My Story

I believe in human potential.

My mother was a Holocaust survivor who lived through two concentration camps (including Auschwitz), two Nazi ghettos, and an infamous death march that started in Poland and ended hundreds of miles away in Germany. Most of her family—including her parents and three siblings—were murdered.

When I was born, my mom placed great hope in my ability to make something of my life, so I could replace so many lost relatives. You could say every one of my breaths—from my first at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Hospital to the one I’m currently taking at my Washington, DC desk (actually a chaise) — is a F*ck You to Hitler.

But I like to flip this fury at The Furor around. Every day I try to honor the gift of life I’ve been given. I take this very seriously (though I almost always go for a cheap laugh).

My mom after the war

Writer

I never wanted to be a writer. My highest childhood aspiration was to be a check-out girl in the supermarket. But I changed my mind when I discovered That Girl, starring Marlo Thomas. I was going to be a financially unstable, unmarried actress, living in a run-down apartment in Manhattan. That’s exactly the life I created right after getting my B.A. in Theatre from Brooklyn College.

However, a few years later, while walking down the street, a monologue, fully formed, popped in my head.

Eventually, short monologues I wrote turned into full-length pieces I performed.

After spending several years creating theater in Europe, I returned to the U.S. for a Creative Writing Fellowship at Brown University.

After Brown, I spent a decade touring several one-person plays around the U.S., including performances at universities, galleries, libraries, conferences, dive bars, and Off-Broadway.

To pay the bills, I worked as a yoga instructor, meditation instructor, and a workplace wellness expert. I've always had a passion for wellness.

Author & Accidental Sexologist

Growing up, I had a very loving family but I also happened to live on a block shared by two pedophiles who both abused me. (Yup: two pedophiles on one block!) I dealt with all this the best I could, and even thought I'd escaped the grasp of this trauma until I got married in my forties and realized I needed much more healing (I had a ton of bedroom issues).

I didn't know where to start my healing though; I had so much shame...So I turned to art, creating a one-person play that mapped out a healing journey I might go on, and did! My play MARRIED SEX and I were invited into the New York International Fringe Festival and I performed it Off-Broadway. I began publishing essays and articles about my journey, with pieces published in The New York Times, Salon, and other publications. Eventually, I was offered a book deal--a chance to turn my play into memoir. THE PLEASURE PLAN became an Amazon bestseller.

While working on my book, however, I saw that it wasn't just me who found it difficult to get good information about sexual healing. I went through a rigorous training program to become an Certified Sexuality Educator, accredited by AASECT, and began working with clients as a Sexual Solutions Coach; Online Educator; and Campus Speaker, creating what I call Campus Consent 2.0.

Colorful High-rise Building Against Blue Sky

Speaker on Everyday Pleasure at Work, And Everywhere

While doing corporate wellness training, I saw that a need for pleasure was not confined to the bedroom. From cutting-edge research at Harvard, at NIH, at UC Berkeley, and many other institutions, I learned that researchers were beginning to understand that pleasure is not a luxury--it is the heart of resilience. I could have told them that :) My mother used pleasure visualizations to survive Aushwitz!

I began being asked, more and more, to bring my pleasure knowledge into workplace settings, where managers, teams, and employees are desperate for innovative, evidence-based strategies for reducing burn-out and bouncing back quicker after set-backs. Strategies that could help employees, and others, handle adversity with significantly less stress, and infinitely more joy. Because pleasure is often demonized and misunderstood, I included ways to navigate our natural pull toward dopamine, a healthy, natural impulse that can help us enormously if we understand how it works. I call this comprehensive understanding of dopamine Pleasure Literacy.

I believe we all deserve to feel good. And when we feel good, we are better partners, citizens, managers, workers, and humans.

Pleasure is what allows us to reach our potential.