Why would I speed up or slow down something that is long form?

When you say - you should love yourself….what do you mean?Tell me in sentences and paragraphs. Tell me over and over again.

Show me the parts of myself that beckon for love. Because the way that you love me opens the way that I love myself.And the way that you love yourself creates the connection between you and I in long form.But when you love in shortness, in small sentences, in simplicity - not simplicity from peace or ease - but simplicity for convenience - this is a fear of intimacy.

Because intimacy requires devotion. And through devotion, we learn what it is to love ourselves well, wide - in every form.

LET’S GO SLOW.LET’S GET DEEP.SLOWDEEP.CO

This is the final episode from the Sensory Playspace archives and SLOW/DEEP Podcast pre-season. It was such a special treat to be able to connect with and geek out with one of my favorite authors, Natasha NawaTaNeko. I’ve been building a relationship with rope, professionally, casually, and mainly through platonic intimate connections for the last 4 years. What has felt truest to me is the understanding, knowing, and responsibility to hold agency no matter what role one plays in the power exchange. I received her book, Somatics for Rope Bottoms as a gift from a rope partner I tied with as they were passing through town a few years ago. It’s been a resource for me, not only with rope + kink, but in my work as a somatic practitioner overall. I hope you enjoy this time with Natasha as much as I did.

The first season of the SLOW/DEEP with euni Podcast will be coming out end of October. We will be expanding how we intimately explore all parts of life and bringing in some new and familiar guests to dive into rich, contemplative, curious conversations to inspire living life most authentically. But for now, give this episode an listen and leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe on your favorite platform.

SHOW NOTES:

• Intro: Meet Natasha

• The journey from a conventional life as a lawyer to discovering somatic work, rope bondage, and writing a philosophical book about embodiment and personal truth.

• Empowerment, personal safety, and the ability to surrender power while maintaining control.

• Internalizing safety vs. external frameworks or authorities

• Intersection of somatic work, kink, and personal growth

• Kink and creating safe container for exploring intense feelings and sensations

•  Rope bondage, learning to relax into pain, and maintain softness

• Connection between pain and pleasure

•  Setting intentions and the transformation of relationship with pain

• Consent and ethics in kink and the value of self-reflection and connection through somatic experiences

• Self-awareness and clear intentions when engaging in rope and kink activities

• Open communication, reflection after experiences and the value of exploring one’s desires and boundaries

• Creating shared, meaningful experiences with others vs. seeking external imagery or fantasy-driven encounters.

• Developing personal practices, reflective conversations post-experience, and deepening understanding and connection with partners

• Intense kink encounter, highs and post-scene drops

• The importance of slowing down and creating a supportive environment for future experiences

• Feelings of harm, taking self-responsibility for personal healing, and also acknowledging the value of support and recognition from others

About Natasha:

Natasha NawaTaNeko is a somatic coach, author, and educator. Drawing on her background in Sexological Bodywork under Joseph Kramer and over a decade of experience as a performer and educator in Kinbaku (Japanese-inspired rope bondage), Natasha integrates various somatic practices—such as breathwork, sound, touch, posture, non-verbal communication, and focused attention—into her teachings. In 2020, she authored Somatics for Rope Bottoms, a book exploring the potential of rope bondage for personal and intimate self-exploration.

Find + connect with Natasha:

Web: ropesomatics.com and discoverkinbaku.com

Substack: substack.com/@nawataneko

Instagram: @nawataneko

Stay connected with us:

LET’S GO SLOW. LET’S GET DEEP.Work with me:slowdeep.co

Instagram:https://instagram.com/slowdeep.co

Questions, comments or topic requests/suggestions: email euni at [email protected]

Audio engineered by Miko Aguilar, Music by Qolaj

This episode dives into what it is to create shared leadership that centers ethics, community values, consent forward practices, and repair after harm in community and sex positive spaces. I had a chat with Jules Purnell last year after meeting them during a peer professional gathering online for intimacy professionals. Their take on how to hold the complexities of both harm and repair in the same space while finding solutions to expand community rather than pull it apart caught my attention.

