More than pleasure: Tantric therapy can help treat emotional trauma

When talking about tantra, the first idea that comes to mind is a massage session full of orgasms or a different and more pleasurable way of having sex. What a lot of people don't know is that tantra can also be a therapy to deal with physical issues, like sexual dysfunctions, and psychological ones, like working on self-esteem.

Management advisor Lilian Al´osta, 30, sought tantric therapy for just that. She did feel a lot of pleasure, but it went further: "I had anorexia and bulimia in my teens and, even though I treated, I always had a bad relationship with my body. After the first tantric therapy session, that has already changed. I feel that today I see myself closer than I am in reality. "

Tantric therapist Carol Teixeira says that tantric therapy is not only indicated for more obvious cases, such as the difficulty of having orgasm, but also to bring new meaning to the relationship with the body, with sexuality, to work on self-esteem and to enhance the ability to have pleasure. "The way you use sexual energy affects all areas of life."

How Tantric Therapy Works

According to Carol and also tantric therapist Dhyan Ashna, this therapy uses, in addition to tantric massage, meditation and breathing to "redirect the person's sexual energy".

Carol explains what this energy is: "Sexual energy is the most powerful we have and the most underestimated. Precisely because people, in general, ignore the reach it has, considering it something smaller, which should be used only for the sex."

During therapy, she says she conducts this energy through the chakras (the body's energy points, according to yogic philosophy). With this, the person awakens regions of the body "asleep" for new sensations. In addition to the physical impact, therapists say that the sessions make the individual contact with sleeping emotions and even forgotten traumas.

It is a therapeutic process based much more on the body and touch than on speech. Even so, therapists talk to the person before the session, to understand what they are looking for and thus direct the massage.

Does it involve massage on the genitals?

Yes, tantric therapy usually involves massaging the genitals, but if the person is not comfortable or does not want to, it can be done without. It is worth knowing that tantra explores the whole body, from head to toe.

Sometimes, after a few initial sessions with body massage, the person can be more comfortable and be prepared to have the intimate areas touched. "If there is a person who is ashamed or blocked it is for them that I recommend tantra the most", defends Carol.

Dhyan Ashna explains that massage is not masturbation. "We make movements contrary to masturbation, to bring a new sensory perception", he says. For men, they are lighter and slower movements, with different directions and directions from those used in masturbation. In women, the focus is on bringing the clitoris structure out, "so that it has a much more intense orgastic perception", explains the therapist.

Do you have sex?

No. "Sometimes people arrive thinking it is a program," says Dhyan, who reinforces that tantric therapy is not a sexual act, despite working on sexual energy. Therefore, the therapist always does the sessions dressed, while the person who receives the massage is without clothes.

Orgasms, crying and more 

During tantric massage it is common for people to have intense and long orgasms, but this is not the rule. "There are people who cry a lot, who have a fit of laughter, people who remember childhood traumas, abuse. Each one reacts in a different way", says Carol Teixeira.

Therefore, at the end of the session, each person can leave feeling differently. While some are relaxed, others can get extremely shaken. Dhyan explains that "it is something very intimate, that society teaches in a twisted way. So it varies how each person stays and also how each deals with intense pleasure", she says.

Some people, even, may be so stuck in relation to sexuality that they don't even get pleasure in the first sessions, needing an initial period of reconnection with their own body.

Can it replace psychological therapy?

According to Carol Teixeira, as tantric therapy works emotions and sensations through the body, it works very well combined with analysis or psychotherapy. "There are many psychologists who recommend my work to their patients as something complementary to conventional therapy. There are certain issues that we only access when the rational leaves the scene. Sometimes, we only need to listen to the body," he says.

How much therapy is needed?

This also varies. Carol says that a single session can have a big effect, but recommends at least three. Dhyan, on the other hand, suggests at least six.

The duration is between an hour and a half and two hours, and the values ​​can vary between R $ 250 and R $ 500, per session.