Conversations with Healers, Helpers, & Guides: The Pleasure of Somatic Healing with Rebecca Guidera, MA, LPC

Conversations with Helpers, Healers, and Guides is a monthly blog series from Holistic Healing and Wellness with Sabrina LLC to spark conversation with other wellness professionals to share perspectives on different ways mind, body, spirit health can be supported.

Today, we are talking with Rebecca Guidera,  a Licensed Professional Counselor who is passionate about pleasure-focused healing.

Sabrina: Tell us who you are, where you practice, and what you specialize in.

Rebecca: My name is Rebecca Guidera (she/they pronouns) and I have my private practice in Denver, CO. I specialize in somatic therapy and coaching for sex, sexuality, relationships, and pleasure, specifically for women, LGBTQIAP+ folx, and folx in poly and open relationships. I am also working on my certification for sex coaching and consulting through Sexual Health Alliance and hope to provide consultations for therapists who desire more resourcing in supporting their clients on topics of sex and sexuality.

Sabrina: What inspired you to start your specialize in somatics, sex, and sexuality?

Rebecca: I was inspired to start my private practice and specialize in somatics, sex and sexuality because I experienced the greatest challenges and the most impactful healing through my relationships with my body and expression of my sexuality. Growing up as a queer woman in the South, I struggled with my body, my queerness, and what it meant to experience and trust in my pleasure. Through my own healing journey of therapy, yoga, community, and self-love, I continue to find how meaningful connecting with one's body, sexuality and pleasure changes everything from self-acceptance, relational intimacy, and being in the world from a place of confidence, celebration, and connection.

Sabrina: What led you to specialize in somatics and how do these components contribute to holistic well-being?

Rebecca: I discovered a love for somatics, sex, and sexuality because the moments where I deepened into these aspects of my self-identity quite deeply changed my life. Loving my body more invited me to be with myself from a more trusting and compassionate place. Loving my sexuality curated space to be more authentic within myself and in my relationships. My body and relationships with sex and sexuality opened doors to myself and expanded what it means for me to live an embodied and pleasurable life. These components contribute to holistic well-being because they support interconnections of love, relational intimacy, and authenticity. When I love my body (generally speaking), I can hold more space to love others. When I love my sexuality, I can meet others with a deeper sense of compassion. My pleasure informs the pleasure I find in the moment-to-moment, day-to-day, and this finite life. For me, everything comes back to the body, and sexuality can be an expression of our vibrancy, our vitality, our creative force.

Sabrina: Are there specific principles, values, or philosophies that guide your practice in promoting overall health?

Rebecca: I believe in several principles, values and philosophies that guide my practice and support overall health. I believe that consent is foundational for my work with clients. I always ask for consent with my reflections, suggestions, and journey in our sessions because my clients' permission, boundaries, and needs are most important to my work with them and supporting them in trusting their own experiences. I believe in coming back to the body as the anchor of our work because the heart of my work with clients is integrating the somatics into one's relationship with their body, emotions, sexuality, relationships, and pleasure. Lastly, one of the most important beliefs I hold that guides my practice is the relationship I hold with my clients because I feel that creating a safe enough, supportive, and celebratory relationship with my clients is where the healing begins and expands within the work and outside of such.

Sabrina: What is your favorite aspect of being a therapist and/or coach?

Rebecca: My favourite aspect of being a therapist and a coach is witnessing my clients fall in love with themselves. The tenderness of working with clients through their relationships with their bodies, sexuality and pleasure is such a privilege and an honour for me. To hold a space where clients share their vulnerabilities, emotional depths, and desire to continue learning and growing is profoundly beautiful to me. I am constantly humbled, in awe, and respect of my amazing clients.

Sabrina: How do somatics, sex, and sexuality play a role in supporting mental well-being, and how do you tailor guidance for mental health benefits?

Rebecca: We (in Western society) live in a culture that shames sex and sexuality while at the same time fetishizes sex (particularly folx in places of oppression), where consent is not taught and honoured, and where our relationship with our bodies gets warped, twisted, and harmed in many, many contexts. If we are living in a culture where we don't and can't trust our bodies and our sexualities, then this ripples into everything else. We can't ignore our bodies and sexualities if we want to create healing for trauma, mental health challenges, and our overall sense of self.

I tailor guidance about somatics, sex, sexuality, and pleasure in a few ways. I talk about the systems that we live in and how they directly impact my clients. I honour clients' experiences with challenging times of relating to their body and their sexuality. I teach about consent, sex education, relational tools, and pleasure. I establish a safe enough space where clients can show up where they are at and hold a compassionate, sex-positive, and pleasure-affirming approach. I keep learning and growing with trainings, consultations, and experience to continue to support my clients as best I can and check my biases over and over again. I want my work with clients to be collaborative, supportive, and celebratory as they discover what their body, sexuality, and pleasure mean to them.

Sabrina: What is the number one thing you want the reader to know about somatics, sex, and sexuality and mind-body connection, especially if they are recovering from trauma?

Rebecca: The number one thing I want readers to know about somatics, sex, and sexuality, especially if they are recovering from trauma, is that you are always worthy of pleasure. When you are navigating healing from trauma, everything you feel is valid and meaningful for you, especially as you are creating a healing relationship with your body and sexuality. On the other side of processing trauma, you might find challenges in trusting your own relationship with pleasure because it might feel unavailable and distant from the pain of trauma. What I hope readers can discover is that there is an endless potential for cultivating pleasure in one's body, sexuality, and relationships. When you find and create spaces that support your pleasure, healing from trauma unfolds into another landscape of being at home within yourself and showing up in the world as your continual authentic self.

Sabrina: Is there anything else you want our community to know?

Rebecca: I want our community to know that pleasure is deeply meaningful, impactful and healing. Sometimes with trauma work, we are understandably focused on stabilizing clients to be at a place where they feel more grounded in themselves and can show up to their lives a little more resourced. In that process, I find that there is another layer of healing and integration which is finding and experiencing joy, connection, and pleasure. Bringing the next step of pleasure into the work with our clients is a piece of what supports clients to live full, authentic, and pleasurable lives.

Read more about Rebecca Guidera here

Follow @pleasurewithrebecca on Instagram here

This blog post is co-authored by Rebecca Guidera, MA, LPC , and Sabrina Cruz, LCSW, RYT-200.