HMU Academy: Kink as Inner Child Healing

About:

Kink can be more than sexual gratification – it can help us heal. We lose playfulness as adults -- responsibilities like work, bills, and family take us away from the joy of play. Reclaiming play lets us express ourselves, explore ourselves, and release pain and stress.

In this interactive workshop, sex therapist Nikita Fernandes and sex educator Gabrielle Smith will dive into all the ways that kink and alternative relationship styles help us heal, confront our demons, and find community.

We'll explore:

• Inner child healing and reparenting
• Attachment structures
• The power of community
• How trauma manifests in our lives
• How you can integrate kink into your healing

Level: This class is for everyone!

Who to Attend: This class is open to people of all skill and experience levels. All gender identities and relationship types (singles, solo poly, couples, polycules, and more) are welcome. You are welcome to attend to solo.

What to Bring: If you’d like to take notes, you can bring supplies for that

What to Wear: Wear what makes you feel good. No nudity please.

About Your Instructors

Gabrielle Smith (she/her) is a writer and non-monogamy educator based out of Brooklyn. Since 2020, she has coached over 100 clients on alternative relationship structures, negotiations, and, of course, jealousy. She has been featured in Red Table Talk, and her writing has appeared in Men's Health, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Business Insider and various other publications. You can find her on Instagram @bygabriellesmith, where she teachers her over 50,000 followers about relationships, kink, and sex — all from an intersectional lens.

Nikita Fernandes is a sex therapist and psychotherapist located in New York City. She lives at the intersections of various identities such as being an immigrant, south asian, queer, neurodivergent and poly. Nikita navigates the sex positive scene as a sexual health educator as well as a fellow human being. Her work lies in empowering people with marginalised identities to cultivate mindful relationships with their sexuality. Nikita has worked with multiple kinky individuals and poly couples in New York City and has been featured in Cosmopolitan, GQ, and Huff post.

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✨Volunteers: Limited volunteer spots available. Please email [email protected] to express interest.

✨Location: Lower Manhattan. The space has an elevator. Please email [email protected] if you need any accessibility accommodations.

✨Full vaccination is required. While we recommend getting the booster shots, we are not verifying them at this time.

✨Consent Policy: All of our events are ASK FIRST events. The rules of respectful and consensual behavior WILL be enforced. You will be responsible for reading our consent policy and behaving appropriately. Read our consent policy in full: https://www.hitmeupnyc.com/consent

✨Membership: We reserve the right to refuse entry if needed. Hit Me Up also hosts private events which are invite only, and anyone new to Hit Me Up must apply and be approved to attend—no guests or plus ones. Please visit https://www.hitmeupnyc.com/join to join. You are welcome to inquire as to your status or that of your friends, but please do not act as if you have an entitlement to access our space or members. Building special spaces is hard, and while we are inclusive and welcoming, we reserve the right to curate our membership as needed to maintain our flourishing community. If you'd like to sponsor a new member please have them apply as soon as possible. If they wait until a few days before the event we cannot guarantee they will be able to be approved in time.

✨Please stay home if you are feeling ill or if you have had recent close contact with someone who tested Covid positive (within the past 5 days). You could be incubating and still test negative. Any requests for refunds for any reason will be honored up to the day of the party. Remember: safe, sane, and sanitary Just email [email protected] mailto:[email protected] and we will give you a full refund, no questions asked.

HMU’s public events are 18+. Our vetted & private lists are 21+ only.

Event Venue

120 Walker St floor 5, 120 Walker Street, New York, United States