Testimonials

Joseph Kramer Ph.D.

Co-creator of Sexological Bodywork and the Body Electric School

Pamela Madsen is an erotic genius who has created a six-day communal immersion process where women learn to integrate sexual arousal into all parts of their bodies and lives. Along with her extraordinary team; through group and solo practices and receiving daily sensuous bodywork, participants unleash a remarkable state of sustained sexual arousal. And then are coached in ways to use that state. Back to The Body is the Master Class of my dreams. I wish I had a vulva.

Jaiya

Creator of the Erotic Blueprints, as seen on Sex, Love, & Goop

"You were looking a bit grey before you left, now you look super vibrant and alive!" My lover said to me this morning.
Since my trip to New Orleans and spending 6 days at the Back to the Body retreat with Pamela Madsen I've been experimenting with maintaining a new level of high arousal and ongoing pleasure.
I've seen proof over and over that sexual pleasure brings more aliveness and vitality. Being aroused is a beauty elixir, a youth elixir, a health elixir, and even a wealth elixir.
It's one of the reasons why I'm creating a lifestyle that is all about putting Pleasure First. I feel beautiful, alive, radiant, filled with healthy vitality when I'm in a highly aroused state. So why not lead life from a place of arousal?
Won't you join me in the experiment?

Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

Up until very recently, hands-on sexual healing has been cloaked in secrecy, shame, and misunderstanding. But a bold new group of courageous pioneers such as Pamela Madsen is leading the way toward a deeper, richer understanding of women’s sexual pleasure as a force for health and healing that positively affects all areas of their lives. The new feminism includes embracing our erotic power, and hands on sexual healing in the right setting can be a very effective way to accomplish this.

Chelsey - Retreat Attendee

You have given me a gift that is beyond description. The work you do and the care and love that you inject into your profound purpose, has completely transformed my life. You infused hope into parts of me where I wasn’t sure hope could still exist. I am a different person from when I first met you, THANK GOD, and thank YOU for your boldness, bravery, and fearless leadership that is making this world a better place.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I did not come to BTTB with a diagnosis, trauma, or abuse - I came because I knew there was so much untapped potential to be explored. Through the process of diving deep into the mystery with your incredible team, I have uncovered and discovered my FULL WOMAN self. I am SO deeply grateful!

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

Pamela profoundly understands, supports and creates space for women to be their own healers and self-awakeners. The resources, body workers, rituals, education, and beautiful environment of her retreats... combined with her authentic love for women is the magical recipe that truly works. She knows instinctively when a participant needs her own space or ritual to heal and she honors that. She doesn’t subscribe to any scripts nor does she force feed anything to the women. She knows when and how to step in and provide tools/support to help a woman find her way. Pamela’s belief and trust in a woman’s own ability to heal and empower herself is the foundation from which all her work is built.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

When I told you that you’ve changed my life, I sincerely meant it. You have shown me a way to find my way back to my authentic self. She was there all this time, hiding, fearing judgment and rejection. When you told me I would be a part of a supportive community I simply could not believe it. Rather I could not fathom that it could be true for me. Thank God, I was dead wrong. BttB has quieted my restlessness and calmed my fragmented heart. It has grown me in very uncomfortable AND important ways. Thank you for helping me become the person I was meant to be. I am so very grateful.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I came to the retreat to heal my relationship with my vagina. She had gone silent. Now, I can’t seem to be able to turn her off! I am so honored to have been able to participate in such a ground breaking healing practice.

