Post-Op Care Fund 4 Transmasculine Spectrum Folks

Pleasure (your) Chest is an experiential workshop series specifically created for trans-masculine spectrum folks who have completed top surgery; holding space in community to explore grief, consent and pleasure from an embodied understanding.

The course facilitators, Kori Doty and Jess DeVries, are seeking to fill some major gaps in post-op care for folks who have had top surgery by offering a virtual workshop series, Pleasure (your) Chest, on a quarterly basis.

As we know (or maybe are just learning) the medical system does little to support folks post-top surgery with much beyond the physiological basics of scar care. We know that the emotional body and the pleasure body also need support; as well as the unspoken grief that exists.

We have dreamt our way into creating a beautiful web of support and redistribution of resources surrounding the workshops. This will create opportunities for folks who sign up to be able to attend with no cost to them AND to receive up to three 1:1 sessions with a skilled practitioner near them (or virtually) who can support gender exploration, scar massage, lymphatic massage, etc. In doing so we are also constructing a practitioner directory of referred interdisciplinary bodyworkers working to support the specific needs of post-operative gender-affirming surgery patients around the world.

This is a chance for you (cis folks we’re especially looking at you here) to provide beautiful, tangible care that trans and non-binary community members might not be able to access otherwise.

What we are asking:

$225 x 12 = $2700 - Full cost for each participant

$150 x 3 x 12 = $5400 - 3 free 1:1 sessions with a provider for each participant

$35 x 12 - 1 Queer Made Scar Salve per participant + shipping costs

$600 - Preparation/Promo

$960 - ASL interpretation $60/hour x 2 hours x 2 Interpreters per session for 4 sessions

____________________

$10,080 - Total Per Series

Our goal is to have an ongoing fund that will provide the ability for multiple cohorts of folks to receive this gift each year.

We deeply appreciate your generosity!

Kori & Jess

Who are we to be doing this:

Jess DeVries (she/her) is a queer cisgender somatic sex and intimacy coach trained in the Somatica method and trained in somatic sex education and sexological bodywork. She primarily serves the queer/trans community to support folks in reclaiming body autonomy and to inspire curiosity about pleasure and sexual expression including expanding possibilities of what sex can be and guiding folks to define and pursue pleasure on their own terms. In addition to her pleasure work, she is a grief advocate who regularly facilitates spaces for people to grieve, inviting the wisdom of the body to guide the grief process. She understands that there is a deep kinship between pleasure and grief and believes that they both deserve to be tended as full experiences of our humanity.

Jess's Website

Kori is a trans non-binary educator with a background in sexual health and harm reduction. They are based in Lekwungan Territories (colonial Victoria, BC) and are a student of the Institute of Somatic Sex Education. Their work with groups and individuals around personal and collective liberation has been punctuated as they took time to gestate and parent a child, have top surgery, care for a partner with cancer, have bottom surgery, and has mostly been online since spring of 2020. Their experiences with gender affirming surgeries included numerous complications and their recovery work included being a student in the first iteration of Pleasure (your) Chest, as well as extensive interdisciplinary body work and self care. They descend from European settlers and walk through the world with access usually granted to white men; utilizing these privileges with integrity is a project that they try to approach with humility and nuance.

Kori's Website

Pleasure (your) Chest was originally written and taught by Jess and Jaiden Love, and Kori was a student/participant in its initial iteration. Jess and Kori met and began collaborating through their connection as students of the Institute of Somatic Sex Education. The first round of this re-launch of PYC is accepting registrations for our September series. While we are accepting donations and taking registrations concurrently, we are hoping to be able to refund the registration costs of prospective participants by securing the needed funds with your support.

Eventbrite Listing for Pleasure (your) Chest