Individuals & Couples

 
 

I work with individuals and couples of all genders and orientations online and in my Denver, CO office.

We do more than talk. We slow down and attend to all of you – mind, body, heart, and soul. We dig deep, take risks, and get experimental to uncover what brings you alive and what gets in the way. We learn and practice skills and engage play for discovery. This is not a passive process. Rather, we co-create our time together by attuning to your needs and your right pace.

Lasting change happens over time and with repetition. Working with me is not a quick fix and awkwardness or discomfort can be expected as a normal part of the process. As you shift your orientation towards wholeness and pleasure rather than what’s not well or not working, you’ll be rewarded with more of it, likely quicker than you think. What may seem like small tweaks that have nothing to do with sex can change the dynamics of your intimate life and all of your relationships in surprising and fulfilling ways.

In addition to ongoing sessions, I offer Immersion packages. This approach is great for folks living outside of CO or for locals who feel inspired to dig deep into a body of exploration and work in a short time. Immersions include one or more Zoom sessions followed by multiple in-person sessions over 1 week, and conclude with an integration session on Zoom. Clients leave an immersion reoriented towards a new and more possible future, forever impacted by how they experienced themselves during our time together. Inquire for more information.

 
 
I came to Chris as old trauma I had not fully dealt with was bubbling up to the surface, causing me to fall into freeze states, particularly in the bedroom. Chris created a space where I could speak openly without shame or worry and I was delighted and surprised about how quick I was seeing improvements. Our work together helped me shift out of these patterns and brought me back to a world of safety, pleasure, connection and confidence. I feel a much deeper and honest connection to myself, my needs, my boundaries and my partner, and my true essence.
— Sarah
 
 

Individuals might come to me to explore:

 
 
  • Your relationship with pleasure is centered around consumption – food, porn, shopping, scrolling, etc…and you want to cultivate a more life-affirming relationship with pleasure.

    You’re not sure why but you resist deeply nourishing pleasure, including self-pleasure/masturbation.

    You want to learn the nature of your pleasure by getting present and building a moment-to-moment relationship with your sensations with no pressure to perform.

    You want to explore pleasure on your terms, where the only touch that happens is exactly what you want and nothing you don’t.

    You want to learn new avenues for self-pleasure, pleasure with others, or cultivating states of expanded orgasm .

  • Consent is an agreement that can be changed at any moment. Negotiating consent is far more nuanced than ‘hell yes’ and ‘hell no’ and our nervous system has much to teach us in the realm of consent.

    You want to grow your understanding of consent and strengthen healthy boundaries through practicing both.

    You have a sense that healthy boundaries would provide you more access to safety, leading to more desire and thriving. You’ve historically been ‘under-bounded’ or ‘over-bounded’ and you want to develop boundaries that keep you both protected and connected.

    You want to learn how to better respect and honor other’s boundaries and develop communication skills that support healthy relationships.

  • You know desires hold the keys to your soul’s deepest longings but you have a hard time accessing them. Maybe you have no idea what you desire because you’ve never felt permission to explore it.

    Perhaps you remember desire but you’re not sure where it went and you want to make sense of it.

    Your erotic imagination has never been free to run wild and you want to explore and experiment.

    Your desires have gotten you in trouble and you want to learn how to make decisions that are more in line with your values.

    You want to learn how receive and give with a whole heart, to better understand the difference between wanting and willing, and to allow yourself to want more.

    Learn how to ask for what you want in a well-bounded space that needs nothing from you.

    Learning what’s in the way of accessing the desire that lives in you begins the process of liberating you from it.

  • You want to explore your physical map and your pleasure map of your anatomy of arousal.

    You would like to learn to embrace your changing body and arousal patterns and better understand how your particular arousal system works right now.

    You want to understand how context affects arousal and why your turn on can be elusive.

    You want to explore arousal in a pressure free environment, where the touch needs nothing from you.

    You’d like to experience non-ordinary states of consciousness during arousal or you’d like to expand your access to them.

  • You need help orienting to a new life. Maybe you’ve recently moved in or out with someone, gotten a new job or want to, became a parent, lost someone close, or you want support figuring out whether you’re in the right relationship and you need a safe place to bring your questions.

    Your body or mental functioning has changed due to birth, surgery, illness, or the natural process of aging and you want a space to explore and learn your new shape.

    Change is difficult for you and you want to support your nervous system to be able to take risks and lean into a more fulfilling life.

  • You never received proper sex education and you want a safe place to explore your questions, and discover questions you never thought to ask.

    You are a healing professional and you want to learn how to be with your clients sex and relationship concerns.

    You feel pulled toward this work, potentially as a professional. You’re already a student or you’re curious about becoming one.

    You need help finding ways to have honest, sometimes difficult conversations with your partner about sex and so much more.

