Podcast
Pleasure Uprising: Desire, Attachment, and the Sex You Actually Want
Hosted by Laura Jurgens, Ph.D. · EN
Formerly The Desire Gap Podcast
Most people who feel disconnected from their desire, their pleasure, or their partners have spent years assuming something is wrong with them. It isn't. The disconnection is real — but it traces back to what most of us were never taught: how to be in our bodies fully, how to connect to each other authentically, how to know and ask for what we need without guilt or shame. Culture shapes that — the broader culture we inherit, and the family we grew up in — and it can be unlearned. Pleasure, secure attachment, and authentic desire are your birthright.
You can learn what you were never taught — and unlearn what got in the way.
Dr. Laura Jurgens is a somatic sex and intimacy specialist, Master Certified Intimacy Coach, American Board of Sexology Certified Sex Educator, and former research professor whose work sits at the intersection of nervous system science, attachment theory, and genuine embodied pleasure. Every episode delivers the somatic, body-based tools that generic relationship advice and most therapists miss entirely — because desire, pleasure, and connection aren't fixed by talking more. They're fixed by giving your body and your nervous system reparative experiences and embodied practices that shift you out of your past.
This show covers: getting out of your head during sex · low libido and what actually helps · somatic and nervous system approaches to intimacy · desire discrepancy and mismatched libido · secure attachment and relationship repair · sexual shame and body disconnection · how to talk about sex without fighting · ADHD and desire · the orgasm gap and why it exists · reclaiming pleasure on your own terms.
Whether you've tried therapy, books, or just quietly wondering why intimacy feels harder than it should — this show will help you understand why those things don't move the needle — and what does.
New episodes weekly. Start wherever you are.
Free resource: Get Out of Your Head — A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guide
For deeper dives-- including cultural analysis and the research behind desire, arousal, and attachment -- plus a chance to ask me questions, subscribe to my Substack: https://laurajurgens.substack.com/
32episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Last Place High Achievers Give Themselves Permission
1w ago00:37:30Tap to summarizeYou've solved harder problems than this. So why is this one still stuck?This episode is for the high achievers who have done real work on themselves — the therapy, the books, the hard conversations — and still can't get traction when it comes to desire, intimacy, and their closest relationships. It's not because you haven't tried hard enough. It's because you've been using the wrong tools for the wrong system.In this episode:Why capable, self-sufficient people are often the last to get help with intimacy — and why that costs them the mostThe cultural lie that you're supposed to just know how to do sex and relationships (and why it makes zero sense)Top-down vs. body-up: why cognitive tools and talk therapy can't reach what's actually stuckWhy "trying harder" and "knowing more" can fool you into thinking they'll eventually work for everythingWhat somatic, body-based work actually reaches — and what changes when you find the right tool for the real problemTopics: high achievers, intimacy, somatic sex coaching, low libido, desire, nervous system, body shame, sex therapy, intimacy coach, relationship helpGet my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →Coming Home to Your Body: What Sexual Embodiment Actually Feels Like
2w ago00:30:20Tap to summarizeMost people who feel disconnected from their desire, their body, or their partner aren't broken. They're just exiled — from themselves. And nobody ever taught them the way back.This episode is about what it actually feels like when you find it. The felt sense of coming home to your own body's sexuality — as a resource, a grounding force, and the place from which real confidence, real connection, and real intimacy become possible.I was skeptical this even existed. Then my teacher demonstrated it on me with nothing but eye contact — and my body responded before my brain could catch up.In this episode:What sexual energy actually is — grounded, demystified, no woo requiredWhy most of us have it locked away (and what that actually feels like from the inside)The breathwork and mind-body practice that opened it up for me — and how I now use it with clientsWhat becomes possible from this place: confidence, connection, intensity, and desire that doesn't require performanceWhy this isn't something you have to earn or learn from scratch — you already have itA note on group settings, charismatic facilitators, and who this actually belongs to (you)If you've ever felt like you were performing intimacy instead of inhabiting it — this one's for you.Get my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →The Cult Dynamics Hiding Inside "Sacred Sexuality" Spaces — with Anke Richter
3w ago00:50:01Tap to summarizeYou don't have to join a compound to end up in a high-control group. Sometimes it starts with a neo-tantra festival. A weekend workshop. A community that feels like finally, finally, you found your people.Anke Richter is an international cult journalist, author of the bestseller Cult Trip (HarperCollins), and founder of Decult — the first cult awareness conference in Australasia. She spent six years inside ISTA (International School of Temple Arts) before becoming one of its most informed critics. She's also researched Centrepoint, Osho/Rajneeshpuram, and OneTaste firsthand.This is Part 2 of a series. Start with the previous episode "The Men Behind Sexual Polarity Have A Lot to Answer For" — or read the full article on Substack (link below).In this episode:Why smart, educated, well-resourced people end up in cults — and the myth that it couldn't happen to youWhat actually makes something a high-control group (and why "you can leave any time" doesn't disqualify it)How ISTA and similar neo-tantra spaces specifically target ex-evangelicals and ex-Mormons leaving purity cultureThe slippery slope from a weekend workshop to deeper entanglement — and what the escalation actually looks likeOsho/Rajneeshpuram as the ideological origin of modern