Erotic Empowerment
A Half-Day Workshop with Michelle Kasey
This is not a s-x workshop. It's something more foundational than that.
The “erotic”, as poet and activist Audre Lorde defined it, is your most alive, knowing, feeling self. The part of you that can't be lied to.
Most of us have spent years learning to manage that part. To keep it quiet. To negotiate with our own wanting until we can barely hear it.
This workshop is an invitation to stop managing and start inhabiting.
Over three hours, you'll move through a curated series of embodiment exercises, somatic movement, reflective writing, and witnessed sharing.
All designed to help you access a deeper quality of aliveness, map your desires honestly, meet the parts of you that learned to hide, and reclaim your erotic power as an internal compass for how you want to live.
You'll explore:
What the erotic actually is (and why it has almost nothing to do with s-x, but will absolutely better your s-x life)
How to read your body's yes, no, and maybe, and trust what you find
What got in the way of your aliveness and how to move it
What it feels like to be fully witnessed, without needing to perform
Details:
Date: Saturday 18th July 2026
Time: 1pm - 4pm
Location: TAPAC, 100 Motions Road, Western Springs
Cost: $75
You don't need to be in a relationship, s-xually active, or anything in particular to be here. You just need to be curious about what becomes possible when you stop shrinking.
Suitable for all bodies & genders. Nothing we do is a sexual practice.
Spaces are limited to 22 participants.
Who is your facilitator?
Michelle Kasey is an award-winning sex & relationships therapist (“best sex therapist 2023 & 2024”) burlesque artist (“burlesque performer of the year 2026”), and co-owner of ‘The Velvet Haven’ Burlesque Schools in Auckland and Wellington.
Her journey into this work began in a pole dancing studio & has developed over more than 14 years as a cabaret performer and teacher, giving her a perspective that few practitioners can offer.
She brings together embodied experience as a dancer & performer with therapeutic expertise, working in a somatic, trauma-informed, & playful way.
Since 2018, she has worked with thousands of clients through private sessions, group courses, and workshops, supporting people of all genders to develop a more alive, honest, and nourishing relationship with themselves.
She has written for The Spinoff, The Herald and performed on stages from intimate venues to crowds of 40,000.
Photo by David Kang
What to bring?
Wear something comfortable enough to move in. You'll be on your feet moving at times & on the floor writing at times. Bring a journal or notebook and a pen. Water bottle and a snack if you're someone who needs to eat regularly. An open mind is the only other essential. Everything else will be provided.