  • There are a lot of ‘shoulds’ taking up space in your mind and your body and your sexual experiences don’t match the images you see in the media. You think you’re broken or weird.

    You have pelvic pain or discomfort during sex and you want to find relief or a different way of having a sexual exchange that is actually pleasurable.

    You have erectile issues, unintended ejaculation, or delayed ejaculation and you’d like support accepting yourself and expanding your sexual menu options and erotic map.

    You have never experienced an orgasm, or it’s illusive and you want to find ways to have pleasure without an orgasm or you want to try and find or recover it.

    You feel guilty about your fantasy life and your relationship with porn feels unhealthy to you because its affecting your ability to connect with other humans, to get aroused without imagery, or your compulsive behaviors negatively impact your life. You want to find your right relationship with porn so you can come into more acceptance of yourself.

  • Old traumas are getting in the way of your best life and you’ve heard that trauma healing happens through the body rather than the mind.

    You freeze in stressful or sexual situations or you don’t have the resilience to stay when the going gets tough and you want to understand why and heal.

    You need embodied somatic practices and a place to express and sequence what got stuck or shocked to make space for thriving and sexual vibrancy.

    A part of you blames yourself and you need a compassionate space to see yourself and your situation more clearly.

    Maybe the trauma you carry isn’t a direct assault but is a result of intergenerational or cultural imprints and you’re ready to let them go.

  • Shame is a mechanism of control and it keeps us small, conforming, and unexpressed.

    Nobody is born with shame, it’s a cultural phenomenon that we pick up to ‘fit in’ with our families, religion, society, friends, school, community.

    We can be shamed or we can shame ourselves for our thoughts, words, or actions, suffocating our feelings of belonging.

    Shame keeps us separate, even though its trying to ‘protect us’ and we work to root out the limiting beliefs that accompany shame.

    Learn to accept, fully own, and love your body, gender, and sexuality.

  • I included these categories to give you a sense of what we may explore but they certainly aren’t exhaustive of all we might get up to.

    As everything is related, many of these topics overlap and intertwine and we’ll co-create our work together based on your personal wishes, intentions, and goals and what emerges during our time together.

 
 
 

Couples might explore any of the topics above plus:

 
 
  • You and your partner love each other but your conflicts are explosive or non-existent. Learning the art of generative conflict is essential for deep intimacy.

    You suspect bringing your grievances to a supportive environment will help you grow closer in ways you haven’t been able to get to on your own.

    There are winning and losing strategies for healthy relating and learning them will strengthen your relationship and may save it.

    Learn how soft-power and healthy boundaries are alternatives to righteousness and disconnection.

  • Almost anything affects desire and most couples have desire discrepancies, in and out of the bedroom. We dig deep into dynamics to discover new ways to relate, to touch, and to engage each other.

    Love and desire have competing needs, we need differentiation to sustain desire but we also need to feel connected to feel safe.

    We experiment with novelty, learning how to give and receive pleasure, new ways to touch and to communicate, taking risks to more interesting territory including neo-tantric practices to enhance connection and pleasure.

    Sex isn’t a thing you do, it’s a space you enter, a place you go. (Thank you Esther Perel!)

  • Something needs to change but you don’t want to leave. Explore ways to reinvigorate or restructure your intimate partnership.

    Learn skills to build secure attachment in your relationship, based on your attachment style.

    Explore the conditions on both sides that are needed to stay together and if you decide to separate, how to leave well.

    You’re at an impasse or feel stuck with a big decision and you want to build the capacity to hold steady and work to tend everybody’s needs.

    Explore considerations of consensual non-monogamy (CNM) and polyamory before getting yourself in the weeds.

    Learn how to negotiate changing agreements in all aspects of the relationship home life, in and out of CNM.

  • Receive support in your recovery from infidelity and other betrayal traumas through exploring root causes, the needs that were trying to get met, taking responsibility, and facing the pain caused.

    We take our time to clear old hurts on all sides. We slow down and take turns speaking and listening, finding true remorse while working to get to deep empathy and understanding in right time.

    Learn how to integrate changes that are happening and how to open to seeing your partner in a new light, as they are becoming who they are now rather than who they were.

 
With warmth, great compassion, intelligence and unparalleled perception; Chris led us through a positive transformation in our relationship and individual selves. Her methodology and tool kit is extensive and reflects many years of experience and deep knowledge. We are so grateful for the time spent working with her!
— Tim & Misty
 
Before coming to Chris Muse I had never heard of somatic work and did not know what to expect during my visits. I found Chris to be very compassionate and attentive to my needs. Through her counsel and techniques Chris helped me to bring awareness to my sexual anatomy both physically and spiritually and determine where my healing needed to occur. I feel I made significant and remarkable progress in my process to become whole and more aware.
— LB