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Embrace Pleasure: Supporting Sexual Flourishing Through Psychedelic Experience
Dee Dee Goldpaugh, LCSW (Psychotherapist, Author & Clinical Consultant)
Tuesday 14 October, 2025 7PM CEST (6PM BST, 1PM ET, 10AM PT)
Online via Zoom
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After several decades of clinical research into their therapeutic potential, psychedelic medicines in clinical contexts stand to shift the paradigm of how we approach the treatment of depression, anxiety, trauma, and other mental health issues. But this newfound respectability garnered by clinical research has a cost. Clinical research models omit one of the most powerful mechanisms for healing in the psychedelic experience: pleasure.
In this interactive presentation, clinician and author Dee Dee Goldpaugh will discuss the latest research on psychedelics and sexuality. They will go beyond the findings to help clinicians understand how the embodied experience of psychedelic states can foster a deeper connection to the body, acknowledging that psychedelics can shift harmful narratives surrounding sexuality. Goldpaugh will also address how professionals can support clients in exploring their gender and sexual identities, developing a spiritual practice connected to sexuality, and promoting sexual and relational flourishing.
Based on their new book, Embrace Pleasure: How Psychedelics Can Heal Our Sexuality, Goldpaugh will provide practical education on psychedelic preparation and integration for sexual healing, explore how different psychedelic medicines impact sexual satisfaction and pleasure, and offer a new framework for working with sexual trauma.
Grounded in research, this presentation aims to critique the neoliberal and capitalist structures present in our society and in psychedelic science. These structures hinder our ability to embrace pleasure, build community, and engage in meaningful erotic connection. Nevertheless, Goldpaugh delivers the uplifting message that pleasure (and psychedelic medicines) have the power to heal us.
What you will learn
Participants will:
- Explore therapeutic frameworks for working with sexual trauma through expanded states of consciousness.
- Gain insight into how psychedelic states can support:
- Gender and sexual identity exploration
- Spiritual practices around sexuality
- Deeper relational connection
- Examine how societal structures and dominant narratives influence sexual well-being
- Learn how clinicians can support clients in reclaiming pleasure as part of the healing process.
Who is this for?
This session is designed for professionals working in or entering the field of psychedelic therapy, including:
- Therapists, clinicians, and mental health practitioners seeking to integrate a more holistic, embodied approach to psychedelic-assisted therapy.
- Practitioners interested in exploring the role of pleasure and sexuality in healing.
- Professionals in the psychedelic field committed to ethical, supportive, and culturally sensitive approaches that address the intersections of sexuality, trauma, and expanded states of consciousness.
