views from inside the practice of a Sacred Intimate in Chicago

Hello! My name is Larry and welcome to my small corner of the web. I am happy that you have found your way here!

Sacred Intimacy is a way of working rather than a specific technique. As a Sacred Intimate, I employ many different forms of touch and holding space to help the client become more awake to his physical, erotic and sensory beauty and connection to All That Is.

I have been doing Sacred Intimate work for more than twenty years. In this time, I have encountered certain things in my clients over and over again - attitudes, thought patterns, actions - that bear comment. Also, in receiving body work, I have experienced both positive and negative things that impact the way I consider my own work and frame of mind when dealing with clients.

Commenting on these various mindsets or experiences would not be appropriate during a session because of time constraints, willingness of the client, or the actual nature of the subject. But here, potential or current clients have the time to read and absorb at leisure. So I hope to post short articles of interest that will help clarify certain things about the practice, the way that I work, and my opinions in ways I cannot do in person or on my web page.

Here's to living more comfortably and fully in these amazing bodies!!

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Touch in a Time of Distance

What on earth do we do now? The very thing that links us in a profound, primal and ecstatic way is all of a sudden a major problem for everyone everywhere.

My last bodywork client was on March 9. A few weeks before, I had put a whole set of protocols in place for myself that I did after each client - a wipe down of every surface in the room within a few feet of the table (on top of the usual wiping of the table), wiping every part of the table, diffusing anti-viral essential oils in the room and the apartment before and after the client, taking a full soapy shower after the client (instead of just the scrub of arms and hands).  I then put in place protocols for the clients - all clothes placed in a small box in the bathroom, requiring a full shower of the client before the session. I also scaled back on my offerings - no Breath of Life Massage, as it requires forceful expulsion of air, nothing that requires my face to be extremely close to the client’s.

While these are all sensible precautions done in the name of safety for both me and the client, they also have the sad effect of creating a distance between us. I can be as open-hearted as before this whole mess started, but I can’t be as free with contact. And that feels like the exact opposite of what Sacred Intimate work is supposed to provide. The number one rule of Sacred Intimacy is providing a safe container for the client and his session, however that looks. But now, in the name of safety and good sense, that safe container is a much more limited place.

It pains me that for each client I need to ask myself: “Is this safe? Is this worth the potential risk?” These are questions that never had to be asked in this way before. Safety and risk were never about disease, given the boundaries that I have always had.

Amazingly, I have had session requests at regular intervals throughout these two months. I have declined to take them, but I must admit I have the angel-and-devil arguments about each one of them. Personally, there is nothing I would love more right now than a wonderful massage. I am giving everything a few more weeks. I am not sure that a few weeks will really solve or reveal anything, honestly. I am trying to be in touch with other professionals to gauge what they are doing.

May our touch be freed from restriction soon!! Until then, touch yourself!!
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