As one of the top United States’ leading sexuality educators, Sheri Winston has been helping men and women everywhere to have great sex and erotic connections. Sheri offers sexuality and intimate arts classes (in-person and online), facilitates workshops and retreats and gives professional trainings to a wide range of students. She’s the award-winning author of Women’s Anatomy of Arousal: Secret Maps to Buried Pleasure (AASECT 2010 Book of the Year). Her fifteen years as a wholistic sexuality teacher developed out of her previous career of twenty-five years as a certified nurse-midwife, gynecology nurse-practitioner, educator and massage therapist. With her new book Succulent Sexcraft launching in a week, SimplySxy takes the opportunity to interview Sheri and get her thoughts.
SimplySxy: Hi Sheri! Congratulations on the upcoming release of your new book Succulent Sexcraft: Your Hands-On Guide to Erotic Play and Practice coming out this 14th September. There must be a lot of excitement and anticipation building as the follow up to the award winning Women’s Anatomy of Arousal. Where did the inspiration for Succulent Sexcraft come from?
Sheri Winston: Succulent Sexcraft is based on the core of the Wholistic Sexuality™ curriculum I’ve been creating for the last 15 years—all the ways we can each develop mastery of our own sexuality. Having fabulous sex is a lot like learning to play an instrument—we each have natural abilities and capacities that we can combine with learnable skills to become ever-more adept. Everyone has these inner tools that we can use to do things like access ecstasy, expand arousal, increase pleasure, hone erotic awareness. Ultimately, everyone can become an erotic virtuoso. You can learn to play amazing erotic solos with yourselves and fabulous duets with others.
We’re so excited about Succulent SexCraft that we’re a celebrating the launch with a major marketing program. People who buy the book between September 14-16 (and possibly beyond) also get access to over $1,000 in wonderful free gifts from some of our favorite sex, relationship and empowerment teachers. It’s a great opportunity for anyone who wants to make the most out of their intimate life.
SimplySxy: Is there a sense of expectation or pressure with Succulent Sexcraft following the success of Women’s Anatomy of Arousal?
Sheri Winston: Not for me. It’s just the next step in my mission to support sexual empowerment and integration.
SimplySxy: There are still a lot of people who prefer avoiding discussions about sex openly. What do you think is the main reason and what can be done to make them feel more comfortable to talk about it?
Sheri Winston: Well, it’s sex! And sex, is never just about sex. Our sexuality is connected to everything. We have a lot of shame and excitement around sex. There’s desire, lust, love, expectation, taboos and judgements. We have complex inner stories and ambiguous cultural narratives around all things sexual. Sex is complicated territory.
It’s hard to talk about things we really don’t understand. Erotic energy is a powerful and compelling force. Most of us haven’t learned how to navigate its vigorous currents or understand our own sexual dynamics well.
We don’t see good modelling of how to have healthy, clear conversations with partners or potential partners about sex, boundaries, desires, fantasies, activities and issues. We don’t get good role models of healthy relationships and skilled sexual communication in our communities or institutions, either. That makes it hard to learn how to talk about it.
Add to that the fact that we lack yummy, comfortable, accessible language for sexual body parts and erotic activities, and it’s not surprising that anything sexual can be hard to talk about.
SimplySxy: Sex education (or the lack of) has been making a lot of news for some time. At what age do you think sex education should begin and is it up to the state or schools to do more about it?
Sheri Winston: Sex education is something that happens throughout our lives. It begins when you’re a baby. It includes so many unconscious things like how our parents and care-givers act when they changed our diapers and washed our crotch. It was absorbed as we watched and felt how our families were with their own sexuality, with their own bodies. It’s happening throughout our lives as we absorb message both subtle and overt about our bodies, our genitals, pleasure, gender roles and so on. In my ideal world, we’re all educators of how to be in healthy happy relationship with sexuality.
I also believe that our schools should be teaching about sexuality and related issues throughout all grades. Teaching about boundaries, respect, responsibility, and communication should go along with information about our bodies and our sexuality in a comprehensive curriculum of how to be a healthy happy human. Truly comprehensive sexuality education would include developing emotional, physical and sexual intelligence, communication skills, how to have exquisite boundaries and how to enhance pleasure.
SimplySxy: You run an extensive number of classes and workshops based on the Wholistic Sexuality™ framework. Which are the most popular classes that people sign up for?
Sheri Winston: It varies widely because I teach to so many different audiences from a wide range of the lay public to highly trained medical professionals and sexuality educators. Some of my most popular classes include: Secrets of Sexual Pleasure; Women’s Anatomy of Arousal (Men’s, too.); Orgasmic Abundance for Everyone; Succulent SexCraft; and The Art of Female Ejaculation.
SimplySxy: Do you feel that there are global differences when it comes to Sex in general? In terms of different cultures across the world that certain techniques or curriculums might have to be tweaked slightly?
Sheri Winston: While there are enormous cultural differences in our wide world, sexuality is a human thing. The basics of my philosophy and my teaching—that everyone is capable of having extraordinary sex, that fabulous sex is learnable, that our sexuality begins with ourselves, and that we all have the ability to connect to our ecstatic potential—applies equally to all people.
SimplySxy: Thank you very much Sheri for your time. It has certainly been a pleasure to feature you on SimplySxy and we wish you all the best for Succulent Sexcraft!
To learn more, visit the Website of Sheri Winston’s Center for the Intimate Arts at: http://intimateartscenter.com/
Image courtesy of Sheri Winston
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