A 5-week live Zoom series

ExistentialKinkIntensive

Existential Kink book cover by Carolyn Elliott

Shadow work for the places you feel stuck.

Thursdays
Nov 5, 12, 19 · Dec 3, 10, 2026
Time
6:00–8:00 PM PT · Live on Zoom
Investment
$200 for all five sessions
Register

About the Intensive

Existential Kink is a shadow-work practice built on an evocative idea: we keep repeating painful patterns partly because a part of us gets pleasure from them. Seeing that payoff lets you choose differently and stop fighting yourself. These patterns could be choosing the wrong partners, struggling with addictions, anxieties, indecision, etc. In this intensive workshop, we'll explore hidden payoffs these difficult experiences may hold.

Over five Thursday evenings, we'll look honestly at what keeps us stuck and meet it with curiosity and humor instead of shame. Expect a playful, grounded container for you to explore, share, and heal. There will be guided practices, reflection, and optional sharing.

Additional Details

During our sessions, we will be using the book Existential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power by Carolyn Elliott and supporting practices. This intensive includes no sexual activity. There will be a range of practices to be done at home and during the live meetings including reading, movement, meditation and sharing. All practices are optional. We will establish clear container guidelines including honesty and confidentiality.

Please be gentle with yourself and your needs. This is a workshop series, not therapy. If you're in a particularly hard stretch or depressive phase, please check in with your therapist or doctor first. If there are accommodations that would help you show up more spaciously to the sessions, let us know and we can explore options with you. You're welcome to email us with questions.

How to Register

Space is limited and may sell out. To register, please use our secure Stripe payment link. The program is $200.00 for all five sessions.

Register

Scholarship funds are available; please email sarastevensnichols@gmail.com for details.

Refunds are available through November 6, 2026 (the day after the first class), so participants can try the first session if they wish. No refunds after that date.

Your Facilitators
Rev. Sara Stevens Nichols

Rev. Sara Stevens Nichols

She / her

Sara has been a staff minister at the Center for Spiritual Awareness in West Sacramento for five years following five years as the Spiritual Leader of the Center for Spiritual Living, Davis. She is the author of How to Know What You Know: Recognizing the Real You published by DeVorss Publications. Her experience as a public interest lawyer in Washington, DC, and around the California legislature informs her work as a co-creator of an entirely new reality. She has experienced and facilitated healing from knee, shoulder, and wrist pain, compulsive eating, codependence, vagueness with money, fear of intimacy, and workaholism. Progress in all those areas requires connecting with her inner knowing. Sara lives with her longtime husband, (environmental leader, Bill Magavern) in an intentional community in downtown Sacramento. They have two adult children. For more info see sarastevensnichols.com.

Matthew Cooper

Matthew Cooper

He / they

Matthew is a facilitator, writer, and entrepreneur who loves unlocking people's innate play and creativity. They bring more than a decade of experience leading workshops on masculinity, body image, and touch, drawing from modalities including Authentic Relating, the Wheel of Consent, and queer theory, with an emphasis on embodiment and play. Matthew is also the co-founder of financial health startup EarnUp, a former national champion athlete, and a longtime builder of community spaces; their writing can be found at www.misfit-monastery.com. They live in an intentional community in Vancouver, Canada. Instagram @seeksevens.

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