Birds Do It, Bees Do It

When there's nothing to lose and there's nothing to prove
Well, I'm dancing with myself

-Dancing With Myself

StarHaus Psychotherapy - April Newsletter

updates

What’s New?

There are just a few days left to participate in our yearly sweatshirt fundraiser, which closes this Friday April 5th! 100% of profits go to The Loveland Foundation’s therapy fund, which aims to improve mental health equity and access for Black women, girls, and non-binary folks!

On the front of the sweatshirt, you can see our little mascot, and the back features an animorphs inspired design where symbols morph into one another to represent the cycle of therapeutic change. They come in three spring-y colors!

Use the link below to learn more and to purchase one of your own!

Purchase Here

intro

We’re continuing to explore themes that fall under our word of the year, adaptation.

This month, we’re exploring the themes of sex and sensory pleasure!

For many of us, our relationships with these topics are complex and multifaceted, and have evolved throughout our lives, influenced by many factors. Because of the puritanical roots of American culture, pleasure in all it’s forms is often overlooked or ignored, if not outright shamed. However, sex positive movements are pushing back against this. Emily Nagoski’s Come As You Are, sets out to, “[demystify and decode] the science of sex so that everyone can create a better sex life and discover more pleasure than you ever thought possible.”

Other forms of sensory pleasure are likely going to experience a surge of scientific interest following the publishing of a recent Australian study, which concluded something that ancient peoples seem to have known from the beginning; dancing is very good for your soul! A scientist quoted in this article explaining the study added that, “it’s not [just] that exercise beats out SSRIs for depression treatment, but that *just* dancing has the largest effect of *any treatment* for depression. That’s kind of beautiful.” It is beautiful!

Let’s talk more about the therapeutic benefits of pleasure!

p.s. Do you have your own word of the year? Want to talk about it? We would love to help you brainstorm, clarify, celebrate, etc.

Reach Out

events

Focus On Your Physical Pleasure

The Smitten Kitten (a “sex toy store for everybody”) often hosts events, (nothing on the calendar at the moment, check back) but in the meantime consider heading over to do some shopping or chat with their knowledgeable staff.
Have you heard of community acupuncture? It’s an attempt to increase accessibility of acupuncture services by offering group sessions at sliding scale rates. There are several groups in the Twin Cities and beyond that provide affordable community acupuncture, and this website has a “clinic finder” feature where you search for options near you.

extras

April Playlist - from Lauren

Here are some sexy tunes for you! Enjoy! That’s all!

Listen Here

Archetype of the Month - from Liana

The Hedonist

“The senses, no less than the soul, have their spiritual mysteries to reveal.” - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Hedonist prioritizes the pursuit of pleasure above all else. The Hedonist laughs in the face of those who suggest suffering is a pathway to peace (Eckhart Tolle among others) and states,

“Not only is my pleasure pleasurable, but also virtuous.” Epicurus, the Greek philosopher from whom we derive the descriptor “epicurean,” meaning devoted to sensual pleasures, emphasized the senses over Platonian reason, exalted pleasure as the highest good, and advocated for the reduction of pain. Dionysus (or the Roman counterpart, Bacchus) is a god who represents some key qualities of the Hedonist: excessive, subversive, and ecstatic. In unfiltered pursuit of revelry, these gods part from Epicurus and are also associated with rebirth, madness, and initiation practices that illuminated the thin line between pleasure and pain.

What can we learn from the Hedonist, especially when some, such as bell hooks in writing on hedonistic consumption, caution us that hedonic pursuit is part and parcel with the nullifying effect of capitalism? In Sharon Olds’ Poem “Sex Without Love” she writes of those who pursue purely carnal pleasure, “They do not/ mistake the lover for their own pleasure.” The Hedonist encourages savoring, renounces shame, and encourages owning your desires, as such accountability can both minimize projection and maximize the potential for self-knowledge by sensory means.

Image credit: Bacchus Dance, Andre Derain, 1906

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -StarHaus