The Pleasure Plan

A Sexual Healing Odyssey--1 Woman, 6 Sex Problems, 30 Curative Adventures

Laura Zam | 4.70 | 48 ratings and reviews

Ranked #49 in Menopause

Based on popular essays in New York Times’ Modern Love and Salon, as well as an Off-Broadway one-person play, The Pleasure Plan is a sexual healing odyssey, a manifesto for women to claim pleasure as a priority, and a love story all at once.

Fifty percent of adult women have some form of sexual difficulty at some point of their lives, preventing them from enjoying vibrant, soul-satisfying sex. Such was the case with Laura Zam, who suffered the shame and embarrassment of feeling "bedroom broken."

For her, delving between the sheets meant physical pain, zero desire, and emotional scars from being molested in her early years. However, in her forties, after meeting and marrying the love of her life, Zam was determined to finally fix her sensual self.

The Pleasure Plan is what happened when she decided to challenge her hopelessness. In partnership with her initially reluctant husband, she visited 15 healers and tried 30 pleasure-enhancing methods, including hypnosis with a bawdy therapist; Tantra with a geriatric mistress; and cutting edge workshops in desire, arousal, and orgasm. She also learned about pelvic floor mishaps, hormonal imbalances, and female erections! Amidst these adventures, the author seamlessly interweaves her recovery from child abuse, tales of her Auschwitz-surviving mother, and a clear-eyed view of how medical and mental health professionals might better serve women with sex problems.

Packed with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of prescriptive advice, this memoir also chronicles how Zam and her husband grow, in and outside the bedroom. Her healing becomes their healing. In this #MeToo era, partners can learn from Zam's journey how to support a significant other who's been affected.

Today, Laura works as a sexuality educator, wellness coach, and speaker helping other women who suffer from sexual dysfunction, the effects of trauma, or those who would simply like more pleasure (of all kinds) in their lives. She also consults with health care providers so they may better assist their clients in achieving sexual well-being.

While The Pleasure Plan is Zam’s personal narrative, it demystifies pervasive taboos, encouraging women to make pleasure a priority, while teaching them how to claim (or reclaim) the power of their sexual selves. less

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