Courageous intimacy boils down to one question…
What are you avoiding talking about — and why?
Why The Center for Courageous Intimacy?
I started speaking about and facilitating conversations over 30 years ago about sex, sexual wellness, intimacy, healthy relationships, and how to have hard conversations.
One thing has continually stood out to me — whether it’s been speaking to an auditorium of sorority women in New York, or CEOs and their spouses in Texas, or couples struggling through desire issues in San Francisco, or a TEDx audience in Philadelphia, or business leaders in Paris, or sexual health peer educators in Sweden — it all boils down to one question:
What are you avoiding talking about — and why?
Are you avoiding asking for your needs? Sharing your fears and insecurities? Opening your heart up to receive love and nurturing? There are so many conversations and actions we avoid in our relationships, because of the fear of judgment, shame, discomfort, angering our partners, hurting their feelings, or because we just don’t know how to do it well.
This is not just about physical intimacy, although that’s an important component to fulfillment and connection. But when I’m talking about “real” intimacy, I mean the kind where we feel seen, safe, engaged, understood, and emotionally alive. The kind that holds both tenderness and truth. The kind that doesn’t happen by accident.
But getting there? That takes courage.
I help people practice courage in intimacy through building skills in self-awareness, listening, vulnerability, and compassion.
At The Center for Courageous Intimacy, I help people practice that courage with tools, stories, skills, and spaces that make it possible to move beyond avoidance, silence, shame, and disconnection…and toward a kind of intimacy that’s emotionally intelligent, deeply satisfying, and real.
We know how easy it is to avoid the hard conversations. To shut down when we're vulnerable. To protect our pride or hide from our fears, instead of expressing our truth.
That’s why this is creating a new kind of cultural conversation; one rooted in compassion, curiosity, generous listening, emotional agility, and the willingness to get a little uncomfortable in service of real connection.
Through live events, public storytelling, relationship retreats, university programs, media interviews, and free downloadable tools, The Center and The Intimacy Speakeasy exist as both a resource hub and a public movement.
I work with couples, students, CEOs, lawyers, therapists, and everyday humans who want to improve the way they love, listen, and lead. Whether you’re rekindling connection in a long-term relationship, navigating conversations about consent, or wanting to feel more emotionally alive — you’re in the right place.
Because intimacy — the kind that changes lives — always requires courage. Whether you're rebuilding trust, exploring desire, or learning to listen with compassion.
Courageous Intimacy begins here, and I’m here to help you cultivate the awareness, skills, and practice.
Jennifer Gunsaullus, PhD
Jennifer Gunsaullus, PhD, received her PhD in Sociology, specializing in gender role socialization, relationships, sexuality, and marriage. She integrates this macro-level lens for understanding human patterns and behavior into her 16-year private practice as a mindful intimacy coach and executive relationship coach. And all of this informs her speaking around the world on mindful intimacy, sexual consent, effective communication, healthy relationships, body image, erotic play, and women’s empowerment.
Dr. Jenn is the author of the book, From Madness to Mindfulness: Reinventing Sex for Women.
She has presented two TEDx Talks, is a writer on sex and relationships, and has been a recurring relationship and intimacy expert in publications around the world and the morning news. Dr. Jenn has been an active philanthropist with Women Give San Diego and the Compassion It nonprofit, was the founder of World Sexual Health Day—San Diego, and was on the executive team for Sex Positive San Diego. Her In the Den with Dr. Jenn educational video series has 1.8 million hits on YouTube, and she is a sex expert in the masturbation documentary, called Sticky: A (Self) Love Story.
Dr. Jenn has collaborated on projects with Planned Parenthood, the Global YPO Spouse/Partner Network, Erica Lust films, and Dr. Ruth’s Sex for Dummies book. She has been interviewed by publications including Forbes, CNBC, USA Today, The Washington Post, Cosmo, The New York Post, The Sunday Times (London), Oprah Daily, Men’s Health, Playboy, Marie Claire, Madame Figaro (France), and Shape. She has spoken at Stanford, Syracuse, University of South Carolina, Miami University of Ohio, Lehigh University, UC San Diego, Arkansas Tech, Sharp Hospital, Rancho La Puerta, EOs, and many more schools and organizations, including 40 YPO chapters around the U.S. and Europe.
Dr. Jenn co-hosted the educational and humorous Sex Talk with Clint & the Doc podcast through iHeart Radio. In the fall of 2023, Dr. Jenn passed the training and assessment to be a certified forum facilitator for YPO, the international leadership organization for CEOs.
Additionally, she has her black belt in Soo Bahk Do (Korean karate), plays 2-person beach volleyball every weekend, and strums her ukulele where she lives in San Diego, CA.