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Guided: Practicing Intimacy & Sex With A Surrogate

By Paige Perez,
Anita Rao, Amanda Magnus
Published October 6, 2023 at 5:30 AM EDT
An illustration of two people sitting face-to-face on a purple carpet from the elbows down. One person is sitting with their legs crossed inside of the other person's legs around them, and they are holding hands. The word “Guided” is at the bottom of the illustration.
Charnel Hunter

Anita first learned about surrogate partner therapy from the 2012 movie "The Sessions," and her curiosity was piqued. It's a widely misunderstood and stigmatized type of therapy work in which touch is a mechanism for healing. Two surrogate partners take her inside the day-to-day of their jobs, and a certified sex therapist shares why she hopes others in her industry will be more welcoming to the practice.

Meet the guests:

  • Brian Gibney, a surrogate partner, educator and advocate, explains what makes surrogate partner therapy distinct and shares his experience in this work
  • Arianna Fernandez, surrogate partner and member of the International Professional Surrogates Association, talks about how her genderqueer identity impacts how they show up in the work
  • Deva Segal, a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified sex therapist, breaks down her role in surrogate partner therapy and why she recently started incorporating this work into her practice

Read the transcript | Review the podcast

Tags
Embodied PodcastSexIntimacy
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Paige Perez
Paige Perez (she/her) is a Caribbean-American audio and photojournalist born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Her work covering sexual and reproductive health, the climate crisis, and racial inequity is published in The Guardian, HuffPost Voices, and Bronx Times. Paige is a recent graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she concentrated in health/science reporting and specialized in audio and video. When she is not reporting and producing, she is probably visiting local art spaces or making images.
See stories by Paige Perez
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.
See stories by Anita Rao
Amanda Magnus
Amanda Magnus is the executive producer of Embodied, a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships and health. She has also worked on other WUNC shows including Tested and CREEP.
See stories by Amanda Magnus