Tammra - Retreat Attendee

The BTTB team is unmatched and groundbreaking in integrity, presence, skill, talent, bravery, heart, and LOVE! I couldn’t be more grateful and heart fulfilled to have the immense blessing to have been at Ritual. It allowed me to come back to my body, back to my self, and now stepping back into my life after this year’s cancer journey. A million thanks with Love

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I felt so seen, loved, looking after and held, grounded, tender and fierce all at the same time.
I am always in awe of how much I allow myself to be more me when I’m given space to breathe and move.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

My experience at Back to the Body taught me lessons that went way beyond the bedroom and all the way to the boardroom. I found myself feeling so naturally confident in myself that I have trouble recognizing the woman I used to be.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I just wanted to say this: my life has never been bigger, more vibrant, more honest, or filled with as much delicious truth than it is now. I'm so happy. I have you all to thank for that. You have my heartfelt gratitude. Always.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I learned about sex through Trauma. For the first time I'm having the opportunity to rewrite that story and learn about sex through my own power and my own pleasure. I feel emptied of the pain and now there is room for the extraordinary.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

Thank you, dear Pamela, for the gift you have been in my life, the richness I enjoy from relationships I've been cultivating since awakening in this work, in all the surrender to pleasure I've allowed, and the electricity of reveling in my own feminine magic. The loop is alive and joyfully activated. 💋 Sending much love to you and your beautiful team for an incredible year of openings and discoveries ahead. ❤️

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

Know that your gifts are the kind that keep on giving, like a well seasoned meal that can be savored for a long time. You each offered gentle support and a safe place to work. Your example of bravery were inspiring. There is a lot to take home , memories to savor, lessons to be launched. You are my teachers. Like a Sherpa guiding us to the mountain top. I thank you for the new and beautiful view.

Meenal - Retreat Attendee

If you are looking for a “one size fits all” formula for female arousal, then look elsewhere because here at Back to the Body, you will find a team of highly trained, skilled body whisperers who will meet you exactly where you are, each and every time. I just completed Mastery in Mexico where I unabashedly claimed my status as an Outlier. In the midst of a powerful erotic experience, I found myself pushing my body to catch up to the experience my sisters were having, only to brought back by one of the practitioners whispering to me, “No, listen to YOUR body. What does she need?” In that moment, frustration erupted from me yet again, but this time, for the very first time, an opening occurred within my body. Permission. Permission to be different. Permission to be myself. Permission to discover MY orgasm arc, free from trauma, free from comparison, free from any models provided by experts.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I returned from Scotland Back to The Body wondering what it was about and if it impacted me in a way that would make a difference. So, I have observed the following: - self pleasure is fine, but I realize the amazing difference with the practitioner-no comparison (in other words, I cannot do the same thing on my own and get the same effect :-)) - when I went to Scotland, I did not feel worthy of the type of man that I wanted to be with. Now, I am on dating site and having so much fun- choosing what and who I like and if deciding if they please me, instead of me trying to please them! - Before Scotland, I had sex, but did not know what I enjoy or want. Now, I know. Now, I can say what I want and like- I am in a new place and position. So, I am enjoying my buffet or men- a little taste of text here, a little flirt of fun there- nothing serious, all pleasure research. This is a new me. AND, I am attracting the men I USED TO THINK would never be interested in me Thank you BTTB for bringing me to a place where I am seen and come to the table full, not empty and needing!

Reeca - Portal Attendee

Thank you for the gift of this exquisite Portal weekend.
Your work is phenomenal.
I’m truly grateful to have had this taste.

My heartfelt thanks to your team.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I am sitting here melting into the pure deliciousness of the past few days with you. It was PURE MAGIC!! So many wide and huge emotions running through me. My body is feeling alive, electric and every cell is dancing. Most of all, I am feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. To be at the receiving end of this immense generosity is quite exquisite, inspiring and yummy. Thank you... Thank you for taking care of me so beautifully. I felt like a queen. Nourished, tended to, cuddled, my every need anticipated and met. I loved our meals together and our shared conversations. The games we played. For the way you laughed and giggled and danced with me, felt my tears, held every piece of me with nothing but love. For helping me open places in me that I had forgotten. For the way you met and held my moments of struggle, with your huge hearts - no judgement, just compassion and love and understanding for where I was at. You made loving space for all of it. For the permission you give. Simply by being uniquely you. Thank you for this incredible playground bubble you created - with the safety and boundaries and all the toys inside to play with!! You inspire me with your pleasure filled and fierce devotion. Thank you for showing me this way - for the embodied experience of what can happen when pleasure is allowed to lead. You gave me a huge glimpse of what more is possible. More blank and dark spaces in me filled in - I have left this time with a new found confidence to vocalize what I want. You have helped me breathe wind into my sails again. What you offer women in this space is mesmerizing, bold and life changing... AND SO MUCH FUN!! It was the ultimate decadence to receive such a highly customized personal experience from you. There are so many beautiful moments and memories that I will hold preciously from this week. And I know that this is just the beginning. A full bodied giggling and writhing of gratitude.