neo-tantra — and the documented child sexual abuse that history includesThe playbook: how spiritual framing gets used to override consent and silence complaints"Acting from your wounding" and "stuck in victim consciousness" — the specific language used to shut down resistanceThe veneer of consent: why trauma-informed language and consent frameworks can be used as coverWhy the word "victim" gets weaponized in these spaces — and why that needs to stopHow David Deida's sexual polarity ideology functioned as a gateway into neo-tantra spaces for a generation of people, and why it is harmfulResources mentioned:Cult Trip by Anke Richter — available wherever books are soldAnke Richter: https://ankerichter.netDecult — cult awareness conference and resources: https://decult.netRed Flags in Workshops — free consent-forward resource for participants and facilitators: https://redflagsinworkshops.comPart 1 — Have You Been Sold the Patriarchy's Version of "The Divine Feminine"? https://open.substack.com/pub/laurajurgens/p/have-you-been-sold-the-patriarchysGet my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →The Men Behind "Sexual Polarity" Have a Lot to Answer For
4w ago00:37:33Tap to summarizeIf you've ever left a sacred sexuality workshop feeling worse about yourself than when you walked in — or heard a friend blame herself for not being "receptive enough" — this episode is for you.Sexual polarity teachings are everywhere right now. They promise to unlock your feminine energy, reignite desire, and deepen connection. Sounds great. The reality is different. They're built on a foundation of made-up science, cultural theft, and a paper trail that leads somewhere deeply problematic. They are also actively causing harm. In this episode I'm mapping exactly where this ideology came from, who's profiting from it, and what it's actually doing to women's desire, relationships, and sense of self — because I see the damage in my practice every single day.In this episode:Why "sexual polarity" isn't ancient wisdom or real science — and how it borrows language from physics to sound legitimateDavid Deida, Tony Robbins, and Deepak Chopra — the men profiting and what their paper trail actually showsThe Osho/neo-tantra origins: why the history of this ideology goes back to documented child sexual abuse in cult communesWhy the OneTaste sentencing matters — and what Nicole Daedone's case tells us about who enforces patriarchal ideologyWhat women are actually hungry for that polarity coaching hijacks and exploitsThe difference between genuine erotic power play and a grooming script dressed as spiritualityHow to recognize a genuinely qualified practitioner — and what red flags look like in these spacesThis is part one of a two-part series. Next episode I'm joined by journalist and cult researcher Anke Richter, author of Cult Trip, for a conversation on sex cults, ISTA, and the darker end of this spectrum.Resources mentioned:Full article with sources and resources: https://open.substack.com/pub/laurajurgens/p/have-you-been-sold-the-patriarchys?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=webBarbara Carrellas' Urban Tantra: barbaracarrellas.comMidori on consent-forward BDSM: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaxv6fBRPDep5NIrLfjEUNzmPtY4Ax5CNGet my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →Why Therapy Hasn't Fixed Your Sex Life (and What Actually Does)
Apr 2700:29:14Tap to summarizeYou've done the work. Real work. Therapy, couples counseling, the conversations, the books. You understand yourself better than you ever have — and you still feel the same way in your body.That's not a sign you're beyond help. It's a sign you've been using the wrong tools.This episode explains why the things most people reach for — talk therapy, mindset work, even good communication — don't reach desire and embodied intimacy, and what kind of support actually does. Whether you're partnered or not, high-desire or low — if you want a more satisfying sex life, this episode is for you.In this episode:When therapy is genuinely valuable — and what it wasn't designed to doWhy mindset work and self-talk can't override a nervous system patternWhat somatic therapy does well and where even that hits a limitWhy your doctor's answer probably wasn't the right oneWhat body-based, future-facing work actually looks likeWhy I wish you wouldn't give up on your sex life before trying the right toolGet my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →Low Libido Isn't a Mindset Problem: Why You Can't Think Your Way to Desire
Apr 2000:36:31Tap to summarizeIf you've been trying to figure out how to want sex more and nothing is working — this episode is going to explain why. And it's probably not the answer you've heard before.A lot of people struggling with low desire or low libido have already done the reading. They understand the concepts. Their body still hasn't gotten the memo. That's not a character flaw. It's the wrong sequence.In this episode, I cover:Why desire and arousal are not the same thing — and why the order they happen in matters more than most people realizeWhat responsive desire actually is, what the research says (including Rosemary Basson's work on how desire really works for most women), and why the model in most medical textbooks is wrongWhat your nervous system has to do with low desire — and why this is the piece that's almost always missing from mainstream adviceHow cultural conditioning and shame get wired into the body at a level that thinking simply can't reachWhere your mind actually does help with desire — and what most people are doing with it instead that's actively working against themIf you've read the books, done the therapy, and you still feel stuck in your head, this one is for you.Resources mentioned: Episode 5 (core desires and erotic emotions) | Free guide: Get Out of Your Head at laurajurgens.com/guide | Substack: laurajurgens.substack.comGet my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →Sexual Shame: Why We All Have It and How to Give It Back
