When Trauma Appears

To add this class to your personal schedule.

Class Link

Links will be available 48 hours before the conference starts and can be found here so check back!

Class Description

The discovery or recognition of past trauma can be a challenging thing to navigate as an adult. It can impact our relationships, work, and how we move through the world. It also may have an effect on how we interact with our kink lives and bring up questions like "how might my trauma response influence how I consent" or "does this change how I view what I desire and how I choose to engage in it." This is part class (where we will discuss trauma, the impact on our bodies, some ways we can think about what we want and how to work with our particular trauma response, and rediscovering ways to explore what might feel good) and part open discussion where participants are invited to bring their own stories around how they have navigated learning about their own trauma while they are also involved in kink. We will discuss what may have shifted, if there are best practices people may have changed, and how we might be able to access both community and individual support.

Handouts

Presenter

AJ Renard

(she/her)

Presenter Bio

AJ Renard (she/her) has been involved in the BDSM world her entire adult life, although she was a dark little thing far before that. AJ works in the mental health field and has a deep passion for teaching about BDSM and consent. She finds her happy place when there is rope, electricity, knives, boots, fear, and a lot of crying involved. In her limited free time she makes custom chainmaille for her shop, Foxy Feisty Redhead.

AJ teaches a variety of classes about consent, negotiations, perspectives on D/s, bottoming for intense scenes and edgeplay, mental health and BDSM, and behavioral science in PE dynamics. She also loves demo bottoming for Violet Wand demos, and things that make her shy in front of groups of people.