My topic for TEDx Adelaide is close to my heart. Personal, meaningful, at times uncomfortable and vulnerable, but very precious.

This is not easy. A friend noted yesterday that there’s some irony in what I do – working to make difficult things feel safer for others, in a way that so often feels risky and stressful for me.

It’s not easy but it is an amazing opportunity. I love sharing ideas that make a difference in the world, that help free people from ideas that were harming them. I love to give people permission to examine what they think they know. I love to validate people’s real, often unspoken experiences. I love to talk about complex concepts in plain language, and use words that describe experiences from the inside, not as a detached observer. I love to ease isolation and needless suffering, and to help people find ways to bear the pain that is the unavoidable cost of loving and being alive.

I don’t believe I have the answers, the map, the definitive guide, the solutions. What I do have is the capacity and willingness to share my personal experiences, the ability to absorb and synthesise a lot of research and written knowledge, and the opportunity to gather feedback from others and add it to my ideas.

I can’t tell you what what emotionally safer sex, or mental health, or connected relationships, or a meaningful life will look like for you.

But I can start these conversations in a compassionate and authentic way, and invite you along.

Let’s talk about sex.

Join me at TEDx Adelaide.