"Her rational brain said this is what happens at the border sometimes. Her body registered it as a sexual assault."

Explore this episode and deeper teachings on somatic sexual healing: https://rahichun.com/podcast/tema-mercado-birth-consent-sexuality/

Who this episode is for: Anyone navigating postpartum disconnection, birth trauma, or the quiet question of whether desire and a felt sense of self can return after everything the body has been through.

Tema Mercado is a Licensed Midwife in California, Partera Profesional Certificada in Mexico, and founder of La Matriz Birth in San Diego. A first-generation daughter of Purépecha and Yoreme lineage, mother of six, grandmother of two — her own births span the full spectrum from medicalized hospital settings to reverent home births. Before midwifery, she spent years as a sexual assault survivor advocate. When she entered birth work, she expected it to be different. It wasn't.

What she found in the delivery room — the same power dynamics, the same coercion, the same PTSD symptoms in mothers who were supposed to be celebrating — changed everything. Out of that recognition, she built a practice grounded in somatic consent, ancestral medicine, and the truth that sexuality doesn't disappear when motherhood begins.

In this conversation:

• Why the delivery room mirrors the power dynamics of a sexual assault investigation
• How somatic prenatal care metabolizes fear before it becomes armor in labor
• The woman who arrived saying "I have no trauma" — and what her pelvis revealed
• Why postpartum loss of desire is almost never about hormones
• How a father's newborn caregiving rewires his brain — and reopens intimacy
• Belly binding as ancestral somatic practice
• How being truly seen during birth transforms how a woman moves through the world

Timestamps:

• 00:08 — Tema's origin story
• 14:33 — Consent as somatic practice
• 22:58 — Ancestral medicine and belly binding
• 32:13 — The woman who "had no trauma"
• 46:18 — What actually brings desire back postpartum
• 59:29 — From disempowerment to sovereignty

Resources & Links

Tema Mercado: https://lamatrizbirth.com — @matrizmidwife

Somatic sexual healing and embodied intimacy: https://divineunionforlovers.com/course

Awaken Pleasure course: https://rahichun.com/reclaimingyourpleasure/

If this resonates — follow, share with someone postpartum or healing, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps this work reach those who are ready for it.

Explore this episode and deeper teachings on somatic sexual healing: https://rahichun.com/podcast/erotic-sovereignty-cervical-awakening-sex-work-truth/

In this raw, unfiltered conversation, I’m joined by writer and somatic sex educator Ariel Szabo, creator of The Erotic Frontier, for a deeply embodied exploration of sexuality, trauma healing, and erotic awakening. This episode moves beyond surface-level conversations about pleasure—and into the deeper terrain of nervous system healing, cervical awakening, and the reclamation of erotic life force. Ariel shares her journey from sexual numbness and trauma into profound embodied pleasure, including how working with plant medicine opened pathways to authentic sexual expression and inner truth. We explore how shame and fear become wired into the body… and how presence, grief, and devotion begin to unwind that conditioning.

We dive deeply into:

• The difference between disconnected pleasure and embodied pleasure
• How slowing down rewires sensation and opens the cervix to profound warmth and climax
• Why sexual visibility can actually increase safety in the body
• How erotic energy fuels creativity, voice, and life purpose
• The power shift from “power over” to “power with” in intimacy and culture

• The crucial distinction between consensual sex work and trafficking
• Why decriminalization — not legalization — reduces harm
• The emotional cost placed on survivors within our judicial systems

This conversation moves from the deeply personal—genital listening, cervical awakening, and embodied pleasure—into the collective dynamics shaping sexuality, power, and culture. If you’ve ever felt numb, disconnected from desire, or shaped by narratives that limit your expression… this episode opens a new possibility. Because erotic sovereignty isn’t about performance. It’s about presence.

And your body may be waiting for you to ask: What do I need? What do I want?

Go deeper: Explore somatic sexual healing and embodied intimacy : https://divineunionforlovers.com/course

Learn How To Awaken Pleasure: https://rahichun.com/reclaimingyourpleasure/

Connect with Ariel Szabo: Website: https://sacredmoonflower.com

Substack: The Erotic Frontier

If this resonates: Follow the podcast, share with someone you trust, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps this work reach those who are ready for it.

What if arousal and pleasure weren’t “inappropriate”… but powerful markers of health?

Explore sexual sovereignty and embodied pleasure:
https://rahichun.com/podcast/sexual-sovereignty-pleasure

In this richly embodied conversation, Rahi Chun sits down with Dr. Saida Desilets — pioneering teacher of sacred sexuality and creator of the Embodied Psychosexual Method — to explore sexual sovereignty, erotic innocence, and the body’s capacity to heal through pleasure, breath, and deep attunement.

Saida shares the astonishing origins of her life’s work: from a childhood rooted in natural sensual connection, to surviving violence, to being told at age twenty she had only two weeks to live — and the radical path of choosing life, reclaiming vitality, and rebuilding her relationship to desire from the inside out.

Together, we explore how shame disrupts the body’s natural aliveness, why relaxed arousal is the foundation of true intimacy, and how rewilding in nature can restore the pre-verbal sensual intelligence that makes us more connected lovers and humans.

This episode bridges:
embodiment • sexuality • nervous system wisdom • pleasure-based healing • and the wild intelligence of the body

Inside this conversation:

• Saida’s origin story and how her life force became her teacher
• What “sexual sovereignty” actually means — beyond the buzzword
• Why arousal and pleasure can be normalized as wellness indicators
• The difference between performance sex and relaxed arousal
• Erotic innocence: reclaiming turn-on without shame or meaning-making
• How wilderness rewilding restores sensual attunement and presence
• Why leaning into discomfort in intimacy can transform into deeper pleasure
• Breath as the simplest daily practice for reclaiming aliveness
• “Yum vs. yuck”: training attention as a pathway to more vitality
• What it really means to “marinate in your own essence”

Learn more about Saida’s work: embodiedloveuniversity.com

More resources about Somatic Sexual Wholeness: rahichun.com

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