Episode 20 - Worthy, Just Because You Are with Dr. Fanny Leboulanger
By Jessica Garrison
We are back this week with a familiar voice here at our network, Dr. Fanny Leboulanger. She is such a good friend of ours, both here on the podcast and on our 2024 Embracing Layers Radio Show. She unapologetically believes that we as women are enough and that we are not broken. This is one of my favorite things about her. It really impacts how she approaches helping women get in touch with their love for themselves, seeing themselves as worthy and valuable, creating spaces of safety for themselves, spaces of consent, so that each woman can truly open up and be able to experience pleasure in the way we were designed to.
“Self care is considering you exist, you deserve your time, you deserve your energy.” Fanny says this at the beginning of this episode, and it has really stuck with me since we recorded. I often say that we prioritize the things and people that we value. That is true of ourselves, but we don’t always treat ourselves that way, and this starts with exactly what Fanny says here, simply considering we are here and that we are deserving of our own time and care.
On the path to seeing pleasure and sexual health as part of our healthcare, we need to meet ourselves where we are. It starts with creating a space of safety, enjoying quiet time, even our favorite food (Fanny often talks about learning how to really enjoy a piece of chocolate fully and not rushing through eating it, but tapping into all of our senses). This is why Fanny approaches her work with such a mantra of self care, to unpack and acknowledge the healing and care that are necessary so that you can then open up to all the ways pleasure is possible for you, and the very healthy benefits of that.
Pay close attention to the Boundaries portion of the conversation as we unpack Dr. Leboulanger’s experience, how she views this in a way that is really helpful, and how it opens up the way we think about it, outside of the “catch phrase.” She always helps me see things in a way that I may have not thought about before and is always beneficial to me. We again talk about the role of self love in our lives, the impact it has on us, and how it helps solve a lot of the issues that necessitate boundaries in the first place. You’ll see what I mean when you get to this part of the episode :).
We talk about how we may regularly help others unpack their own stuff, but it can actually really be difficult to do that with ourselves even with a full bag of tools and resources. When we are forced to sit with and unpack all that can get in our own way of fully experiencing our own love and acceptance, it can require a lot of time and patience with ourselves to go down that road. Even with all the tools, we still have to come face to face with our story and what’s built up inside so that we can get to the root of what needs our love, acceptance, and attention. It’s so vital to be able to reconnect with our bodies and what we are actually feeling and experiencing, instead of disassociating from all the things that make us uncomfortable.
Dr. Fanny Leboulanger approaches this topic with such honesty, vulnerability, and wit. This really creates a space of authenticity and relatability to a topic that can be so difficult for many of us to address, and I am so thankful for how this approach and her tools have opened up safe opportunities for women to explore and connect with this part of themselves!
Ways to Engage: Have you considered how your relationship with yourself and how you feel about yourself impacts your ability to fully experience pleasure in general and through your sexual health? Think about that, and if taking some time to get curious about that and explore that more can impact your pleasure and sexual health capacity.