Lindsay - Retreat Attendee

As soon as I went to a Back to the Body portal in Los Angeles, I was overcome with desire to go on a retreat. I didn't understand why I felt so compelled, but my body knew I had to go before my brain had worked it out! It felt like a necessity, and boy oh boy was it worth it! During the retreat, in one week, I experienced years of transformation. Months later, I am still unearthing new learnings and desires that were unlocked through my experience with Back to the Body. I feel like a new woman! The retreat has helped me re-wild myself and begin to undo a lifetime of domestication. I am ravenous for play, and I feel a renewed sense of aliveness. Having a loving and safe-enough container for my erotic body to show up and play and scream and twitch and dance has made possible waves of liberation and freedom.

The retreat catapulted me into a daily process of discernment and slowing down. I can no longer bring myself to do things I don't want to do. I want to move like honey, slow and savoring. It's helped me undo the sense of urgency that I was socialized into and given me permission to tend to my body and cultivate my desires. The bar has been raised, and I refuse to waste my time and energy on what is not satisfying.

Pamela is a force of nature, and I admire her for trailblazing her way into unchartered territory with a fiery passion for helping women step into their erotic power. Watching her do her thing is a spiritual experience, and her whole team is stellar! She has gathered together some of the best practitioners in the world, and I feel so lucky to get to learn and play with them.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

"I have been thinking about this in the not quite two weeks I have been home from my first Back to The Body retreat. Before I met Pamela, you know when you see her on the table, raw, vulnerable, glorious, I was skeptical, detached, still living in "fear, clenched, la-la land, in the place that was doing the best I could." - that place I'll call "before Pamela and her team"- I was all about how "this is great" but probably not for me. I am somehow not worthy. No there is a run on sentence. I critiqued Pamela's writing for her grammar and phrase usage; it was not for me.

I have been trying to articulate, quantify, qualify...explain what happened to me in my six days in New Orleans. Simply put I was ready to face my fears and feel the pain of my self abandonment and there was plenty to discover that I had buried so deep. I had believed I was ready to at least try. I was TOTALLY unprepared for how amazing I feel... The river is running through me where it had dried to nary a trickle for all my limiting self beliefs and shaming. I feel juicy and not just in my pussy...everywhere. Ideas, words, art, rippling through my mind...is this what it would feel like to do acid?

Now I am experiencing energy and a humming in my whole body, a level of energy and love that I have not felt in a long time, if ever. I have a long way to go in loving myself,exploring myself and beginning the practice of engaging others in the practice of celebrating a juicy life.

Living with teenagers and pets makes finding the time more fun! So excited. For this journey. Like eating a peach and it dribbles down your arm, cheek, neck, JUICY!"

A Woman Who Is Vibrating on a Brand New Frequency.