SHOW NOTES:

• Intro: Meet Jules

• Working as a sexuality educator, focusing on supporting queer and trans survivors of sexual harm.

• From crisis support to hands-on healing work through surrogate work and intimacy coaching.

• Exploring the importance of emotional experiences in learning

• Significance of human connection and emotional expression in deep personal growth and healing.

• Intersectionality and the creation of unique identities vs. stacking different aspects of identity.

• Intersectionality impact on people’s experiences and access to self-expression

•  Creating spaces for people to connect emotionally to find a sense of liberation

• Safety in community spaces and personal growth

• Developing internal safety within oneself with intersectionality and hidden aspects of identity such as disability and trauma.

• Self-trust in healing and personal development, especially when exploring new lifestyles or experiences

• Intensity in BDSM scenes and significant emotional drop

• Slut-shaming by a friend and isolation

• Building self-trust and starting slowly in BDSM experiences

• Exploring how people on a more liberated path may face negativity from others who haven’t unlearned their own shame

• Restorative justice as an approach to address harm, trauma, or violence by attempting to make things right and applying to various situations, from personal conflicts to more serious harms, particularly focusing on sexual harm in her practice.

• Acknowledgment that everyone has both hurt others and been hurt, adopting a restorative lens in daily life, and developing a practice of apologizing and repairing relationships when necessary

• Complexities of sex, relationships, and emotional connection

• Challenges of navigating consent, communication, and emotional vulnerability in sexual encounters, particularly in hookup culture

• Emotional expression, including crying during sex, and feeling safe with a partner to fully express oneself

• Lack of emotional care in casual connections

• Honesty, naming intentions and capacity for commitment

•  Misleading another, miscommunication or subtle consent violations and reflect on one’s own role and clarity of intentions

• Complexities of consent and communication in relationships

• Creating space for honest conversations about personal desires and boundaries,

• Spectrum of consent and self awareness in navigating intimacy and sex

• Personal growth in sexual experiences

• Pushing boundaries, self-discovery, growth, and expansion with psychological readiness and aftercare

• Intimate play parties, closing ceremonies, and aftercare.

• Restorative practices for alt sex and kink spaces

• Education and facilitated dialogue for those who have violated boundaries and/or been harmed.

• Humility, nuance in personal truths, and healing

• Inclusive spaces that focus on ethos and behavior vs. strict identity requirements

About Jules:

Jules Purnell, M.Ed. is an AASECT certified Sexuality Educator, Restorative Justice facilitator and practitioner, and emerging hands-on Intimacy Coach. Their educational background and expertise includes LGBTQIA+ cultural inclusion and awareness, BDSM/kink, and ethical non-monogamy. They have received training in Sensate Focus from the Integrative Mind Body Therapies and have presented for the Surrogate Partner Collective. They have been featured on podcasts such as NPR’s Life Kit, Sex Ed In Color, Loving Without Boundaries, and more. Their writing has been featured in Trans Bodies, Trans Selves and Sex Meets Life, as well as many others. They currently teach as a lecturer in Sociology and will be entering into a PhD program for Social Justice Education in the Fall of 2025.

Find + connect with Jules:

Web: julesmpurnell.com

Substack: substack.com/@jmpurnell

LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/julesmpurnell

Stay connected with us:

LET’S GO SLOW. LET’S GET DEEP.Work with me:slowdeep.co

Instagram:https://instagram.com/slowdeep.co

Questions, comments or topic requests/suggestions: email euni at [email protected]

Audio engineered by Miko Aguilar, Music by Qolaj

Originally published, 6/19/25

This episode we dip our toes into professional cuddling and the curation of authentic intimacy. We discuss what cuddling is, less known things about intimacy discovered in professional settings, and misconceptions of being a touch therapist.

We had a chat with professional Cuddle Therapist, Keeley Shoup about all things cuddling. This conversation opened up our eyes to what happens behind closed doors during a cuddling session, bravery in vulnerability, safety, and new layers of intimacy that we haven’t explored. Go ahead and give it a listen.

