This workshop invites us to engage in a research into how ‘therapeutic’ massage and bodywork techniques can interplay with BDSM practices and mutually inform and inspire one another.

In Traditional (Western and non-Western) bodywork modalities experiencing erotic pleasure or arousal while giving or receiving bodywork is disallowed. It is something to hide or mitigate and is even considered shameful or unethical (on the part of the practitioner). A client might enjoy receiving firmer and more intense touch, but references to masochism and power exchange are hardly ever made.

On the other hand, forms of massage dubbed as ‘erotic’ focus heavily on genitals, neglecting other parts of the body.

Kinky Massage is an invitation to release these inhibitions by allowing (mutual) pleasure, pain, muscular and emotional release and relaxation come together in a playful dance of giving and receiving.

Drawing from practices such as Hawaiian bodywork, Thai massage, trigger point therapy, reflexology, as well as BDSM techniques, we will eroticise giving and receiving intense sensations. We will use our hands, feet, knees, elbows, mouths and other body parts. We will work with breath and voice in order to induce deeper relaxation, release and arousal. We will also ‘queer’ the traditional massage practice by working in threes/groups and moving between giving and receiving within a session.

Bring a towel or a sarong.

Natalia Je has been involved with Schwelle Sydney, the forerunner of the School of Really Good Sex, and associated ventures (on and off) since 2011, as a Committee member, facilitator, administrator, volunteer coordinator, devil’s advocate and creative mastermind behind some of the wicked concepts that have been unleashed.

She has background in Social work and Psychology, as well as extensive training and experience in bodywork and movement/dance.