The Sexual Wellness Sessions

What really drives people to have affairs? Author of Affairs: True Stories of Love, Lies, Hope and Desire, Juliet Rosenfeld would say that affairs go way beyond what is immediately obvious in a relationship and that in some cases the probability of someone having an affair pre-dates even the relationship itself. Drawing from years of clinical work, Juliet explores affairs not simply as acts of bet...

What’s considered a normal level of testosterone? Is higher always better? And what does this all mean for our sexual wellbeing? In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Dr Ben Davis — private GP, specialist in men’s health and sexual difficulties, and sex and relationship therapist — for a nuanced and evidence-based conversation about testosterone. Together, we unpack the realities behind the stereo...

'Pro porn, pro sex, pro knowing the difference' is one of the many points that Cindy Gallop discusses when talking about how through gaps in good enough education, resources and conversations that pornography became many people's default form of sex education; and how Make Love Not Porn, the platform she's been working on for 17 years can help offer an alternative. In this episode Cindy holds the...

If love is a verb, then what are the ingredients that make up a thriving relationship? And is love something that can be designed? In this episode, we explore world renowned relationship expert Dr Sara Nasserzadeh's definition of love, and her emergent love model. Her model and research examines relationships through a lens of not being built on luck, chemistry, or chance alone—but on structure, i...

The topic of male sexual abuse and sexual harms is still a largely unspoken one, so where do victims and survivors go to get support? In this episode, I’m joined by Duncan Craig OBE founder of We Are Survivors, to explore a conversation that is so often missing—male experiences of sexual trauma, and the long shadow it can cast across identity, relationships, and sex. We talk about the gaps in supp...

Why even in 2026 is sexual wellbeing still a missing part of the conversation when it comes to healthcare, treatment and recovery? In this episode, I sit down with psychosexual nurse specialist Lorraine Grover to explore sexual health beyond just symptoms, and to discuss why sexual difficulties and challenges are never just about the body. Lorraine talks us through how her work moves beyond the me...

What does it really mean to be “kink curious”—and is kink as niche as we’ve been led to believe? In this episode, Gigi Engle a psychosexual therapist and author of Kink Curious, and I unpack the language we use around sex; from kink and fetish, to vanilla, safewords and boundaries. We discuss how labels can both support and limit our understanding of ourselves, and explore the spectrum of desire,...

Divorce is a process that is often spoken about in absolutes - whether it be failure, freedom, grief, blame, conflict or closure; but unsurprisingly the reality is far more nuanced and complex. My guest for this episode is someone highly experienced with all of the above - divorce lawyer Lucy Stewart-Gould from Stewarts Law; and in this conversation we explore what really happens when a relationsh...

From dating apps to AI companions, our relationships are increasingly mediated through screens, algorithms, and carefully curated versions of the self. But what does this mean for intimacy, desire and our capacity to tolerate the messiness of human relationships?   In this episode Dr Aaron Balick draws on over two decades of clinical experience and psychodynamic thinking to unpack the idea of the...

In conversations about fertility, we often focus on hope, treatment, and the possibility of becoming a parent. But what happens when it doesn’t end that way? In this deeply honest and thoughtful episode, we explore the often unspoken experience of being childless not by choice—and the profound emotional, physical and relationship impacts that can follow fertility treatment, miscarriage, and years...

How can we feel more confident speaking up for ourselves as a patient in a medical setting? How can we best prepare for doctor's appointments? And what are the things that can help if we feel embarrassed or ashamed about symptoms that we are experiencing? In this episode, I sit down with Dr Nighat Arif who is a GP specialising in women's health, an author, and well known medical broadcaster and vo...

Is there a tension between evolutionary biology and modern culture? How do our distinct motivations for intimacy and love differ from our sex drive, and importantly what does this mean for relationships where the two co-exist? In this episode, I’m joined by evolutionary biologist and author Dr Justin Garcia, Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute and author of The Intimate Animal. We dive deep...

