Putting Pleasure into Practice

These days, I’ve been thinking a lot about what “putting pleasure into practice” means. It's the theme of our first ever 2025 OT Sex Summit: Putting Pleasure into Practice (happening in November - tickets on sale now) and we have a whole panel discussion on “Business as Pleasure”.  Furthermore, pleasure might be my favorite word and it is a birthright. 

Occupational Therapy language doesn’t make a lot of space for ‘pleasure’. The OTPF uses language like “sexual activity” and “intimate social participation”. “Play” is listed as an IADL and, outside of the Sex OT community, I’ve only ever heard “play” discussed as a pediatric occupation. The Adult Sensory Profile could have a field day with the body's sense of pleasure, but it doesn’t (cue, Dr. Gray’s Day 2 OT Sex Summit lecture on “Sensory in the Sheets”). 

So where does that leave us, as occupational therapy practitioners who know that feeling pleasure in our bodies is an aspect of living life to the fullest?

“Putting pleasure into practice” is a call to expand the scope of what we see as meaningful to our clients. It’s an invitation to move beyond only addressing the mechanics of sexual positioning toward working with our clients on communication, interoception, exploration, risk taking, assertiveness. It’s about recognizing that pleasure is not just a “nice to have”, but that it’s a crucial aspect of regaining agency and autonomy post injury, illness, or disability.

Whether we’re talking about reclaiming sexual voice and choice after trauma, navigating body image shifts after injury, finding joy in aging bodies, or building businesses rooted in sex and play—pleasure has a place in our work. And that place is growing.

So if you’ve ever felt the tension between what you were taught in OT school and what your clients are really asking for, this Summit is for you.

Let’s put pleasure into practice. For our clients, for ourselves, and for the future of occupational therapy.

See you in November.