Slow Deep with euni

Originally published 1/6/25

I met Christine during quarantine as a student in her Ayervedic Postpartum Caretaker program. This was my first training as a doula and birthworker and set a foundation for not only how I cared for others, but how I learned to become more committed to healing and loving rituals with myself. We’ve stayed connected over the years and have been able to evolve and find ways to continue exploring our gifts, passions, and purpose-filled work together over time. I no long serve individuals and families as a birthworker, but the information I learned has been able to be translated to other elements of my work to support people outside of and beyond reproductive windows.

This talk with Christine was a beautiful expansion and reflection of her journey through motherhood and a caretaker for community - exploring her connectivity to her own relationship with intimacy over time. I look forward to continuing to evolve and weave back together with Christine as time passes - sharing wisdom learned as we move from one chapter of life into another - reflecting on what has been learned, what stories have been rewritten, what shame has been healed, and all the things we uncover as women, mothers, and guides to leaning into agency, love, and collaboration with our bodies over time.

Let’s dive into how we view, experience, and communicate intimately through reproductive transitions. We had a chat with Christine Devlin Eck, Director + Instructor of the Center for Sacred Window Studies about intimacy after birth.

Have a listen to Episode 8 of The Sensory Playspace Podcast to explore (and expand) how we view intimacy in parenthood and throughout postpartum.

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.

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode we talked about:

• Intro: Meet Christine

• The evolution from birth photography into somatic + sexual healing work and the influence from Sacred Window Studies

• Sex, pregnancy, postpartum, and how the body changes after birth

• Our sexuality and intimacy in postpartum is a highly individualized experience

• Doing the inner work to create what we want to feel

• The letdown of expectations not being matched to what others project the journey would be

• Creating conscious care for transitions

• Being well, healthy balance, and well cared for creates vitality and sexuality

• Choosing to parent and transitioning your identity and being of service

• Presence in your body and the how we experience and try new things

• Finding new ways to connect and be intimate

• The hardships faced in postpartum while healing

• Lacking trust in the body and the inability to open intimately with your partner

• Choosing the journey, connection, and exploration and sharing our bodies and the ways this evolves with the traumas of the body experienced through pregnancy

• Allowing yourself be with whatever is present, even the hard things

• Communicating about your experience with your partner

• Honoring one another’s needs without words

• Dropping into presence with another, figuring out what they need, and mirroring it back to them to create a sense of safety and vulnerability

• The dance of verbal and non-verbal communication

• Navigating the changes and taking charge of your body in postpartum

• Entering into new phases and the exploration as a sexual person over time and phases of life

• Meeting your partner and supporting their navigation of the postpartum journey to create feelings of intimacy

• Collaboratively meeting needs and holding our own space

• Severing of what was established and inability to create something meaningful after birth in relationship

• The sacred window and intentionality after birth to expand into bringing new opportunities in

• Curiosity of elevating the spiritual aspect of intimacy with a partner

About Christine:

Christine’s passion is in elevating care of self in order to amplify care for others. She is a busy mother to 4 boys and practices her skills daily in support of the divine feminine. Christine is an Ayurvedic Health Consultant, a Birth and Postpartum Doula and the Founder of the Center for Sacred Window Studies, an education platform for Conscious Postpartum Care inspired by Ayurveda and other universal traditions found around the world. She established the Universal Mother Principles as a way of accessing the foundational qualities of giving and receiving effective care for self and others. The Center for Sacred Window Studies certifies caregivers from around the world in the Conscious Postpartum Caregiver Online Certification Program and the Sacred Window Postpartum Training + Embodiment Retreats.

Christine hosts the Sacred Window Podcast and builds awareness and support for postpartum and transitional feminine care via monthly events and continuing education for people passionate about the postpartum window and sustainable caregiving. Christine is featured on many podcasts, publications and summits including USA Today, Orgasmic Birth and Birthing from Within.

Find + connect with Christine online at:

sacredwindowstudies.com

Instagram Instagram.com/sacredwindowstudies

Facebook facebook.com/sacredwindowstudies

Access a Free Class: A Sacred Journey into Accessing True Postpartum Care

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.

Get full access to SLOW/DEEP at slowdeep.substack.com/subscribe

Let’s dive into how we view, experience, and communicate intimately through reproductive transitions. We had a chat with Christine Devlin Eck, Director + Instructor of the Center for Sacred Window Studies about intimacy after birth.

Have a listen to Episode 8 of The Sensory Playspace Podcast to explore (and expand) how we view intimacy in parenthood and throughout postpartum.

