Biography
I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, and was amazed and delighted to discover the astounding diversity of urban life when I started working in Boston as a teenager. I dropped out of college in my sophomore year and moved to New York City’s Lower East Side to be a psychedelic revolutionary and explore sexuality and spirituality in as many ways as I could find. I eagerly learned about Kundalini yoga, meditation, Buddhist, and Hindu spiritual practices. I discovered the Goddess and received my first Tarot deck when I was nineteen.
I emigrated to San Francisco in the Great Migration of 1967, a happy flower child in the Summer of Love, and have lived in this magical region ever since. My daughter was born in 1969, and being her mother has been the greatest delight and privilege in my life. It was shortly after her birth that I took my vow of permanent nonmonogamy.
I found a community of fellow seekers in sexuality at San Francisco Sex Information in 1973, and went forward from there to host a radio show, join the leather community, and finish college. Later I attended graduate school, completed my internship, and became licensed as a marriage and family therapist.
I published my first book with Janet Hardy in 1994, shortly after my fiftieth birthday; further books followed. I have been studying and practicing Tantra in a women’s sangha since 2002, as chronicled in Radical Ecstasy. I am currently sixty-five years old and enjoying a rich and sexy life with my beloved in the mountains of West Marin.
Watch my interviews with Stefunny Pettee here:
I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, and was amazed and delighted to discover the astounding diversity of urban life when I started working in Boston as a teenager. I dropped out of college in my sophomore year and moved to New York City’s Lower East Side to be a psychedelic revolutionary and explore sexuality and spirituality in as many ways as I could find. I eagerly learned about Kundalini yoga, meditation, Buddhist, and Hindu spiritual practices. I discovered the Goddess and received my first Tarot deck when I was nineteen.
I emigrated to San Francisco in the Great Migration of 1967, a happy flower child in the Summer of Love, and have lived in this magical region ever since. My daughter was born in 1969, and being her mother has been the greatest delight and privilege in my life. It was shortly after her birth that I took my vow of permanent nonmonogamy.
I found a community of fellow seekers in sexuality at San Francisco Sex Information in 1973, and went forward from there to host a radio show, join the leather community, and finish college. Later I attended graduate school, completed my internship, and became licensed as a marriage and family therapist.
I published my first book with Janet Hardy in 1994, shortly after my fiftieth birthday; further books followed. I have been studying and practicing Tantra in a women’s sangha since 2002, as chronicled in Radical Ecstasy. I am currently sixty-five years old and enjoying a rich and sexy life with my beloved in the mountains of West Marin.
Watch my interviews with Stefunny Pettee here:
Education
Bryn Mawr College, 1961-1962
New College, BA, Human Behavior, 1975
University of San Francisco, MA in Counseling, 1989
License Marriage and Family Therapist, 1991
The University of Life, 1961 to the present
Professional Experience
Haight Ashbury Medical Clinic - Psychedelic crisis worker, 1968
San Francisco Sex Information - Trainer, radio programmer, and board member, 1973 - 1985
Women's Crisis Support and Shelter Services - Advocate and counselor, 1979-1981
Sub-Acute Residential Treatment Santa Cruz and Sunnyvale – Therapeutic Teen Leader, 1984 – 1992
Continuum HIV Services, 1993
Private practice, San Francisco,1993 to present
Intern Supervisor, 2003 to present
Continuing Education Provider, 2006 to present
Publications with Janet W. Hardy
The Ethical Slut
The New Bottoming Book
The New Topping Book
When Someone You Love Is Kinky
Radical Ecstasy: S/M Journeys to Transcendence
Solo Writing
Poems and articles in various magazines and anthologies
Speaker and Teacher
Presenting at many conferences and gatherings, including the University of Hamburg, Bryn Mawr College, Mills College, UC Berkeley, AASECT, SSSS, CAMFT, Black Rose, Leather Leadership Conference, and too many more to list
Workshop Leader
Creating and leading workshops in polyamory, S/M, and radical ecstasy in Europe and the United States
