Dr. Gretchen Blycker introduces The Sacred Garden Mandala podcast as an invitation to cultivate holistic sexual wellbeing through compassion, curiosity, and embodied awareness of body, energy, and mind, joined this season by co-producer Dee Daniels and a range of guests. Drawing from Tibetan lineages and Sol Rigpa teachings, Blycker connects ancient practices with modern neurobiology, including polyvagal theory, emphasizing personal inquiry, inner wisdom, and non-hierarchical learning. She shares her background in sexual trauma advocacy, massage therapy, holistic counseling, and clinical work with sexual trauma, compulsive sexual behaviors, and problematic pornography use, and explains how trauma can disrupt safety and pleasure through nervous system threat responses. Using the mandala garden metaphor—rooting, tending, blossoming, harvesting, composting—she outlines a structure of sacred center, inner ring, and outer ring, guides a brief grounding and element-based practice, and emphasizes safety as foundational for healing and transformation. CONNECT WITH US AND LEARN MORE ABOUT:MEET DR. GRETCHEN BLYCKERMINDFULNESS-BASED PSYCHOTHERAPYAWAKENING APHRODITE AND ADONIS: THE ART, SCIENCE, AND SOUL OF LOVE, SEX AND RELATIONSHIPSFIND MORE RESOURCES HERECONTACT DR. GRETCHEN BLYCKERFOLLOW DR. GRETCHEN BLYCKER ON INSTAGRAMMEET THE PRODUCTION TEAM: DEE DANIELS MEDIA FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE: