🎃 Spooky Feelings Symposium 🎃

Join us for this special, FREE, Spooky Feelings Symposium featuring some of the most renowned thought leaders in the world of relationships, sexuality and non-monogamy!

Note: This class will be recorded and available for 30 days after the event for all ticket holders.

Schedule

3pm - 4pm PT / 6pm - 7pm ET

When Feelings Get Spooky: A Conversation with Jessica Fern & David Cooley (Polysecure & Polywise)

Facilitated by Misha Bonaventura of Bonobo Network

4:15pm - 5:15pm PT / 7:15pm - 8:15pm ET

Desire Smuggling 101 with Marcia B

5:30pm - 6:30pm PT / 8:30pm - 9:30pm ET

Alchemizing the Disappointment Ghoul with Danielle Harel & Celeste Hirschman of Somatica

Workshop Descriptions

When Feelings Get Spooky: A Conversation with Jessica Fern & David Cooley (Polysecure & Polywise)

Facilitated by Misha Bonaventura of Bonobo Network

3pm - 4pm PT / 6pm - 7pm ET

A special, intimate conversation with Jessica Fern, author of Polysecure and Polywise and David Cooley, author of Polywise, led by Misha Bonaventura, where they discuss all the feelings we find the hardest to deal with in relationships, and share their insights and experiences with moving through them in a collaborative and constructive way.

Desire Smuggling 101 with Marcia B

4:15pm - 5:15pm PT / 7:15pm - 8:15pm ET

If you're like most people, asking for what you want is full of challenges, especially when your desires are tender, vulnerable or new. It may be tempting to avoid asking altogether, and just hope that somehow, magically, something will happen. Yet even if you avoid asking for what you want, your desires are still there, waiting, trying their best to be known and hoping to be fulfilled. You may sneak them in sideways, wait patiently or resentfully, hint and hope, pick fights, make secret deals that no one but you knows about, complain, blame, try to resign yourself to not getting it, or any of dozens of other strategies to get what you want without having to say it directly. 

I call these tactics "Desire Smuggling" and while sometimes it may work, it often comes at the cost of undermining your relationships. What's more, these tactics often don't get you what you really want, leaving more sadness and disconnection in their wake. 

In this workshop, we'll get into it. You'll learn:

* Why we don't ask for things and what we do instead

* How you hide your desires from others and even yourself

* The three types of desire smuggling and their likely outcomes

* What desire smuggling is really about

* How to use desire smuggling as a clue to uncover what you really want

* Practical tools to communicate more directly with less stress and more clarity and ease!

Alchemizing the Disappointment Ghoul with Danielle Harel & Celeste Hirschman of Somatica

5:30pm - 6:30pm PT / 8:30pm - 9:30pm ET

Talk about scary - there's nothing that seems to spook people more in a relationship than the prospect of disappointing someone or being disappointed by them. Because of old wounds, we fear disappointing people for many reasons including abandonment, fear of punishment or being “bad” or “in trouble”. We fear being disappointed because of old wounds that trick us into to feeling unloved, un-cared, alone, neglected, or un-important. All of it comes from a fear that love can't survive this big, scary monster. Once you deal with this apparition directly however, you can see that love can survive it. In fact, you might even discover the treat on the other side, namely…acceptance. We will help you face this inescapable relationship phantom together when you join us on this bumpy, alchemical ride from disappointment to acceptance to true love.

Meet Your Presenters

Jessica Fern

Jessica Fern is a Psychotherapist, Coach, and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. Jessica is the author of Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma, and NonMonomgamy, The Polyseucre Workbook: Healing Your Attachment and Creating Security in Loving Relationships, and Polywise: A Deeper Dive Into Navigating Open Relationships. In her international private practice, Jessica works with individuals, couples, and people in multiple-partner relationships who no longer want to be limited by their reactive patterns, cultural conditioning, insecure attachment styles, and past traumas, helping them to embody new possibilities in life and love. Learn more at JessicaFern.com. 

David Cooley

David Cooley is a professional Restorative Justice facilitator, diversity and privilege awareness trainer, and bilingual cultural broker. He is the creator of the Restorative Relationship Conversations model, a process that transforms interpersonal conflict into deeper connection, intimacy and repair. In his private practice, David specializes in working with non-monogamous and LGBTQ partnerships, incorporating a variety of modalities including trauma-informed care, attachment theory, somatic practices, narrative theory, and mindfulness-based techniques.

Misha Bonaventura

Misha co-produces Bonobo Network with William Winters. Alongside William, she is passionate about supporting sex positive community and helping people create more pleasure for themselves. She teaches and consults individuals and communities to develop their consent culture with a harm reduction and transformative justice lens. Her private practice, Clearing Conversations, focuses on conflict resolution and communication coaching and she loves supporting the sex positive community of the Bay Area and beyond in creating sustainable, long-term relationship building.

If you want to join our community of sex positive pleasure seekers, please apply at Bonobo Network!

Marcia B

Marcia B (she/her) is an internationally-recognized coach, writer, and presenter on sexual communication, boundaries, consent, and desire. Her primary mission is to help adults who want more connection and intimacy to overcome shame and get in touch with what they truly want – romantically, sexually, and relationally – even if it’s off the beaten path. Her book, Creating Consent Culture: A Handbook for Educators, coauthored with Erica Scott, was released in January 2022, hitting #1 in new releases for Health Teaching Materials on Amazon. Marcia co-founded Cuddle Party, in 2004, which grew to nearly 200 facilitators across 5 continents, and helped tens of thousands of people to speak up for the kind of touch they want, say No unapologetically, and foster more connected, affectionate relationships.

Danielle Harel

Dr. Danielle Harel is the co-founder of the Somatica Institute and a force of nature — inspiring and profoundly dedicated to growth and expansion. Equal parts sexologist and entrepreneur, she invites her students and clients to dive deep into pleasure, and use its transformative and healing powers to their benefit. Her vast knowledge is reflected in her Ph.D. in Human Sexuality, graduate degree in Clinical Social Work, and Bachelor’s in Psychology and Educational Counseling were instrumental in developing the Somatica® Method.

Celeste Hirschman

Celeste Hirschman, MA, is the co-founder of the Somatica Institute and a trailblazing expert in the fields of intimacy and personal transformation. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies. Celeste is dedicated to helping people unlock deeper connections and embrace their authentic selves. Her groundbreaking methodology has empowered countless individuals to transform their relationships and experience profound personal growth.