and spiritual practices designed to encourage readers and participants of all sexual preferences and genders to expand their capacity for both pleasure and spiritual fulfillment.Barbara has been featured in the videos Selfloving, The Sluts & Goddesses Video Workshop, Annie Sprinkle’s Amazing World of Orgasm, Zen Pussy, in the film Sacred Sex, in the Learning Channel’s Unusual Orgasms segment of the series Strange Sex, in numerous episodes of the HBO television series Real Sex, Australian television’s Sex/Life and on Britain’s Sky Channel as part of the documentary, Sex in America. She collaborated with Annie Sprinkle to present a new/ancient vision of female sexuality in theatrical form in MetamorphoSex, a week-long workshop for women culminating in ritual-performances. She also directed the Australian premiere of Annie’s renowned one-woman show, Post Porn Modernist. Barbara is proud to have enjoyed a lifelong theatrical career as a general manager, producer and theatre manager on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in alternative theatre in New York. She is still active as a performance artist.

Barbara has written numerous articles about sex, including a wildly popular series of feature articles for the sex magazine Over 40, highlighting the lives and wisdom of the stars of the “golden age” of porn. She has also written and produced The Pleasure Principle, an educational audio series.

Barbara has lectured at many educational institutions, including Harvard University, Brown University, Vassar College, Barnard College, Sara Lawrence College, Wesleyan University, the Chicago Art Institute and Yale University. She frequently collaborates with her partner, Kate Bornstein, with whom she performs and tours their sex positive, gender-bending lecture/performance piece There And Back Again: An Epic Tale of Sex, Death, and Gender.

Barbara is a certified sexologist (ASC, American College of Sexologists) and a member of AASECT (American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists).

Barbara is a proud graduate of the Coney Island Sideshow School with a double major in fire eating and snake handling.

Mar 242012
 


I am so proud of my newest book: The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge. I decided on a unique format for a non-fiction educational book: each chapter is written by a different person. And not just any person, but a top kink educator who has taught that subject extensively at conferences and community events. So, you don’t get just my take on the world of kink, but the experience, knowledge, and opinions of some amazing teachers.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

Part 1: Skills and Techniques
1. “S is for…”: The Terms, Principles, and Pleasures of Kink by Tristan Taormino
2. Making an Impact: Spanking, Caning, and Flogging by Lolita Wolf
3. How to Train Your Sex Slave by Laura Antoniou
4. Whole Hand Sex: Vaginal Fisting and BDSM by Sarah Sloane
5. Bondage for Sex by Midori
6. A Little Cock and Ball Play by Hardy Haberman
7. Kinky Twisted Tantra by Barbara Carrellas
8. Piercing Scenes by FifthAngel
9. Brutal Affection: Playing with Rough Sex by Felice Shays
10. Butthole Bliss: The Ins and Outs of Anal Fisting by Patrick Califia

Part 2: Fantasies and Philosophies
11. Stop, Drop, and Role! Erotic Role Playing by Mollena Williams
12. A Romp on the Wild Side: Erotic Human Animal Role Playing by Lee Harrington
13. ForteFemme: The Art and Philosophy of Feminine Dominance by Midori
14. Submissive: A Personal Manifesto by Madison Young
15. Enhancing Masochism: How to Expand Limits and Increase Desire by Patrick Califia
16. Inside the Mind of a Sadist by FifthAngel
17. Age Role Play by Ignacio Rivera, aka Papí Coxxx
18. Digging in the Dirt: The Lure of Taboo Role Play by Mollena Williams
19. The Dark Side by Jack Rinella
20. Mindfuck by Edge

And here is an exclusive excerpt of my introduction:

There are hundreds of gatherings of kinksters throughout North America—whether it’s a local organization’s annual conference, a camping event for pervy people, or a BDSM retreat—and the majority of them have a strong educational component. On any given weekend, you can learn how to: safely set someone on fire, be a good Daddy, plan the perfect gang bang, do bondage without rope, or channel your inner shaman. As a group, people into kink devote a lot of time, resources, and energy to learning.