Did this chat hit something for you? Leave a comment on this Substack post to continue the conversation. Share this episode with your friends/lovers/family and let’s find more ways to get our of our heads and drop deeper into our body centered pleasure through intimacy, healing + kink.

Listen on:

SPOTIFY

APPLE

YOU TUBE

ABOUT KEELEY

Keeley has been a Cuddle Therapist since 2015, she is the co-owner and CEO of Cuddlist and sits ont he board of directors for Cuddle Party. She is a fierce advocate for therapeutic touch professions of all sorts and is a boundaries and consent educator.

Find + connect with Keeley online at:

keeleyshoup.com

youtube.com/@YourCuddleTherapist

TikTok @YourCuddleTherapist

Stay connected with us:

LET’S GO SLOW. LET’S GET DEEP.Work with me:slowdeep.co

Instagram:https://instagram.com/slowdeep.co

Questions, comments or topic requests/suggestions: email euni at [email protected]

Audio engineered by Miko Aguilar, Music by Qolaj

SLOW/DEEP is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Originally published June 2025.

How do we live and love when we have never truly existed in deep connection with ourselves? Last night I spent some time reflecting on the versions of who I have been and how they have been dying as I prioritize centering myself in my own life.

Love isn’t a boundless pursuit. It’s an adventure that unfolds when we give and receive from a place of groundedness within our truest self. Not to say that love isn’t available in other places or other forms. But the love I am currently pondering, playing with, practicing, and expanding are the layers of love that don’t come at a sacrifice of self for the sake of potential with another. It’s a love that doesn’t request for us to forget or unknow the weird, wild, and messy parts of ourselves. It’s the type of love that we give to ourselves in the simplicities of every day life and the routines, rituals, practices, and commitments that we dedicate to ourselves for deep nourishment of our body-mind-heart-soul.

Journey with me into and through a little mindspin and reflections on codependency and love and my personal journeying and movement away from self abandonment into discovery of new ways of loving. Enjoyyyyy.

Are you ready to shift the ways you are feeling into and experiencing intimacy, pleasure, play, and love. Drop into 21 days of self guided practices that will help you shape your own unique blueprint for intimacy.

Stay connected with us:

LET’S GO SLOW. LET’S GET DEEP.Work with me:slowdeep.co

Instagram:https://instagram.com/slowdeep.co

Questions, comments or topic requests/suggestions: email euni at [email protected]

Audio engineered by Miko Aguilar, Music by Qolaj

SLOW/DEEP is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Let's dive into one of our favorite topics: intimacy, pleasure, and play. euni dissects one of her signature classes + workshops and the foundation of what it is all about. Come drop in with us and open space for exploration, self-discovery, and living more intimate, pleasure centered, and playful lives in every possible way.

This episode we dip our toes into they ways the body responds to stress, trauma, and shame show up in the body and impact one's sexuality. We discuss various aspects of women's health, including the impact of trauma, the importance of self-discovery, and the connection between physical and emotional well-being.

This conversation touched on topics such as sexual expression, intimacy, and the significance of building a healthy relationship with one's body, while also addressing common health issues and the need for community support in navigating these areas.

SHOW NOTES:

• Intro: Meet Brittney

• Physical connection to the body

• Pelvic floor issues and sexuality

• Self discovery and body connection

• Pelvic floor issues and understanding connection with the body

• Sexuality and periods

• Emotional safety and physical intimacy

• Hormonal birth control and the impacts on mental health

• Trauma, the bodies response to it

• High desire for sex and self fulfillment

• Understanding one's bodily functions in relation to the bladder and the pelvic floor

• Stress, emotions + energetic stories and the connection to the pelvis

• Learning about the body and navigating shame, grief, sadness, and anger

• Relationship to anger and rage

• Trauma stored in the body

• Pain, infections, irritations, surgery, scars, urgency, hip pain, reproductive issues, and discomforts in the pelvic area and taking care of the body as a preventative method

• Claiming your power and surrendering into self compassion and the reality of what is

•  TTC, pregnancy, pressures on sex + timing, and accepting the course

• The ways we build a connection with our bodies creates opening

• Intimacy in every form and connectivity to the body

• Showing up for self with open curiosity, presence, and availability to hear bodies expressions

• Merging of wellness from a holistic lens and rituals around navigating sexual expressions

• Play vs. performance and pace

• Resistance and self pleasure

• Experimentation and sex lab

• The healing impacts of being messy

• Beginning to build better body liberation, agency + choice

Originally published, February 12th, 2025.