Anonymous Retreat Attendee

I was drawn to this experience by the article in Women’s Health, and decided to not ask questions just let it unfold as it was meant to be (this is so not like me). I even asked my husband if he would be ok with this, thankfully he was very supportive which made this adventure so much easier. Let me say this adventure could not have been as successful as it was if not for Pamela Madsen and her team. They all made every moment a memory never to forget. They all had a part in opening my eyes and heart to a new world, a new me! For over 20 years I have worked in a very male dominated, structured career, where being a female has been a disadvantage and made me lose my female identify. I did not feel feminine, soft, loving and so not in touch with myself. I was very rigid, stressed and I was pulling away from my husband. I even went so far as to keep telling him to find another female to give him the love he needed. I also had demons from my youth that have started haunting me. The trip to Tuscany showed me I do have a soft feminine side, WOW how wonderful. I realize I can feel & respond to the pleasures of life. I have started my journey to being a “queen”, enjoying pleasure, life, myself and being with other women. That last portion is new for me having females in my life is pretty non-existent but the ladies from Tuscany have added so much joy to my life. I was proud of myself for taking a chance on BTTB, I will never have any regrets it was the best thing I have ever done for me. I am ready for the rest of my pleasure plan, and I can’t wait!!! My husband and I have never been as good as we are now, we bought a massage table and are enjoying each other. He is so happy and supportive with who I am becoming. I have started a routine of daily reminding myself of who I am now and that there is no need to go back. Now I am working on what my future holds. I am not wanting to focus on my past just what’s to come. My future will be full of fun, feeling pretty, sexy and loving life. I CAN NOT WAIT FOR EACH AN EVERY MOMENT. THANKS TO BTTB!!!!!

Testimonial from a Portal

I have sat down so many times to write this blog, I frankly had no idea where to start describing the experience. Then I realized that perhaps that is exactly where I need to begin.

When my friend suggested I attend her women’s sexuality weekend portal I had no idea on the revolution she was starting nor what I was getting into. I have been in this period of reclaiming, refinding and reacquainting myself to who I really am outside of being a mother, wife, daughter and social worker. I have spent my entire life & career taking care of others now at 49 for the first time in my life I have taken a breath and connected with the whole of me. I don’t want to give an impression that I was this lost passive soul, no I have always been a force I just focused it outwardly on my career, motherhood, being the wife, business partner I was supposed to be. I am now in this place of finally honoring the woman I have grown into.

So back to walking into a room full of women I did not know and suddenly found myself feeling this sense of underlying almost tribal connection I had not felt before. I loved by the end of the weekend, I didn’t even know what most most of these women even did for work. We skipped all the superficial surface stuff what I do know is what each are struggling with and how incredibly beautiful woman are in all ages, shapes, colors & sizes. I was so struck by so many things over the weekend. What shifted for me was how I have been conditioned to compare and compete with other women. And letting that finally go has shifted everything for me. I have been taught not to be happy for my sister in her abundance but rather to look at what am I lacking. It creates this culture of jealousy and never feeling quite whole or enough. I think in the grand design we are meant to support and love other women not see them as a threat. And now when I have those feelings, I first connect with myself am I comparing or competing? Why am I not celebrating my sister? What is coming up for me and how can I redirect those negative messages? It has completely shifted that conversation in my head around feeling too much or not enough. The more I celebrate other women’s abundance I finally feel the liberating freedom to exhale and receive the love and blessings in my own life.

What I loved most about the weekend was that it was not all just talking. I’ve always been a hands on learner. This was completely experiential, I got to feel and touch the topic. My favorite activity was the Art of Adoration. So imagine feeling safe enough to remove every stitch of of your clothing, laying on the floor and for 45 minutes having your body decorated with fruit, flowers and lovingly touched. Nothing returned, nothing expected only focus was on one-way touch; my worth, value and beauty. And I realized as I lay on the concrete floor in the middle of friends house, I had never felt so beautiful. Each certified somatic sex educator would take a picture of you adorned if you left our camera out. It seriously took me hours before I was brave enough to open my pictures on my phone. My first instinct would be to pick apart all of my flaws then find a filter! But for the first time I saw my body in a very different way, my curves were glorious and I do have a really nice rack! I actually go back and look at this picture from time to time to bring myself back to that space where I finally felt back in my body again. That I am perfect just as I am.

I had no idea at the beginning of the weekend I would walk way realizing when I finally gave myself permission to receive I would feel that intense connection, a shift from inside my body and the true power of being a woman. It went beyond the books I’ve read and the work I’ve done in my therapist’s office. And since I walk, talk, think and and hold myself differently. Cheers to the divine language of sisterhood, continuing this work and to the badass women in my life!