These podcast episodes barely scratch the surface of conversations around different aspects of our sexual and relationship wellbeing, and this is definitely the case for this conversation on neurodiversity and how it shows up in sex lives, intimacy, relationships and dating.   Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that includes many conditions, and describes the variety of ways that people’s brains p...

Whilst we have come a long way in breaking down the silence around infertility, conversations around male infertility and male fertility issues are still broadly undiscussed. Common perception and assumptions around infertility are that it's a 'woman's issue', but it's estimated that 7% of all men are impacted by infertility; and an estimated one in seven couples in the UK experience infertility w...

The impact of cancer can touch every part of our lives, but many people with cancer report that the impact that is rarely discussed is that on sex, pleasure, intimacy, relationships and dating. The experiences, treatments and changes that we go through are so layered in terms of the physical, emotional and psychological and it's impossible to separate the different parts out as we are in constant...

Miscommunication in relationships is inevitable. We misunderstand each other, misinterpret and make assumptions about what our partners are thinking and we all bring our own thoughts, feelings and experiences to our relationships - but what happens if it feels like we aren't even speaking the same language? In this episode Anne Hodder-Shipp discusses her theory of the 18 Modern Love Languages whic...

Seeing things differently in relationships is inevitable - we can never expect to be 100% perfectly aligned with another person; but what about the stuff that we don't or can't see because it's in our blind spots? In this conversation I delve into the question 'What Am I Missing?' when it comes to sex, relationships and intimacy with Emma Reed Turrell, the author of the new book with this same tit...

There is a real lack of conversation around many medical conditions, and especially those which are not immediately visible, and MRKH falls into this category. Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome is a congenital condition which is characterised by the vagina and uterus being underdeveloped or absent, alongside other symptoms. As there are no physically outwards signs until someone reach...

When it comes to sex and intimacy, one guarantee is that everyone has questions - it's impossible for any single person to know everything there is to know about sex and relationships. The lack of normalising conversation around the topic of sex leaves so many people feeling like they don't know how to ask or where to go to get their questions answered, but the truth is that there is no one-size-f...

Relationships come in many different shapes, sizes and configurations and every relationship model comes with its own set of benefits, challenges and complexities. When it comes to opening up relationships it can be hard to know where to start, how to talk about it and how to manage the emotions and logistics that accompany a new relationship structure. In this episode I interview Niki D , who is...

If sex is a skill to be learnt then can sexual fulfilment ever be really achieved, or is it something that changes with us throughout our lives? Sex-misinformation is rife, and many of us are set up by our sexual expectations which means that we and our partners will inevitably fail or struggle in some way to achieve these perfect and unrealistic versions of sex. Casey Tanner is a therapist who ta...

“Why does sex make babies, and babies spell erotic disaster in couples?” ~ Esther Perel, The Secret To Desire In A Long Term Relationship, Ted Talk. Dr Karen Gurney describes becoming parents as a 'relationship culture shock' and argues that it's unrealistic for us to expect our sex lives and intimacy to be unaffected by the competing priorities and mental load of parenthood. In this conversation...

Whilst it can be considered that loss is the impossible-to-avoid flipside of love, becoming a widow at age 30 defies all predictions of what building a life with someone looks like. But, this was what happened to my guest Lotte Bowser, whose partner Ben died age 36 in the midst of their plans for making a future together. This conversation digs deep into Lotte's experience of the rollercoaster of...

Many of the ways in which we meet, date and maintain love, sex and intimacy have changed across generations; but what happens when these adaptations come up to clash with our historical and ingrained beliefs and expectations of relationships? Has how we love changed, or has the context around love moved on which has shaped our expectations and experiences of intimacy in new ways? In this episode,...

The sexual wellness industry is booming with new products, platforms and apps joining the market all the time. When this is in combination with the huge role that social media and the internet plays in our lives, we can see that influencers have the potential to play a big role in starting conversations, raising awareness and breaking down taboos. Someone who has harnessed this is Shakira Scott, k...