I first heard the phrase lifelong learners when a friend of mine who works at a public radio station told me that marketers use it to refer to NPR listeners. Lifelong learners are people who are self-motivated to continually seek out new knowledge and skills, through informal and formal education, to constantly develop and improve themselves. The concept really resonates with me, as it aptly describes so many of the people I meet at sex and kink events—we are lifelong learners. That’s what’s so ironic about the conservative backlash against BDSMers. With increased visibility comes increased bigotry, and conservatives continue to rally against kinky events by local groups to get them shut down. What the anti-kink fanatics don’t understand about us is that we’re geeks. Sex nerds. SM intellectuals. We pay money to spend a weekend going to classes.

Of course, we do manage to get our noses out of the books to have fun, too. In the process of having a good time and getting off, we also strive to create alternative utopian worlds, even if only for a weekend. The kink community is built on the radical notion that people can express their erotic needs and desires and have them met. We believe that dreams do come true, and not at Disneyland, but in our bedrooms. Kink events are not just about getting together to have fabulous erotic experiences. We learn skills that we can translate into every part of our life: how to claim our desires, negotiate for what we want and need, set boundaries, communicate limits, acknowledge power dynamics, celebrate sexuality, and accept each other’s differences.

I envisioned this book as a compilation of the work of some of the best educators in North America, and every piece was written specifically for it. You don’t have to attend dozens of regional or national events to hear these experts speak—they are gathered here, in one place, taking on topics about which they are truly passionate. Their expertise in these subjects is tremendous, yet some of them have never had their writing about kink published for a wide audience. As you turn the pages, I want you to feel as if you’re at one of these gatherings, spending time with the teachers as they share their wisdom, experience, thoughts, opinions, and personal anecdotes. Unlike books about BDSM only, the chapters in this book explore different areas of kink with a specific focus on sex. After all, sex is a big part of what motivates and manifests our kink, but, until recently, it was often left out of the equation in our educational offerings.

The book is divided into two sections. In “Skills and Techniques,” pieces feature nuts-and-bolts, how-to tutorials, sprinkled with lots of creative ideas and examples. You’ll learn about topics from bondage and spanking to piercing and rough sex. This section is beautifully illustrated by queer artist Katie Diamond, who created the images expressly for this book. There are a variety of role-playing fantasies as well as personal manifestos in the second section, “Fantasies and Philosophies.” From masochism to age play, these pieces cover some of the edgiest and most taboo and controversial elements of kink in depth. The subjects, which have long been a part of kink, are too rarely discussed outside closed circles or in print. It’s time to shine a light on what is often only perceived as darkness.

I wanted the collection to capture not only the incredible exchange of ideas at kink conferences, but the magic that happens at a gathering of a kinky tribe. I hope you learn a lot from this diverse group of writers and you are inspired to find them, and other educators, at an event near you so you can supplement this education with mentoring, hands-on demonstrations, and interactive learning.

Exploring kink provides us with an opportunity for self-reflection, challenge, and personal growth. Where many people are content to just sit back and let life happen, we’re not: we constantly engage our identities, sexualities, and relationships. Sometimes, it’s about testing ourselves. Rock climbing aficionados, competitive triathletes, or ambitious innovators in the business world: there are those who strive to go farther, faster, deeper. Some of us don’t do it dangling from a mountain; we do it through intense—what some would call extreme—erotic experiences. Kink can be a private (or semipublic) laboratory—a sacred space where we feel safe enough to try new things, push our boundaries, flirt with edges, and conquer fears. Because it combines the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual, it has the potential to heal old wounds and generate spiritual renewal. It can deepen our connections and relationships, bringing a new level of intimacy to them. Kink is a crucible for creativity, vulnerability, perseverance, control, catharsis, and connection. Kink is a unique space where there is room to experiment and see what bubbles up.