When a Back to the Body Participant Gives an Interview to a Reporter

REPORTER: Why did you decide to go to a retreat?

MELISSA: I had been following Pamela's writing on Facebook and in her book SHAMELESS for more than a year when I made an impetuous decision to attend a weekend event she was holding in Seattle called a Portal. As part of the portal, she held a demo of the table work that is done at her Back to the Body retreats. I'd never seen another woman lost in pleasure as she was during the demo and I was in awe, both of her on the table and the somatic body worker who was giving her the session. By the end of the hour demo, I knew that's what I wanted for myself. And for the first time since I'd started following Pamela's work, the pleasure that had seemed so far away and abstract in her book and writings finally felt attainable for me. The demo demystified the process of a woman claiming her own desire and pleasure, showing every woman there what was possible. I was an instant YES.

REPORTER: Is your partner on board? if so, how did that happen?

MELISSA: At the time I attended the first retreat, my 15 year marriage had been in a downward spiral towards divorce for quite a while, but it was still important to me that I not do anything that violated my marriage vows. To me, the boundaries and rules of somatic body work and one-way touch from a certified professional who I'd have no contact with outside of the retreat setting was in line with my commitment to my marriage. I didn't ask for my husband's blessing to attend the retreat, but I did explain to him what the somatic body work entailed, including its boundaries, and that it's all about a woman healing her relationship with her body. He accepted my choice, and it didn't take long after I returned from the first retreat for him to get fully onboard with my Back to the Body journey. As it turned out, exploring my pleasure in this safe container took so much pressure off our relationship and him. Until Back to the Body, I hadn't realized how much pressure I'd put on my marriage and husband to fill my every need and be my everything. Back to the Body helped me take back control of my body and my pleasure. I was no longer a passive victim in my life, but was taking charge of my needs. By taking that pressure off my marriage, we were able to come together in a whole new way. Today, our marriage is stronger than ever. I am so ridiculously happy and in love! And this year he's giving me such a gift by attending a Back to the Body couples retreat so that we can continue our pleasure evolution together.

REPORTER: How was the hands on work for you?

MELISSA: Before getting hands-on work at my first Back to the Body retreat, the only man who'd touched my body since I was twenty was my husband. I wondered if it would be weird or awkward, but I was so determined to re-write my relationship with pleasure, that I dove into the experience one hundred percent. The body workers are carefully vetted professionals who don't do anything without their client's permission. The woman is in charge of the session in every way. If she says don't touch, they won't. If she says stop, they will. If she says 'that doesn't feel good', they praise her for speaking up about her wants and needs. They keep their clothes on, use gloves, and there is no mouth contact. The container that Pamela and her team have built is so strong and safe. I have never felt uneasy or that I had anything to worry about. All that you have to do, as a woman on their table, is close your eyes, sink into yourself, and feel. It's magical. And the best part? If you're at a Back to the Body retreat, you know you have another opportunity the next day, so there's no rush, there's no trying to squeeze everything in or worry about climaxing or pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone. It's magical.

REPORTER: What did you take away from it?

MELISSA: What I've learned about myself at Back to the Body retreats is that my body is a divine feminine miracle. Truly. And I say this as a woman over forty, who's plus sized, with a C-section scar and stretch marks all over, but now I know that none of that matters. Once you learn that your body is capable of hour-long orgasmic trances and waves and waves of climactic pleasure, how could you care what your dress size is? How could a woman cling to the toxic body hate our culture teaches us once you've stepped fully into your own erotic awakening?

REPORTER: Do you tell your friends--and if so their reaction?

MELISSA: Yes, I tell my friends. I'm downright evangelical about my experience. And I recently talked to my mom about it, too, and I'm so glad I did. Talking honestly about my Back to the Body journey has opened up a new level of authentic conversation between me and the women in my life. We all have body image issues. We all yearn for deeper, more satisfying pleasure in our lives. It's a relief to be able to talk about this taboo topic in an open and honest way.