Bio

I bring to my BODY AND SOUL WORK practice a multifaceted background of training and experience working with body, mind, and spirit.

I began my private practice as a body worker and sacred intimate in 1993. In addition to extensive training in sexual healing work (sacred intimacy), I received state-certification training in Swedish-Esalen bodywork from the Body Electric School in California, which was founded by Joseph Kramer. I also studied shiatsu at the Ohashi Institute in New York City and from California-based instructor Irene Smith learned to massage people who are seriously ill.

I am a New York state-licensed psychotherapist, having completed a four-year clinical fellowship at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy. In addition, I have been a writer, editor, and journalist since 1975. I studied classic languages (Greek and Latin) at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and at Boston University, where I received a BFA in theater. I have published three books about theater, and my articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Village Voice, and the Advocate. I have also written extensively about sexuality, men’s health, and spirituality. (See my online writing archive at www.donshewey.com.) 

My approach to working with sexuality comes primarily from the tradition of sacred intimacy, as it was conceived in the early 1990s by Joseph Kramer and continues to be developed by him and others associated with the Body Electric School. Body Electric is dedicated to teaching people to experience and practice the healing power of sexual energy and its connection to the sacred.

My work is grounded in many years’ experience with meditation practice, the study of yoga, men’s consciousness work, and community health activism. I served as a volunteer with Gay Men’s Health Crisis in various capacities from 1984 to 1998. I participated in numerous community actions as a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). I taught a course called “Living Eros” for the Body Electric School and have facilitated public forums on adult sex education. I participated in the historic 1999 Boulder Gay Men’s Health Summit, which launched a movement devoted to gay men’s health above and beyond HIV/AIDS, and I coordinated a series of workshops called “Holistic Perspectives” at the 2000 and 2002 summits in Boulder.

Born in Colorado and raised in a military family, I grew up in a trailer park on a dirt road in Waco, Texas. I now live in midtown Manhattan halfway between Trump Tower and Carnegie Hall. As a writer, therapist, and pleasure activist, my mission is to encourage people to rebel against sex-negativity and wake up to the joy of life in a body.

In addition to my professional training and experience, I bring to BODY AND SOUL WORK a lifetime of adventures as a self-accepting and sexually active gay man with a history of long relationships. My client base consists primarily of men who wish to expand their enjoyment of erotic connections with themselves and other men. Nevertheless, I am always happy to work with any men, women, individuals, or couples who wish to access my resources as a pleasure activist and adult sex educator.