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Bliss - the movie
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And yet another resource for you.
Bliss is a movie that I highly recommend.
As you know, we focus a lot of attention on Bodywork In the last 2 years or so, (since the tsunami, which nudged the magnetic poles a bit) I’ve noticed that many clients feel “out of balance.” This feeling is often the result of a first Chakra issue.
Almost always, there are also sexual issues, (Chakra two.)
Bliss addresses this second issue. The movie was made in 1997, and concerns the work of a Tantric teacher, as he helps a couple deal with sexual dysfunction - using a decidedly “hands on” approach that is similar to our own. Here is a review, and the text from the back cover, from Amazon:
Amazon.com
It may not be a great movie, but Bliss could be one of the greatest marriage-boosters ever filmed. This curious drama fits into the too-familiar form of the “therapy movie,” but it’s acted with intensity by a committed (and rather brave) trio. Craig Sheffer plays an uptight Seattle husband who discovers his neurotic wife (Sheryl Lee) visiting a radical doctor (Terence Stamp) who has sex–therapeutically–with his patients. After briefly flipping out, Sheffer finds himself buying into the doctor’s remedies for a sexual and emotional make-over. The silky-smooth Stamp is perfectly cast: with his enthusiasm for chakras and fine cigars, the doctor is both spiritual guru and the kind of man who reads Playboy. The film veers into ridiculousness at times, yet there is something intriguing about its how-to frankness. Home viewers may find themselves embarrassed and maybe just a little bit liberated. –Robert Horton
From the Back Cover
Craig Sheffer, Sheryl Lee, Terence Stamp, and Spalding Gray star in this audaciously honest look at sexual intimacy and emotional risk. On his wedding day, Joseph (Craig Sheffer) nervously admits that his wife (Sheryl Lee) is not quite like other women. But his beautiful bride is more than just the “impulsive, compulsive, obsessive” woman he thinks he knows. And when Joseph discovers she is hiding troubling secrets, it sends them both on a sexual odyssey that will either destroy or redeem their relationship. Erasing all boundaries between sex, love, and commitment, “BLISS may be one of the most daring and explicit films ever made.” –William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The most intriguing element of the movie is the use of “G-Spot” massage to release past sexual trauma. This fits with Chakra theory, which describes this area plus the root Chakra as holding both sexual and life trauma.
Check it out!
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Zen Based, Present Living
Loved this movie’s introduction to Tantra. Although I can’t imagine the therapist getting consent to have sex with patients from any women he might be involved with in a primary relationship. He could easily be a sexual predator using being a “therapist” as his cover. Isn’t it part of ethical standards of therapists not to ever have sex with patients? Do you massage the vulva area of your women patients? If so how does your wife feel about it?
Thanks for writing. The “Balthazar” character is not a therapist — he’s sort of a “freelance Tantra instructor.”
Traditional therapists refrain from “doing harm.” This means that, in talk therapy, sexual relations are proscribed. Within the psychotherapeutic relationship, I concur.
However, Sex Therapists have often employed “surrogates” for therapy; often surrogates are married, and I assume their partners know what they do.
The Body Electric organization trains “Sacred Intimates” to do that Balthazar does. Google “sacred intimate.”
We assume that who are in open, honest, vulnerable, and deeply committed relationships keep their partner informed of their business practices. We practice honesty. As such, my partner cannot “give me consent,” and receives full information.