Pleasure and Presence

Dr. Kate Balestrieri is a sex-positive therapist whose clinical focus is to help people heal from trauma, establish healthy boundaries, build effective communication strategies, improve relationships, and enhance their sex lives. Her work places extra emphasis on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in order to help people create transformation in their lives and relationships through the mind-body connection. Guided by the synthesis of multiple theoretical approaches—including psychodynamic, affect regulation, interpersonal neurobiological, attachment focused, cognitive behavioral, somatic and systemic principles—she incorporates evidenced-based research into her counseling services. Dr. Kate Balestrieri is also the Founder of the platform Modern Intimacy, which provides an inclusive space for people to get access to education about important but stigmatized topics that people live with every day, related to trauma, relationships, sexual health, and sexual sexual problems. In our conversation, we explore different definitions of pleasure, joy, and contentment—and the importance of challenging our default definitions of everyday terms. We discuss the relationship between sexual pleasure and non-sexual pleasure, how pleasure is something we are innately capable of yet culturally conditioned away from, the role of shame and self-sabotage, and how we can cultivate a pleasure practice to reclaim pleasure in our lives.