Sensuality Class – Week 1 – Part 1

As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, The Welcomed Consensus asked me to participate in their six-week online sensuality course, and review it here.  I’m quite honored to have such an opportunity, and am thrilled to be able to share my experiences with you.  I’ll write several posts in the next few weeks on the class, and here’s the first!

 

This class is constructed in a very similar way to other online classes I’ve taken.  There’s a conference call for instruction, but the call is recorded, so if you’re unable to attend the scheduled time, you’ll still be able to get the information.  Exercises and assignments are delivered online.  Discussion boards offer places to share thoughts and ask questions, and I’m sure that over the six-week course, the students will also get to know one another and develop friendships.

Upon first glance, it seems as though The Welcomed Consensus works diligently to ensure the utmost comfort and respect of their students, which is fantastic, considering the broad range of comfort levels each person has with her/his own sensuality.  The fact that the course is offered online means that students have an even higher sense of privacy, can study at home, and are allowed a certain anonymity, which may foster the desire to break down some walls that a live class wouldn’t necessarily allow so easily.

The teleconference model of delivering lecture materials allows for students to ask questions, gain clarification, and participate in discussion, and since it’s recorded, students can go back and re-listen to the lectures.  Bonus!  Expansion of comprehension with the ability to maintain that comprehension via repetition is one of the most positive aspects to online classes, and I love it!  Students can listen again and again to re-hear something they may not completely understand at first, or go over an activity then re-listen to the corresponding section of the lecture to ensure they’re on track.  It’s wonderful!

One of the things I love, right off the bat, about this course is that the instructor, Susan, explicitly states that the course is “descriptive, not prescriptive,” meaning that they don’t pretend to be able to fix your sex life, they don’t claim to be able to tell you exactly what to do to increase the sensuality in your life, and they don’t put on a one-size-fits-all charade.  The course, so far, seems to be more about guided self-exploration and discovery, allowing students to come to their own conclusions that fit into their individual lives.  To quote the lecture, “We’re going to approach the study of sensuality by combining intellectual understanding with suggestions for actual techniques and exercises, because if you have these concepts, then you can go home and do them.”  Simple concept.  Complicated actualization.  Mad props to The Welcomed Consensus for tackling such a feat!

Rather than being focused on any sort of dysfunction, and taking their students from the idea that something is wrong to “normal,” they focus on the mentality that wherever you are in your sensual exploration is “good” and through the course, you can get to “better.”  It sounds a lot like the ever-so-difficult-for-perfectionists-but-much-more-fulfilling life model of striving for progress, rather than perfection.  (Although by their definition, there’s nothing wrong with any of us.  We’re all already perfect.)  Awesome!