I’ve been posting ASK/TELL ME ANYTHING for a while now to my social feeds. It’s been something that has given me a great sense of connection + pleasure in a place that often makes me feel isolated and numb. Social media originally was designed to connect us, but the ways in which we now navigate news media, advertising, and AI in the social spheres, it has become for me (and I’ll say likely many others) overwhelming and uninspiring.

I love connection. If you haven’t been able to tell. And what I love most about Substack is that it feels fresh and the people here move with an open heart and curious mind. It feels possible to connect in ways I have not found on the most popular platforms. And, even more so, it feels like a playground. A place for trying and exploring.

So I’m going to attempt a weekly ASK ME ANYTHING podcast/video where I dive deeper into questions that come through from the collective + community. I’ll share what the initial conversation is in the post and I’ll hop on the Substack video to dive in in real time. This ASK ME ANYTHING piece will be unedited and, true to the form I want it to take, will hopefully feel more like an open conversation than a calculated response to sell you something (or anything). The intention is purely to connect, inspire deeper thinking, and to share ideas in dialog through this digital world.

These ideas, thoughts, opinions are my own unless otherwise credited and are informed by my lived experiences and influenced by my study, work, and mentors, and musings. Take what resonates, leave the rest. If you want to join the conversation - leave a comment below or hit us up in the chat.

Click the play button and let’s dive in.

From the notes:

It’s important for me to say and for you to understand that my skills and expertise in this work is because I do this work every single day with and on myself. I study + train from others work. I meet with a therapist, a coach, a trainer, and other practitioners. I go to classes. I practice + use somatic tools and refine and define them to be most beneficial for me. I have hard conversations. I hurt peoples feelings and try to make space for repair. I close my heart and open it again and again. I forget boundaries and have to create new ones. I cry, I rage. I love, I play.

I am skilled at this work not simply because I read about it. Or study others misery, pain or desires from theories and classrooms. Or even because I just hold space for others to work through their challenges + expand their edges. My expertise in this work comes from the ways I dedicate to being in deep relationship with this work, life + others. I am diligently learning more about intimacy + relationship through my own life in every single way and create the space to feel, experience, rewrite, and expand what I discover.

Stay connected with us:

LET’S GO SLOW. LET’S GET DEEP.Work with me:slowdeep.co

Instagram:https://instagram.com/slowdeep.co

Questions, comments or topic requests/suggestions: email euni at [email protected]

SLOW/DEEP is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Originally published, November 18th, 2024.

This was one of my favorite conversations. Michelle Renee is a well of knowledge and not only does so much for the intimacy community, but supports clients through really powerful shifts in their relationship and intimacy journey. This episode was one of the most listened to on the podcast and covers so much. It was through this conversation that I learned more about the asexual spectrum and began exploring more of my own sexuality needs, preferences, and unique intimacy personality type.

There’s something truly incredible with diving into conversations with people who are passionate about not only their work, but also learning. Take a few to revisit this fascinating conversation with Mischelle and let me know what you take away in the comments below.

Connecting with intimacy and expanding how we view, experience, and communicate sexually. We had a chat with Michelle Renee, a Platonic Surrogate Partner about the spectrums of sex.

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode we talked about:

• Intro - Meet Michelle

• Asexuality - what it is

• Surrogacy Partners - what they do

• Creating a nurturing space for a client to do the work that needs to be done

• The repression around the imperfections in sexuality and empowering people to find a safe space within themselves

• Betty Dotson and empowerment in sexuality

• Professional cuddling, platonic touch, and healing unhealthy past relationship attachments

• Betty Martin and The Wheel of Consent

• When to introduce touch and creating a safe container within yourself

• Feeling into a familiar experience in a new way.