Apr 1300:35:02Tap to summarizeMost people carry sexual shame so quietly and for so long that it starts to feel like a character trait rather than something that was handed to them. It isn't. Every flavor of shame — about wanting too much, too little, taking too long, not taking long enough, about your body, your history, your desires, your "low libido" — came from somewhere specific. And that somewhere is not you.In this episode, I go through the full inventory of sexual shame I see in my somatic intimacy coaching practice, explain exactly where it came from (the culture, not your character), and go deeper into why shame lives in the body and nervous system — not just the mind — and what that means for how you actually release it. This is about a somatic, body-based approach to understanding and releasing sexual shame — and it goes where most intimacy advice, and even therapy, doesn't.In this episode, you'll learn:The most common sexual shames — about desire, low libido, body image, sexual anxiety, sexual confidence, and what it takes to orgasm — and why every single one makes complete sense given the culture we inheritedWhy shame is stored in the nervous system and body as implicit memory — and why thinking or talking your way out of it rarely worksWhat shame actually does behaviorally — why it makes you hide, avoid, and stay quiet, which is the opposite of what heals itWhy speaking your shame to someone who stays in full somatic connection with you is the most powerful antidote — and why that's so hard to find on your ownWhat somatic healing of sexual shame actually looks like in practice — and how it differs from traditional therapy or mindset workMy own shame story — the things I carried for years without knowing I was carrying them, and what shifted when I stopped trying to think my way through itThe culture handed you this shame. You don't have to keep carrying it — but getting free of it requires more than understanding it. This episode is where that starts.Get my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →
Pleasure Uprising: Why Culture Owes You an Apology
Apr 600:28:56Tap to summarizeHave you ever followed the "right" advice and ended up further from yourself?That's what this episode is about — and it's also why we're now Pleasure Uprising: Desire, Attachment, and the Sex You Actually Want. The evolution of this show mirrors what happens in my practice all the time: when you stop trying to fit yourself into the frame someone else handed you, something truer emerges.In this episode:What the desire gap framing got right, what it missed, and what the shift revealsWhy the disconnection most people feel from pleasure and desire is fundamentally a cultural problem, not just a personal oneThe full scope of what we're doing here: somatic and nervous-system-based work, secure attachment, and creating the most pleasurable relationships possibleWhy trusting your own experiment — over conventional wisdom — is the foundation of real desire and genuine connectionIf you're curious about what's possible when you stop performing and start pursuing your own pleasure, desire, and genuine connection, you're in the right place.Get my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →Confident, not controlling: what "take charge in bed" actually means
Mar 3000:43:11Tap to summarizeWhen a woman asks a male partner to "be more assertive in bed," those words are typically landing differently than she intends — and differently than he's hearing them. This is a gendered language problem, and it's causing real confusion, frustration, and disappointment in real relationships.There is a real vocabulary mismatch about "dominance" and "assertiveness" rooted in how men and women are socialized differently as children around anger, aggression, and sexuality — and once you see it, you can't unsee it.In this episode, you'll learn:Why "assertive" and "dominant" mean different things depending on how you were socialized — and why that gap is doing damageThe five things women typically mean when they ask for more assertiveness in bed — for women who want to understand how to ask more effectively, and for the partners trying to meet itWhy aggression shuts desire down at the nervous system level — and what works insteadWhat "attuned confidence" actually means and how to build itWhat the masculine/feminine polarity content getting popular right now is actually teaching — and why it's harming real libidosSimple scripts for both of you: how to say what you actually mean, and how to ask what your partner actually meansMost couples are having the wrong conversation about this. This episode gives you the right one.Get my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →Why you don't want the honeymoon phase back (and what's actually better)
Mar 2300:45:00Tap to summarizeYou've heard it a thousand times: "keep the spark alive, get back to how it used to be, recreate that honeymoon phase magic." But what if that's the wrong goal entirely?Here's what nobody tells you: the honeymoon phase was a drug state — literally. A neurochemical cocktail of dopamine, norepinephrine, and nerve growth factor that made you want constantly, but didn't actually deliver the goods. Research shows that only 49% of women climax in new or casual encounters, compared to 70% in long-term committed relationships. You were having more sex, more urgently — and less actual satisfaction.In this episode, I unpack the neuroscience of New Relationship Energy (NRE), why it was never meant to last, and — most importantly — what becomes available on the other side of it when you build intentionally. Spoiler: it's not a consolation prize. It's deep satisfaction that a honeymoon phase literally cannot give you.You'll learn:What's actually happening in your brain and body during the "honeymoon phase" of NRE (and how serotonin actually drops)Why the NRE fade is completion, not failureWhat long-term desire offers that new relationships never can — being truly known, a partner who has learned your actual erotic makeup, and trust built through rupture and repair (if you do the work to build it)Why "trying harder" doesn't work — and what actually changes the patternThe new research showing that desire for novelty and desire for deep commitment aren't oppositesThis episode ends with a guided future visualization to help you focus forward. If you've been trying to go backward, this episode will turn you around.Get my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and "Shoulds" Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guideFind out about the Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/Find out more about my offerings and read the blog: https://laurajurgens.com/Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
Transcribe →