Pleasure, Play & Desire

“Pleasure is the point. Feeling good is not frivolous, it is freedom.” 

― adrienne maree brown, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good 

 

There are at least two things we need in order to experience pleasure in our bodies:  knowing we have choice and knowing it’s okay to have desire. These may seem like simple things, but pleasure, touch, sex, desire, and longing are sometimes tinged with shame, confusion, and other complex feelings. Accepting that this complexity is normal and even leaning into it can provide a platform on which to learn and play. Knowing we have choice includes feeling into and communicating our authentic yes, no, and maybe.  Knowing it’s okay to have desire includes embracing our unique longings, moving towards what we want, and being okay with another person’s “no.”

 

We will use aspects of Betty Martin’s Wheel of Consent work and have opportunities to practice noticing, trusting, valuing, and communicating consent, boundaries, and desires. There will be invitations for non-sexual touch, but touching and being touched is never required. This workshop will use multiple modalities for learning, including discussions and verbal sharing, and we will use dance to integrate our experiences. 

 

We will go luxuriously slow and take our time. 

 

All adults are welcome, regardless of gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, sexual orientation, relationship status, or dance experience. We strive to co-create an environment that is sex positive, inclusive, curious and expansive, and we strive to honor the experiences each person brings into the room.

Cynthia is a dancer, a mother, and a passionate student of what the body knows before the mind catches up. Her work lives at the meeting point of somatics, sexuality, and leadership — how we learn to trust our own signals, and what becomes possible once we do.

For more than twenty years she has been on the faculty at The Evergreen State College, teaching somatic studies and embodied leadership to students who arrive expecting theory and leave having felt something.

She is a founding member of Open Floor and one of its teachers, and her approach is shaped by 5Rhythms teacher training, Betty Martin’s Like a Pro, and Internal Family Systems Level 2 psychotherapy training — a lineage that runs from the dance floor to the therapy room and back.

She grew up in the Midwest, and bringing embodied sexuality teachings home is the part of this work she did not expect to love as much as he does.

Tru (they/them) is a genderqueer kinky person of color who loves to geek out on sex and intimacy and strives to understand and de-clusterfuck the impacts of systemic oppression on all bodies.  Their curiosity and wide range of interests are evident in the work they offer — as a Sacred Intimate, sex and intimacy coach, pro-domme, an Open Floor teacher, a potter, and a lawyer. 

They facilitate workshops on dance, embodied sexuality, consent, touch, transformational kink, and BDSM skill-building.  Some trainings that inform Tru’s work include:  Sacred Intimacy Through a Tantric Lens; Theater of the Oppressed Facilitator training; Dr. Leticia Nieto’s Beyond Inclusion Beyond Empowerment model for liberation; Betty Martin’s Like a Pro; Open Floor teacher training; and the action-based methodology of psychodrama.  Tru loves using their body for exploration, transformation, and general shenanigans.   

MARCH 5 – 7,  2026
Fri  –   6:30  – 9:00pm
Sat –  10:30 – 5:30pm
PotLuck – 6:00 – 7:30pm
Sun  – 12:00 – 5:30pm
Join the local community for our ongoing
Sunday event – Embrace
9:00 – 11:00am
$15.00 for workshop attendees

Partial Discount – I am doing Okay!
$395

Full Discount – I could use support!
$345

Donation – Any amount helps
I can help support others who are in need of financial support to attend this workshop.
Mandala is a Non-Profit Organization, Donations are tax-deductible.