• Exploring intentional connections and learning our own patterns and quirks

• Responsive Desire + Spontaneous Desire (Come as You Are)

• Creating space for an empowered yes in the way it’s needed

• The reality of how sex actually happens (vs. what you see on media)

• Reflecting on did I really enjoy this or did I enjoy the idea of it?

• Demisexual, sapiosexual and how we’re turned on from connection beyond physical attraction

• Professional cuddling and sex coaching

• Setting a foundation for sexual experiences that people can take outside of the room

• Clarity and setting a limits on what is a yes and what is a no

• Embodying your truth and allowing yourself to grow across a spectrum in your sexuality and in the work

• The evolution of self through self exploration

• Asexuality, fraysexual, compulsory sexuality, aphantasia, the spectrum, and what does that even mean

• Holding space for others and holding space for ourselves, ego vs. autonomy

Photo credit: Mr Arash

About Michelle:

Michelle Renee (she/her) based in San Diego, is dedicated to helping clients discover their true Self. From her personal journey, Michelle knows that love heals. Michelle has combined her 8+ years of experience as both a cuddle therapist and a surrogate partner to create a hybrid form somatic relational repair. She affectionately welcomes clients into her Human Connection Lab, where she supports them in relational healing through experiential touch, unconditional positive regard, celebrated agency, and authentic connection. She is also the founder of SoftCockWeek.com and hosts The Intimacy Lab podcast.

Find + connect with Michelle Renee online at:

meetmichellerenee.com

humanconnectioncoach.com

instagram.com/meetmichellereneee

Stay connected with us:

LET’S GO SLOW. LET’S GET DEEP.Work with me:slowdeep.co

Instagram:https://instagram.com/slowdeep.co

Questions, comments or topic requests/suggestions: email euni at [email protected]

SLOW/DEEP is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Audio engineered by Miko Aguilar, Music by Qolaj

SLOW/DEEP is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Originally published, October 24th, 2024.

What I’ve grown an awareness of that is more bitter than sweet is that it’s nearly impossible to take space for what we need in this life and in the world. In this present moment in time, the world seems to be spinning faster than many of us can keep up with. And many are struggling to ground into the every day world. Many of us are shedding and searching for what is coming next. Holding pain and sadness beneath the surface and putting on a face that hides the truth of what they’re confronting deep inside.

The blessing and struggle in this is a knowing that we are not alone. And a knowing that too many people are moving through the hardships right alongside us. And such is the human journey - a never ending exploration of change.

And we’re back live! Whew, the time away this summer was needed. Although I didn’t get the chance to step fully away and hit pause on my whole life - taking space away from intimacy + healing work really expanded both my perspective and my capacity. It gave me a lot of space to think about what I had been doing and what was it that I wanted to experience and expand upon moving forward. I held space for some shedding and healing and am excited to move into the fall + winter seasons ahead with more lightness and inspiration to really refine the ways we explore intimacy, healing + kink together.

There’s so much to tell you about. But what is at the surface today is to introduce + name the space that we all weave in and out of. The space in between. Transitional, liminal space. The place where we surrender to change, grief, shedding, and defeat. It’s the place that lives in the middle of what was and what is becoming. This is what bridges us in growth.

This is what we’ve been doing inside the Self Study Lab since 2019. Transforming over + over again. Leaning into our learnings and letting go of the lessons we have learned. Opening up curiously towards the unknown. Leaning into creating over + over again. We’ve been holding space for all to exist unapologetically and to deepen the ways we connect with ourselves + one another through friendship + romantic love.

Stay connected with us:

LET’S GO SLOW. LET’S GET DEEP.Work with me:slowdeep.co

Instagram:https://instagram.com/slowdeep.co

Questions, comments or topic requests/suggestions: email euni at [email protected]

SLOW/DEEP is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Audio engineered by Miko Aguilar, Music by Qolaj