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

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode we talked about:

• Intro: Meet Christine

• The evolution from birth photography into somatic + sexual healing work and the influence from Sacred Window Studies

• Sex, pregnancy, postpartum, and how the body changes after birth

• Our sexuality and intimacy in postpartum is a highly individualized experience

• Doing the inner work to create what we want to feel

• The letdown of expectations not being matched to what others project the journey would be

• Creating conscious care for transitions

• Being well, healthy balance, and well cared for creates vitality and sexuality

• Choosing to parent and transitioning your identity and being of service

• Presence in your body and the how we experience and try new things

• Finding new ways to connect and be intimate

• The hardships faced in postpartum while healing

• Lacking trust in the body and the inability to open intimately with your partner

• Choosing the journey, connection, and exploration and sharing our bodies and the ways this evolves with the traumas of the body experienced through pregnancy

• Allowing yourself be with whatever is present, even the hard things

• Communicating about your experience with your partner

• Honoring one another’s needs without words

• Dropping into presence with another, figuring out what they need, and mirroring it back to them to create a sense of safety and vulnerability

• The dance of verbal and non-verbal communication

• Navigating the changes and taking charge of your body in postpartum

• Entering into new phases and the exploration as a sexual person over time and phases of life

• Meeting your partner and supporting their navigation of the postpartum journey to create feelings of intimacy

• Collaboratively meeting needs and holding our own space

• Severing of what was established and inability to create something meaningful after birth in relationship

• The sacred window and intentionality after birth to expand into bringing new opportunities in

• Curiosity of elevating the spiritual aspect of intimacy with a partner

About Christine:

Christine’s passion is in elevating care of self in order to amplify care for others. She is a busy mother to 4 boys and practices her skills daily in support of the divine feminine. Christine is an Ayurvedic Health Consultant, a Birth and Postpartum Doula and the Founder of the Center for Sacred Window Studies, an education platform for Conscious Postpartum Care inspired by Ayurveda and other universal traditions found around the world. She established the Universal Mother Principles as a way of accessing the foundational qualities of giving and receiving effective care for self and others. The Center for Sacred Window Studies certifies caregivers from around the world in the Conscious Postpartum Caregiver Online Certification Program and the Sacred Window Postpartum Training + Embodiment Retreats.

Christine hosts the Sacred Window Podcast and builds awareness and support for postpartum and transitional feminine care via monthly events and continuing education for people passionate about the postpartum window and sustainable caregiving. Christine is featured on many podcasts, publications and summits including USA Today, Orgasmic Birth and Birthing from Within.

Find + connect with Christine online at:

sacredwindowstudies.com

Instagram Instagram.com/sacredwindowstudies

Facebook facebook.com/sacredwindowstudies

Access a Free Class: A Sacred Journey into Accessing True Postpartum Care

A Place to Become:

We’re charging ahead with the vision to open our physical space this coming summer! We’ve begun the process to make this possible and your help and support will be an intricate part of making this a reality. This studio will be unlike any other place you’ve experienced and will be a place for this work, our collective groups, and greater visions to evolve, become, and belong. Each month we’ll share more about the progress, plans, and sticking points so that you can be involved every step of the way. Profits, donations, and contributions collected through Self Study will go towards the bringing this space from a dream into reality.

Love this work? Help us open our physical space summer 2025!

* Join the Sensory Playspace community on Substack and subscribe to receive posts directly to your inbox.Subscribe here:

* Contribute to the Go Fund Me: https://gofund.me/fd148755

* Book a session: http://selfstudylab.com/sessions

* Attend an event, workshop or lab: http://selfstudylab.com/events

Find/follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/selfstudylab

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

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to SLOW/DEEP at slowdeep.substack.com/subscribe

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.

Have a listen to Episode 7 of The Sensory Playspace Podcast to explore (and expand) what the spectrum of sex can mean for you with us. Leave a comment in the 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

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:

Show lineup: https://www.selfstudylab.com/sensoryplayspace

Substack Resources, Community + Announcements:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/selfstudylab

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

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to SLOW/DEEP at slowdeep.substack.com/subscribe

Living more pleasure centered lives requires dedicating time to being intentional in the ways you connect with play.

How do we live more pleasure centered lives? By finding and expanding our connection with play beyond escapism. There’s nothing wrong with escaping to play - it’s actually amazing and needed. But if we are only experiencing play from a place of escaping our every day life, it can become a connection that may leave us feeling high highs and low lows and a sense of emptiness and a lack of fulfillment because it isn’t sustainable or accessible in our every day lives.

In this episode we’ll talk about how to create space to play to allow it to take up space in our every day life which can increase our overall happiness, joy, and pleasure.

Have a listen to Episode 4 of The Sensory Playspace Podcast to explore (and expand) what solo sex can mean for you with us. Leave a comment in the 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

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode we talked about:

* Play as

* Escapism

* Creative Expression

* Exploration

* Connection

* Shifting Narratives + rewriting stories

* Play in a time centered container vs. play with an end goal

* How to create a container for play:

* Set your intention

* Find and create external space / the container for play

* Set, name, and identify your boundaries, edges, and desires

* Drop into your body

* Witness, listen, and follow energy, expression, feedback, and creative fantasies

* Leave space + time for come down

* Aftercare

* Set space to try again - in similar or different ways

* Integration space + time to observe + feel what is shifting on your body-heart-soul-mind

Get full access to SLOW/DEEP at slowdeep.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Sensory Playspace by Self Study at sensoryplayspace.substack.com/subscribe