Pleasure School with Sexologist Juliet Allen

Think you know everything about sex? Pleasure School is an online study of sex, intimacy and conscious connections created by sexologist Juliet Allen who leads classes that include Pussy Worship, Magical Anal Sex and Money & Pleasure. Student Lisa Scott unveils what she’s learnt in this life-changing classroom.

Now that you’re at her pussy, you don’t just lick her until she comes – that’s not what this is about,’ says my teacher Juliet Allen as I scrawl notes in my journal, pausing as I register the depth of her unorthodox command. ‘It’s about softly, gently, exploring her pussy, clitoris and her labia,’ she continues. ‘And you must ask permission to touch her, at least once.’ Just 22 minutes ago, I didn’t know that Pussy Worship existed. But I’m into it. The Sacred Art of Pussy Worship, which naturally contradicts most modern sexual messaging, is an ancient ritual that honours a woman in her entirety and entering her pussy, with fingers or a tongue, is strictly invite-only. Juliet, an Australia-based sexologist, describes how the practice is about touch, massage, appreciation and trust, and that worshippers should not expect a thank-you-blowjob or sex in any form from their queens once it’s over.

This Tantra-based class is the eleventh in the Pleasure School curriculum, a pioneering 12-month learning experience for men and women who desire something deeper from sex and, ultimately, themselves. I signed up when Pleasure School launched four months ago – enrollment opens again today – and I’ve since received stylish, twice-monthly videos, an Ecstatic Sex and Deep Intimacy workbook that details how to live a tantric life, meditations for both couples and solo journeys, and guided homework that invites me to reflect on questions like ‘What stops me from spending quality time alone?’ ‘How can I make more time to worship my partner or myself first?’ and ‘What do I need before and after sex to feel like I can fully open during it?’

‘Most people who sign up say something’s missing sexually but they’re not entirely sure what it is,’ says Juliet, who studied Tantra – a tradition of choosing with awareness what brings us joy and connection – after completing her Masters in the scientific study of Sexology. ‘I teach more than just sex positions because I want as many people as possible to access a great holistic sex education. ‘Pleasure should be a priority and it isn’t – we live in an overly stimulated world that’s getting busier.’ As Juliet points out, how you do sex is how you do life, and in her class The Foundations of Living A Turned On Life, she describes how individuals that are disinterested in sex will also lack enthusiasm and energy towards their health, career, friends, family and environment, and feeling turned on may require making some serious life edits.

In Sex Magic, Blood Magic & Manifestation, Juliet touches on quantum physics, and how using menstrual blood and sex energy can power up your manifestations. ‘Our menstrual blood is energetically magic and full of nutrients to hold a baby,’ says Juliet, who’s just embarked on a year-long trip around Australia with her partner and her 13-year-old daughter. ‘People often ask me what I do to my plants because they look so healthy and I actually mix my menstrual blood with their water. I told my cleaners, an elderly couple who wanted to know about my plant care secrets, and it was definitely an awkward moment.’

Other topics include Magical Anal Sex, where we learn how anal sex with someone you trust can be a spiritual experience, and in Yoni Health & Womb Healing with feminine healing guide Leela Kalyani, we learn about ‘de-armouring’ our pussies and wombs, which many of us feel compelled to protect following abuse, trauma, stress, abortions and miscarriage. While this is an understandable response, it creates numbness and stops us enjoying the depths of pleasure we deserve. Juliet certainly isn’t scared of tackling what many people consider taboo subjects, but illuminating what’s hiding in the shadows always brings life-changing revelations.

Like many people, I was compartmentalising sex, career, home and money, rather than recognising the subtle thread that weaves them all together. ‘We want to be having ecstatic sex, which is not about banging, but about really connecting with another and experiencing ecstasy,’ says Juliet, who admits that subjects like anal sex are as familiar to her as brushing her teeth. ‘It always helps to have guest teachers who I already know and connect with because it gives such a personal experience,’ she says. ‘But I’m very confident backing myself because everything I talk about, I’ve experienced personally.

One teacher she’s very familiar with is her partner of nearly three years, holistic coach Nick Perry, who also leads many of our classes. Like most modern love stories, they met on social media after Nick sent Juliet a direct message, but when they connected in the flesh, Juliet describes a thunderbolt moment. ‘I remember thinking “this is the man, and I’m going to have his babies and marry him”. Of course, I’d heard of it happening but I hadn’t experienced it,’ she says.

Nick, a former professional athlete, specialises in the field of Men’s Work and with his company Rhythm Health, he helps men deepen their connection to the collective brotherhood and advance their personal power. Some of his classes include Clearing Sexual Taboo for Men, Ejaculation Control & Mastery, and together Nick and Juliet hold a Q&A about their relationship, taking the concept of couple goals to a whole new level. In this 15-minute session, they answer bold questions from students, which include ‘How many babies do you want? What are your favourite positions? Do you have fears about the longevity of your relationship?’ Their vulnerability is powerful and courageous (spoiler alert: they’ve agreed on two, possibly three, babies) and I wonder what Pleasure School has taught Juliet about her own relationship?

‘Whenever I work with Nick it brings up all the stuff that needs to be healed in our relationship, especially around the topic we’re teaching,’ she says. ‘You know that saying “we teach what we need to learn”? If we launch a workshop together, it sells out and in the months leading to it, our relationship goes through it all. So that’s always a huge learning experience.’ Next up for Juliet is, naturally, some more exploring, and she hopes to dive into the misunderstood world of BDSM. ‘It’s not what most people think – it’s about surrender, control, trust, and getting into a flow state,’ she says. ‘I’d also love to talk more about sex between two men and sex between two women.’ In addition to Pleasure School, you can also get a hit of raw, real sex content on The Authentic Sex Podcast. My personal favourites include Period Sex 101, Cosmic Cunts, 69ers and Ass Play, Six Signs You Are A Sacred Slut and Casual Sex, One Night Stands and Trying Before You Buy.

‘But I mostly love talking about controversial subjects. Early on, I adopted a mantra along the lines of “it’s better to have people talking about me than not at all”,’ she says, describing her female heroines that include 90-year-old Betty Dodson, who started masturbation circles in New York in the sixties, and the Tantra movement’s elder women, some nearly in their seventies, and ‘still having great sex every day.’ Worrying about what others think certainly doesn’t feel like an issue for Juliet, who tells me that she’s shaved her head three times. ‘The first time was when my daughter was born and followed a big transformation giving birth. When I broke up with her dad, I shaved my hair, and when I broke up with another partner I also shaved it,’ she says. ‘I never shaved my hair intentionally but looking back I can see the pattern.’ She describes this process as a hard and fast form of personal development. ‘It’s difficult to put into words but I just wasn’t hiding behind my hair,’ she says. ‘You strip everything back and then you’re like, “yes, this is me and I’m really comfortable being me”.’

Pleasure School opens for enrollment today (25 March 2020) for €274 or four installments of €80; sign up at juliet-allen.com.

About the author:

Lisa Scott is a sex and relationships journalist who lives between London and Barcelona. In 2011, she launched an agony aunt column, which is published weekly in Metro, the UK’s most-read weekday newspaper, and with the help of her expert panel has answered in the region of around 450 dilemmas about sex and matters of the heart. She’s been tied up in Shibari Japanese rope bondage classes, spent the night on Indonesia’s Sex Mountain and has interviewed a host of prominent women who are confronting society’s dated sexual paradigms.